Remote working: boundaries between work and personal life

        

The image above shows a view of Naples, South Italy, where there have been about 700 new coronavirus cases a day since the first week of October. With over one million deaths and 37 millions infections, the virus is still spreading rapidly worldwide.

 

While countries across the world impose new restrictions and struggle to tackle a new surge of infections, many companies and institutions are pushing their employees to adopt remote working model. Governments across Europe are also issuing measures with the aim of encouraging remote jobs, which are on the rise all over the world. Actually, many companies had already adopted remote working before the epidemic began to spread in early 2020.

In this context, people who work remotely have to build their mental structure related to the new working model, considering that sometimes there is no clear end to the workday. Actually, many psychologists see that one of the most important issue for employees is that a clear disconnection is needed. And with regards to mental structure, it is essential to switch working from home, because work time tends to extend in private life.  

The problem is that many people, who have been working remotely since Covid19 began in early 2020, are still unable to create boundaries between work and personal life. For instance, people shoudn't cook or deal with their dishwasher while they are sending emails or reading documents related to their job. 

On the contrary, rather than attempt to reconcile work time and private life, we  have to establish boundaries between them. In this perspective, it may be helpful dressing for the office, instead of working in pajamas or replacing the shift that happens when workers commute to and from the office.

                       

                                                                                

                                                                                                          

The four pictures above show places, located in small villages, where I would like to work remotely, from home.