An article in a consumer behaviour research journal has described smartphones as an “adult pacifier”. The term is catching up very fast. However, the issue goes one step further during the pandemic. With a very big percentage of the working population working from home, the line between the personal and the professional life is getting blurred.

This has put the traditional understanding of the professional and personal into direct conflict. Questions are being raised, rejoinders are being written and the space of debate on this has begun to open up.

In 2018, a Virginia Tech professor, William Becker, in a study on working in the electronic age found that the need to keep oneself updated on one’s emails has a significant cost. It takes a toll on one’s mental wellbeing. His study found that the concept of ‘flexible work boundaries’ actually turn into ‘work without boundaries’.

But this study was done at a time much before the pandemic. And now with the work from home being the new normal, the question, therefore, is how to cope with the new situation while respecting the private space in the ‘virtual workspace’. For the virtual space is now not an option but a compulsion.

This is the question that is now haunting the HR professionals and the search is now on for new ethics in employer expectation.

All of us have seen various photos of parents working from home with kids hanging around, cartoons showing workers attending VCs and online meetings with a formal shirt but a pair of shorts (which cannot be seen on screen)! The question that haunts the HR professionals is how best to resolve these conflicts. If a parent is working from home, it’s but natural that the kid will seek parental help while doing homework! Will the parent take a break and help the child?

Creation of flexible work boundaries without making it a 24X7 flow is the challenge in the new normal. The fact that this can be done is unquestionable. Different organisations are at it, working from their perspectives. A consensus is bound to emerge as the corporate standard. Question is when and not if.