Excessive weight gain, longer work hours, intrusion into weekends & holidays: Remote working comes with side-effects

MUMBAI|KOLKATA: By 11am on a Sunday, says Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava, he has already fielded a spate of work-related calls.

Earlier, he had the luxury of switching off from work after a day in the office, but not anymore. “Now I’m constantly tackling calls, interviews, etc.,” says the 85-year-old who’s now been forbidden to go to office by his family.

At a top strategy consulting firm, a partner says he logs in for calls at 8am, and that continues till 10pm and sometimes beyond, as people schedule meetings irrespective of time zones and holidays. Another senior BFSI executive working out of a guest house in Bengaluru routinely ends up missing lunch during his non-stop workdays.


Work from home has its advantages as it gives employees the option of not having to step out of home amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But on the other hand, say India Inc executives, it has almost obliterated the boundaries between office and personal life.

A global study released in March by NordVPN, a provider of personal virtual private network service, showed that across countries, homebound executives were logging in more hours on the job than before. In Europe it was as much as two hours extra each day; in the US, it was three hours.

While India was not among the countries covered in the survey — WFH here began in end-March — the situation here is similar, say executives and psychologists alike.

“At least 40-50% of the cases I’m getting each week are from people complaining about how they aren’t being able to handle WFH,” says clinical psychologist Seema Hingorani. Employees, some of whom are working till the wee hours of the morning, aren’t getting me-time or family time; there are complaints of headaches and body aches, which again is leading to anxiety and depression because, given the current job situation, they feel they have no choice, she says.

“Most are working much more despite salary deductions,” adds Hingorani.

“The usual workday is now stretched as teams start working sooner and end the day much later than usual,” says Neelabh Sanyal, the chief operating officer of online investment platform Kuvera.

ET spoke to employees across sectors and the most common grievances included much longer work hours, lack of privacy, intrusion into weekends and holidays because of meetings/video-conferences leading to discontent in families and food timings going for a toss. However, most fear taking this up strongly with employers, given the spate of job losses and pay cuts all around.

Other side-effects include excessive weight gain through junk food eating and caffeine overload while working. Hingorani cites the example of an IT-sector employee who unwittingly gained 7 kgs while bingeing on frankies during work; that in turn was a trigger for depression.

Another lawyer, who worked from Monday to Sunday from the beginning of the lockdown, sometimes up to 2-3am, had to finally tell her firm that she would not take on any work over the weekends.

In the current unprecedented scenario, employees don't have a choice, and most don't mind too, says Mahindra & Mahindra chief HR officer Rajeshwar Tripathi. “However, this can't go on permanently. Corporates need to draw a line. They can't intrude into employee privacy and personal time.”

Maneesh Menda, the HR head at RBS India, puts the onus on employees as well. “It is important that employees are self-disciplined and create boundaries for working hours,” he says.

Dealing with blurring work-life boundaries:
- Take time out for daily exercise. Spend time with family
- Opt for a healthy diet, rich in anti-oxidants and Omega-3 fatty acids. Cut down on tea, coffee, processed sugar, flour etc
- Try to stick to a daily routine
- Tell your organisation what you are going through
- Boundary management with colleagues/bosses is important. Say you are willing to do extra work but not at the cost of your health