WFH (work from home) at first maybe is a good sign for workers who spend half of their time working in the office. However, the greater pressure and other factors during WFH lead to the 'burnout’ phenomenon. Which can cause prolonged stress to depression for every worker
WFH (work from home) may at first be a breath of fresh air for workers who spend half of their time working in the office. However, the greater pressure and other factors during WFH lead to the 'burnout’ phenomenon. Which can cause prolonged stress to depression in the victim.
Quoted from www.covid19.go.id, with the increase, incases Covid 19 to 27.5% per week in Indonesia, The President of the Republic of Indonesia—Joko Widodo, through a Press Conference in Bogor on March 15, 2020, appealed to all people to work, school and worship from home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Carrying out activities/office work from home, or what can be referred to as WFH (work from home) is expected to provide flexibility in completing the work given by the company in the personal sphere. At first, maybe you will feel that this is a fun thing because we are given freedom. However, what if WFH becomes a ‘boomerang’?
The latest survey conducted by Blind, a (community workplace application) found 68% of 3000 respondents who are workers from 40 large companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Apple, LinkedIn, Google, etc, claimed to have experienced greater mental fatigue when they work from home versus working from the office. Which triggered the 'burnout' phenomenon in the community.
What is ‘burnout’?
Quoted from the official WHO website,
Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as a chronic work stress condition characterized by physical and emotional fatigue.
Examples of the symptoms of this syndrome are that we experience insomnia, headaches, loneliness, extreme boredom, fatigue, loss of work motivation, procrastination, and so on.
Coupled with excessive worry during this pandemic, this is of course a challenge in itself to maintain your professionalism and performance for the company. So, what causes us to feel burnout?
You Work Tirelessly
When starting WFH, the "settings" in your body still can't tell the difference between 'working hours' and 'resting hours'. This makes it difficult for you to create boundaries for yourself, so you work around the clock.
In fact, working from home doesn't mean you don't have a clear separation between work life and home life, you know it!
This can affect your health, for example; You don't eat regularly because you don't have time to cook, or are too tired to cook and end up eating unhealthy foods.
More Opportunity to Delay
One of the advantages of this WFH is that it has flexibility and less supervision than working in an office. But indirectly this 'luxury' makes you procrastinate more often than before. You unconsciously do other things that are not a priority.
As a result, energy and time that could be used to complete your actual work are spent on other things, and when you want to finish work, you are running out of time and are already exhausted. In the end, you will get overwhelmed in completing the tasks with the 'deadline' that is already tight.
You Feel Like You Don't Have Anyone when You Feel Tired
When you work in an office and a problem occurs, you have a lot of people around you, people you can turn to for help. But when you are alone, limited by the walls of your workspace, you may feel completely alone in solving problems, and not getting immediate support can lead you to feel exhausted and stressed.
You Don't Make a Work Plan
Have you ever felt confused about what you want to do today? Or have you given one little task that you have to do as soon as possible but it turns out to be forgotten? This is the time you have to make a work plan. The work plan that you made for the previous few minutes tends to help you focus on choosing and planning which work you will prioritize first. Without a work plan, you will easily get distracted and forget about the main work you should be doing.
You Don't Have Stress Relief
If previously you had a stress relief schedule or refreshing on the weekends in the form of outdoor activities such as picnicking in the garden, swimming at the beach, camping in the forest, etc. But in a state of lockdown during this pandemic, what are you doing?
Still, Going Outside for Stress Relief? Better Not for Now!
Hmmm, it looks like you have to think twice about going to tourist attractions during a pandemic like this because of course, the risk of transmitting this virus is greater if we are in a mass crowd. For example, a crowd of tourists at a refreshing place.
No Stress Relief? Better Get One Now!
Do positive activities that you like to help calm your mind and give you new freshness before you start working again the next day. Having something you can do as a hobby can increase serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin which are the happiness hormones. An example is to have an aquarium. Apart from reducing the effects of burnout, let's find out the other benefits of owning an aquarium!
Lowering Blood Pressure and Heart Rate
Generally, when you feel burnout, the adrenaline in the body will accelerate faster. Blood pressure and heart rate also increase. The body feels restless and of course, you have trouble concentrating. Therefore, having an aquarium in the house is the right thing for those of you who have high blood pressure or other heart problems. According to one study, seeing an empty aquarium reduced heart rate by 3% while an aquarium with fish resulted in a 7% decrease which is very good for future physical health.
2. Improve Sleep Quality
Believe it or not, looking at aquarium before bed can improve sleep quality by calming or relaxing your body and mind to fall asleep so that the next day you will get a body that is fitter than usual. This certainly reduces wasted time just to calm down either your anxiety or trouble sleeping.
3. Reducing Pain and Anxiety
Having an aquarium in a room has been shown to reduce anxiety and pain in patients undergoing health care procedures. One of them is dental care. This is why in a scene in the animated film 'Finding Nemo', a seawater aquarium was found in the dental clinic's practice room in order to reduce patient pain during dental procedures and after treatment.
4.Increase Focus and Creativity
How come?
Increased focus and creativity when looking at the aquarium in a few minutes can happen because the visual stimulation of an active fish aquarium has a therapeutic effect which later gives your mind a break-off to think about something else to focus on for a few minutes when you want to solve a problem.
5. Provides a Calming Effect for Children and Alzheimer's Patients
As well as being able to increase focus and creativity, fish aquariums can have a very calming effect on the psychological condition of their owners. For example in children with hyperactive disorders and Alzheimer's patients. Research conducted at Purdue University suggests that aquarium fish can improve mood, alertness, and appetite in Alzheimer's patients while reducing aggressive behavior. And in hyperactive children themselves, the aquarium provides a sense of comfort and a calming effect so they can improve concentration and sleep quality which of course improves their performance at school.
So there is nothing impossible to reduce the effect of burnout during WFH only from home. Starting with something new like an aquatic hobby can be a suitable stress relief reference for you. The aquarium with the ecosystem in it also looks beautiful in the corner of the room and forms a ‘lively look’ in your house. Just sit back and relax on the sofa, then enjoy nature from home!
So, what are you waiting for!
Let's bring the nature home ~
