Flexibility at work is a great gift for working women. WFH as an option is a great impetus for women to continue to stay in the workforce. However, the argument and supposed surveys to show that women prefer the WFH model are one-sided neither serving the working women nor the employer any good.
There was a time in history that neither I nor many of you were ever part of where women were expected to be bound to household chores. Even from time immemorial, there have always been exceptions where women have taken part in public life; it was an exception than a norm. In the last couple of decades, women have stepped out of that boundary to take part in the workforce in larger numbers. Those women who made that initial stride, what do you think the impetus was for them? Apart from many other factors like money, it’s the chance and drive to see, feel, be a part of the world outside the house. where things are made and decisions are taken and to interact with it, in a figurative and literal sense.
And why would you willfully choose to do WFH forever and give up on that? Even though WFAnywhere is an attractive option, that option doesn’t apply to working mothers whose sole need for WFH is to be at home to take care of kids. So working women should be careful not to be swayed by the idea of WFH as the best option and if it’s not provided it should not be treated as an end of the road. Agreed, more flexibility is something you should look for. If an offer for a remote working option best suits your skill you should go for it. However permanent WFH as an option to just have the choice of being and enjoying the comforts of home is a dangerous one and in a way meaningless proposition to go for.
It removes the very attraction that will keep you motivated in the long run. If a permanent WFH option is chosen – the work you do becomes purely monetary-based and transactional. Money-only motivation doesn’t help women in long run. Women need much more than that. To see new and different faces, interact and collaborate, to bond and form friendships – to do different things from what you do at home. It nurtures the social side of the human self. If you choose to remove the live social interaction and building bonds (strong or weak) with your peers, you are opting to remove the positive feedback loop that will keep you motivated in the long run.
Of course, the commute is tiresome.
Heat, cold, rain and dirt on the way to the office, you prefer to skip it.
Of course, you’ll meet overbearing peers.
Of course, you’ll have to dress up.
If not for all of these what is human life and experience about?
Permanent WFH is not an attractive option as it is made out to be.
WFO isn’t as bad as it is made out to be.
Permanent WFH will prove counter-productive for woman
