Impact of Covid-19 on people and Work from Home

Abstract

already experiencing significant revenue and job losses. The ability to ‘Work from Home’ (WFH) can helpdamp down the impact of the situation, undoubtedly. Overall, the effects of WFH arrangements rely a loton the job status of parents and presence of dependents (children & elderly), and this current situation islikely to intensify these differences. It does not necessarily mean, however, that the effect of the crisisshould inevitably be gender neutral. Working women have been particularly affected. It seems to be veryfascinating to work from home, while sitting on a comfortable couch, casually dressed, even sometimesin sleep suits, without stepping out in scorching heat and wasting time in traveling, but this may not be apreferred situation for everybody, especially women. The most significant impact on working womenduring the crisis will be trying to balance household demands, childcare needs and work demands.The group most likely to be hardest hit then would be lower income families with young children, and singlemothers in particular. Generally women are in charge of planning, organizing and recalling of everythingthat needs to be remembered. The mental stress and load that comes with such work has risenexponentially in present circumstances. Even though many countries are relied on lockdown to controlwidespread of COVID-19 pandemic, the mental problems such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, suicidalthoughts and other psychological trauma are most common in case of normal individual and extensive incase of people who are psychologically ill. Females are more prone to psychological distress. The mainconcern is to manage and provide opportunities for regulation of stress caused due to anxiety and lack ofpeer contact. Another main threat is an increased risk of parents to develop mental illness, women mayalso suffer from domestic violence and consequently it results child maltreatment. The current scenariomay be particularly challenging especially for children and adolescents with special needs ordisadvantages, such as disabilities, also if someone has prior trauma experiences, undiagnosed mentalhealth problems, background of migration and low socioeconomic status.Dr. Sana HassanUniversity College of Medicine and Dentistry,The University of Lahore, Teaching Hospital,Lahore, Pakistan