One of the most positive things to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is that many people finally achieved a work-life balance. As more workers shifted to working from home, productivity levels went up and stress levels went down for many. However, now that the world is opening up again, many bosses are keen to get employees back in the office full-time. That wasn’t working for 53-year-old Felicia, so she quit her six-figure job when they tried to force her to stop working from home.
- If working from home is working, why change it? If productivity is the main concern and employees are still getting their work done from home, why not continue with that? This was Felicia’s argument. Talking to Insider, the Arizona-based administrator wasn’t willing to go back to the stress and pressure of full-time office working. “I know how to do my job. I don’t need to be in an office to do my work. I just knew I didn’t want to go back to what it felt like before,” she explained.
- Most companies are ruling out WFH. While it seemed like the pandemic had brought about a new era of telecommuting and working from home, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that nearly 3/4 of companies had ruled out telecommuting. It was a huge increase on the numbers of September 2021, when 40% of jobs on offer were open to it. It seems like the biggest trend is getting workers back in an office setting.
- Felicia had gotten used to the hybrid model. For 18 months, she did three days at home and two in the office. She felt like that was a happy medium that allowed her to feel better about balancing work and home life. “I found that I got a lot more work done when I was working the hybrid days,” she said. There were far fewer “distractions and interruptions” with this model in comparison to before. “I was going home and working four hours because I couldn’t get the work done,” she said of her experience of working in the office full-time.
- A month after heading back to the office full-time, Felicia decided to tap out. All the toxic parts of working in the office full-time has left a bad taste in her mouth and she soon realized she couldn’t deal. “Just sitting there and thinking, oh my goodness, that feeling of I have a meeting coming up yet I’m stuck in this,” she recalled of one particular morning commute. “And it’s like, why am I doing this to myself when it’s not even necessary?”
- Managers still seem to think that working from home means not working at all. Felicia said she often heard managers claiming that employees were only working two days a week. However, as she pointed out, her most productive days were the ones she worked from home. “I just got to the point where it just wasn’t working for me. And I walked away from over a $100,000-per-year salary to seek positions that have hybrid options so that I can have that work-life balance,” she explained.
- Now, Felicia is looking for a job that offers a bit more balance. Chances are, that’ll pay way less, but for her, it’s worth it. “The payoff is the driving and the traffic and the stress of being on the road five days per week versus being able to do the very same work and more from the convenience of the hybrid option,” she said.
