Women have long been proponents of flexible working arrangements such as “working from home,” which have usually been seen as employee “perks” or “benefits.” For example, you work in an office but stay home on a given day or occasionally when you need a block of uninterrupted time. You still have the framework and structure of your office, and the people who work there adjust their work given your absence.

Many, including myself, have benefitted from pandemic-accelerated company policies that spurred remote working, i.e., working at home in a more permanent fashion, the new normal for millions of corporate employees. But, is remote working the same as working from home?

Working from home today means that everything about the remote work environment is different from your office where you had a workspace (or desk) and co-workers. During the pandemic, this is not normal working from home nor remote working–this is triage. That difference deserves some attention by employees and managers. It requires a different set of abilities, resources, and skills. It requires a self-starting attitude and well-honed time management skills. It also requires proactive communication and a vigilant focus on what’s happening with team members since you don’t have the regular face time with them. Companies should be careful about metrics regarding the success of remote working right now.

Moreover, the question is not only how have company policies have changed, but how have societal structures and the behaviors of men and women changed as remote working has taken hold? Has society changed its view on household responsibilities in comparison?

The line between work and home has blurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and more than ever, many working parents are struggling to balance all of the responsibilities that come with having a career and managing a household. COVID-19 heightened parental responsibilities as support systems have been diminished. For example, pre-pandemic, children still had school and daycare, but now require supervision by parents to get logged onto remote learning platforms.

Some like Eve Rodsky, the author of Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) call this in-the-home work “emotional labor”, “mental load,” and “invisible work” She questioned, How did she end up being the default – or the “she-fault” – for all household responsibility? As Rodsky puts it, “there’s a different expectation of how women are supposed to use their time. Two-thirds or more of the time it takes to run a household or family falls upon women.”

There’s a different expectation of how women are supposed to use their time. All too often, women think of leisure time as a “reward,” and that they have to earn the reward by completing an endless list of required responsibilities. By continually prioritizing children and families, women have given up their leisure time, including time for sleep, personal care and adult relationships. However, self-care is not a reward, it’s a necessity! It is regular maintenance, so to speak.

We hear this a lot now—put on your mask before helping others to put on theirs. This can be done by having a “well-being plan” that prioritizes routines, staying connected, and engaging in hobbies. I address that in my post Self-Love in the Time of Coronavirus.

We risk burning the candle at both ends, and if we don’t recharge, we will not be effective at either work or home. We need to give ourselves some slack and breathing room, because life happens too.

For further viewpoints, check out the Implications of Covid 19 on Gender Equality in the Legal Sector a webinar that I participated in on 5 October 2020.