Work from home taking a toll
When the multinational company Shaker Hossain works at introduced work from home option from the third week of March, just as the rogue coronavirus was gaining a foothold in the country, he was beside himself with relief.
Relief that he no longer would have to sit through the Dhaka traffic for two hours on his commute to and from work; relief that he has fewer chances of catching the deadly virus now.
After a few days of working remotely, the novelty soon wore off. And in its place entered insomnia, backache, weight gain, restlessness, stress and anxiety.
"It has just become a 24-hour job for me," said the mid-level employee at the multinational company.
He now opens his laptop at 9 am and shuts its lid at midnight as his bosses are giving him work, one after another.
"The day and the night seem the same to me now. A strange sense of ennui has taken hold of my life," he said, adding that his output is not satisfactory when compared with his input.
Still, he is putting up with his bosses' whims as the fear of losing his job looms large on his mind. Many of his friends from his business school have been furloughed or laid off recently.
Like Hossain, hundreds and thousands of jobholders are going through the gamut of emotions as companies shut office operations after the nationwide shutdown was announced from 26.
Initially imposed for 10 days, the shutdown has been extended thrice as the coronavirus caseload escalated in the country. At present, the shutdown will be effective until May 16.
The sedentary lifestyle that Tariqul Islam Khan, a deputy general manager at the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), leads means he has gained 5 kilograms in weight in the last 40 days.
While working in his office space, he would be attending meetings and interacting with people. But, now, absolutely everything has gone virtual and managing it that way is proving to be highly stressful for him.
"Stress and anxiety are such things that can devastate any one's life. My blood pressure is constantly fluctuating and I can't sleep at night," said Khan, who also suffers from Type 2 diabetes.
And it is not just the middle-aged jobholders who are finding the new working arrangement difficult to get a handle on.
Munir Momtaj, a young sub-editor at a news portal, working remotely was immensely enjoyable at first and did not mind doing twice the normal amount of work.
"But my life feels monotonous now without going outside for days on end," he said, while expressing an overwhelming sense of anxiety of when normalcy would return to his life.
To make matters worse, the distressing news on the novel coronavirus pandemic is also taking a toll on the mental health of people.
Sharmin Ahmed, a faculty member of the University of Dhaka, thought she would be working on her academic interest with the free time she has been afforded for the suspension of classes.
"But I can't concentrate on my work. So many people, including some of my students, are in such distress and it is hampering my research work," she added.
The tremendous strain that jobholders are now battling for homeworking and overall sense of doom has given rise to calls from clinical psychologists for employers to be a little sensitive and reassuring.
Many people are now suffering from depression because of the fear of getting infected with the virus, fear of an uncertain professional future and economic vulnerability, said Mohammad Hossain, professor at the neurosurgery department of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
"People need to be assured of economic safety. For that, a concerted effort of the government and the riches are needed," he added.
Kazi Inam Ahmed, a director at Gemcon Group that has introduced work from home from March 18, though is looking at the bright side.
"I personally feel holding meetings over Zoom makes them more efficient. Maybe the biggest positive from this is we might learn to do more work from home, which means, considering the Dhaka traffic we can also spend more time with our families," he added.
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