What I Wished For

I was one of the early proponents of flexible working hours/working from home, a decade and a half before 2020 coerced the whole world into accepting the norm-ready or not.

This was what I had been arguing for over the years. We shouldn’t be wasting so many hours commuting through the dreadful traffic. We could save so much of our productive time, energy and money. The environment could be saved from so many toxic fumes. The company could save on the real-estate cost.

While the whole world stood to gain, women trying to manage the home and jobs together, stood to gain the most. 

At home, I could do tasks in parallel. Run the washing machine while I reviewed a document. I did not have to settle for a maid who could come before 7:00 AM or schedule deliveries only over weekends. I would know what the kids were up to. And use the time I would have otherwise spent on commuting, in walking, chatting with friends, taking breaks. My life would be so much more convenient. 

Or so I thought.

Facts, I didn’t account for:

• Since I was working from home, and I was at home all the time, the corporate equation implied I could work all the time. And that took care of all the time I saved from commuting and some more.
• The convenient timings for the maid and cook ceased to be relevant when we had to ask them to stop coming altogether.
• The clothes would need to be dried after the washing machine completed its run. By that time work would have piled up higher than the clothes pile.
• The doorbell and the pressure cooker would follow Murphy’s law of ringing/whistling right when I had to unmute myself on client calls.
• With the whole family working from home, there would be always someone who would be hungry in between meals.
• For breaks, I would have to make my own coffee and clean the coffee maker too.

And a dozen other realities that are popping up everyday to remind me that I should have been very careful while wishing for this!