With many still working from home post-circuit breaker, some S'pore employees tell of telecommuting struggles

SINGAPORE — As a senior public relations executive, Ms Anu Gupta used to count herself lucky for having the flexibility to work from home.

That was until the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and working from home became the default mode for everyone when the circuit breaker kicked in on April 7.

The 44-year-old soon found that working at home was no longer fun.

“What started to get to me was the monotony of the routine. Every morning it’s the same — the kids are back at their desk, I’m back at my desk,” said Ms Gupta.

“The lines between work and home kind of blurred out… I could see I was getting a bit demotivated, getting a bit low and I’m usually a very happy, chirpy and chilled out person.”

Then there’s Mdm Chery Yen.

When the circuit breaker measures kicked in, the 54-year-old auditor was entering a busy period at work as she had to do a stock take of her clients’ assets for the end of the financial year.

Working from home presented a new set of challenges.

For example, as it was not practical to share files digitally due to how thick the documents were, Mdm Yen had to arrange for courier services to drop off the binders at her supervisor’s house to have them cross-checked. This means that a task that would usually take a minute or two to complete sometimes took close to a day to get done.

Adding to this were the frictions she experienced at home with her husband, who works in marketing. As her husband was also working from home, tensions arose from time to time due to pressures from their jobs.

While more businesses are kick starting their engines again as Singapore enters the second phase of its economic reopening, the Government has stressed that telecommuting should still be the default setting for all employees.

Surveys have also shown that a majority of Singaporeans would also prefer to continue telecommuting after the circuit breaker period, a sign that working from home is here to stay in the post-Covid-19 world.

But for some, the two months of working from home has been far from a breeze, as Ms Gupta and Mdm Yen can attest to.

Battling cabin fever, dealing with tense situations with family members and juggling work commitments with child-caring duties — these are some of the scenarios that workers have had to grapple with during this period.

It is also why some of them told TODAY that they have found themselves in need of more mental health support in the last few months.

WHAT PSYCHOLOGISTS SAY

Psychologists said that there are many reasons more people might be experiencing mental health challenges and struggling with telecommuting arrangements during this period.

Mr Praveen Nair, a psychologist at Raven Counselling and Consultancy, said the risk of contracting the disease alone can affect a person’s perception of safety and cause anxiety.

For those like Ms Gupta who have found that old routines were no longer effective during this period, clinical psychologist Joanne Chua said one reason for this is that the pandemic has taken away an individual’s autonomy to make decisions for where they work.

“There are some differences between pre-Covid times and now. Before, if they decided (to work from home) it was their decision and they arranged it as such, compared to now where there are external factors that are restricting movement or other factors not within their influence that have come into play,” she said.

Many individuals may also be struggling as the boundaries between work and family responsibilities can become blurred with many different generations working and learning from home together, said Ms Chua, who is a psychologist at Mind What Matters clinic.

Research has also shown that the number of interpersonal conflicts has gone up because of this as members of the same household try to synchronise their schedules to avoid clashes when attending online meetings or classes, she said.

Mr Nair added that clashes can sometimes occur when individuals channel anger and anxiety about work towards their family members as they do not have another outlet to release their emotions.

Ms Chua said that some may also be having difficulties drawing firm lines on when official working hours are, and so find themselves working for longer hours than they normally would, which adds to mental fatigue.

HELPING INDIVIDUALS COPE

Employers told TODAY that they have also received requests from their employees for more mental health and wellness initiatives to be introduced in the workplace.

Ms Anuradha Purbey, Aviva Asia’s people director, said the company is exploring conducting virtual classes for its managers to help them understand mental health better. This is so that they can tell when an employee might be struggling and be able to provide support.

Over at hotel management company RedDoorz, the firm has set up a mental health support hotline for its employees, hotel partners and their staff.

Employees can use the hotline to set up one-on-one counselling sessions with a team of counsellors and psychologists.

At the individual level, Mind What Matters’ Ms Chua said it can be helpful to mark out physical boundaries at home — having designated spaces that can be used for work and for personal use.

One can also establish a type of routine, she said, so that there is some predictability on what to expect in their day to day.

Mr Nair emphasised that individuals should not shy away from seeking help if they need to.

“Seeking help is not necessarily indicative of weakness and there is no harm (in doing so),” he said.

“The thing about issues of the mind is that there is no visible wound. Because people can’t see the wound, they have a false sense of how in control they are of a situation.”

Indeed, the stress and anxiety from work and from being at home led to body pains and bad sleep for Ms Gupta and so she sought professional help to cope with her struggles.

“During the two-hour session, I was able to bring out all my anxieties and (the counsellor) was able to hear me out… And I think that was what really helped me,” she said. “I needed to bring it out and he helped me find little solutions that maybe I was not able to see.”

TALKS, WORKSHOPS ‘NOT ENOUGH’

The fact that some employers are addressing mental health in the workplace may be encouraging but Mr Nair said talks and workshops are not enough to tackle the root problem of why workplace stress may occur.

“Having a talk or a workshop — these are awareness drivers. They are not necessarily corrective in action. These need to be backed up by institutional practices,” he said.

For example, company cultures need to change such that employees are less micromanaged and are trusted to be able to complete the tasks assigned to them, he said.

Ms Chua said that anecdotally, she has received more inquiries from employers seeking solutions that they can implement in the workplace to take care of their employees’ mental wellness.

“It is unfortunate that it took a pandemic to put some wheels in motion but I think the narrative on mental health has changed. Even in the community we are seeing more people open up about some of the challenges, anxieties and stresses they face,” she said.

In the meantime, Ms Gupta and Mdm Yen said they were just glad to be able to regain some sense of autonomy as they were allowed to return to the office when Phase One of the circuit breaker exit began on June 2.

Said Ms Gupta: “It was a very calming feeling (to return to the office). It gave me a sense of closure and being more in control of how I choose to spend my day.

“It also brought a lot of positivity into my mind, that we are truly heading back towards normal days. We are far from it, but at least the needle has moved.”