It’s official! Nobody likes working from home anymore. Even introverts have had enough of it. So when I wake up every morning with this same thought, I feel like it is such a cliche. Then one day when I was between sweeping the floor at home and getting ready for the first meeting of the day I found a way to cope with this.
I can refuse to believe I am working from home! Yes. I decided to convince myself that I was actually working from a co-working space, like WeWork but way worse.
First of all, if you hate having to leave the house and going through the pushing and shoving of public transport, this co-working space is really good. I just wake up from my bed and go to the next room with a big table.
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My co-working space takes the concept of an open workspace to its extreme. It is not very spacious but there are no rules or decorum. If you want some privacy to have a meeting it won’t be possible but you can always tell people to shut the fuck up. On a daily basis, you will definitely hear “You were loud when my meeting was going on now deal with it!”. That’s because this workspace runs less on mutual respect and more on a ‘tit for tat’ policy. For example, you can fart at any time and be confident that someone else will do the same around you in the future.
The ambience of the workplace is another perk. If I reach the office early enough, I can look out of your window and find neighbourhood uncles burping while having breakfast and watching the news on TV.
So that people don’t argue over AC temperatures, this co-working space only uses fans. This is not a problem because our informal work culture means that there is no dress code. You can sit in shorts and a t-shirt. During the summer, some of my people at this workspace chose to work shirtless too.
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My workday starts with free breakfast and green tea. Lunches also have a set menu for every day. You can choose to have that or order online. However, if you choose to order online you have to explain to the chef why you don’t like their cooking. Unlike a normal co-working space, you will also get a reminder every 15 minutes between 1 PM and 3 PM to eat your lunch. Of course, if you want to enjoy all these free facilities you also have to work by sweeping the floors, washing dishes and so on.
The real benefit of treating your home as your workspace is that now my work toilet is as comfortable as my home toilet. Having a separate work toilet is especially helpful because you no longer need to smell what your colleagues had for lunch.
Of course, once you start pretending that your house is your workplace there’s no way to stop. Just the other day, I was making ID cards for other people in my co-working space. When I asked them to write down their job roles they started calling themselves my family. They even call the pantry or canteen a ‘kitchen’ and the common area as ‘the hall’ or ‘living room’. They consider Friday movie nights and Sunday lunches in the living room as family time. I think of it as post-work fun sessions in the common area. I have already told them that they can be my ‘work family’ and nothing more.
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This trick can help you deal with ‘working from home burnout’ but one of the side effects is that it can also distance you from your loved ones. If you look at it from my perspective, which organization doesn’t have a high employee turnover ratio?!
P.S: My co-working space has some empty seats. Feel free to sign up!
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