Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 4

able to relax in his home during the day and taking care of his chores. However, WFH also increased his overall workload. During the times of WFH, he did not have any fixed office deadline. As such, the workload put his work-life balance into jeopardy. Lack of technical support while working from home is another issue, as IT development is not readily available in areas outside the capital. Another problem he faced from remote working was the breakdown of personal communication. His job requires him to communicate with a large group of people routinely. During the remote working period, the communication switched to phone conversations. As a result, it became more difficult for him to communicate and ensure that people worked adequately. Overall, from his experience, R2 preferred hybrid working as the preferable option. However, as he said, “Outdoor works have very little to do with WFH.” c) Case III R3 is a Territory Manager working for Unilever Bangladesh. She has been working for Unilever Bangladesh for three months at this point. She worked for DHL as an intern for seven months before joining Unilever as a Territory Manager. She has been accustomed to remote working due to her prior working experience with DHL. WFH did not pose a challenge to her as she could adapt to the new circumstances. However, there is no WFH guideline in the policy of Unilever. However, Unilever offers its take on remote working. It is called an Agile leave. The distinction between WFH and Agile leave is that WFH means being present in office activities in a stable environment. In contrast, employees need only be present for the required tasks in Agile leave. In Agile leave, R3 can work from anywhere she wants, given that she is available for contact. It allows her to work while travelling or outside of the home. Compared to regular WFH, it is possible to be on vacation and continue working. However, since it is not exactly a vacation, she would have to work while travelling or in different places. Despite the prospect of working during the break, since Agile leave is not a vacation, she has more time to enjoy her annual leave. For R3, Agile leave introduces the prospect of working from the place of her own choice without incurring penalties at her position. Freedom and flexibility are indeed critical points for her. For R3, the problem with remote working is that she cannot correctly enjoy her time as she might have to attend to company business at any given time. However, she also feels that remote working allows her to rest and take care of personal tasks. If she were to work from the office, she would not have the opportunity to do so. Finally, based on her experience with remote working, she is happy with the policy of Unilever. According to her, Agile leave is essential for cases when you must be present elsewhere but cannot take a vacation. d) Case IV R4 is a brand manager for Arla Bangladesh. At the start of the pandemic, he was working for Unilever Bangladesh. He had about eight months of WFH in total in the last two years. When the pandemic started, he too had to adapt to the remote working process. He mostly found the process to be easy to understand. However, he felt that Bangladesh does not have the technological advancement needed to work remotely efficiently. He can also take WFH, as it is optional in Arla. From his experience, he felt that WFH is advantageous and should be made available to working people. As most office work can be done remotely, coming to the office only serves as a hassle for people like brand managers. R4 also has a young child at home. During WFH, he felt he could be a better part of her life due to his presence at home. However, as he explained, WFH becomes tedious for professional communication. R4 mainly felt that arranging meetings instead of meeting in person for simple tasks increases workload. As for workload, WFH has led to more work thanin pre-pandemic times. It comes from company expectations that employees would be available at a moment's notice because they stay at home. For R4, work-life balance means that he will not be asked to conduct work once his daily work hours are over. In WFH, it becomes difficult to maintain. R4 believes that a hybrid working environment is preferable for most professionals, mainly since very little fieldwork exists. e) Case V This case study involved a male working at Robi. He started his career following the work from the home module. Recently he has started working from the office, for which he seemed eager. R5 faced difficulty adjusting to a new work environment entirely in the online module. He did not know different terms; he did not know the work properly. He mentioned that it would not have been that difficult to adjust to the position if it had been in an office environment . He enjoyed working from home because he got to be with his family. Time is vital, and he liked that WFH saved time lost due to traffic. He even revealed a unique insight mentioning that WFH meetings had a fixed schedule followed diligently, while office meetings take up time as people were involved in chit chat. R5 mentioned that working from home, he could not represent himself and his work correctly. Now that he is working in an office, people notice him and his work, which is a big motivational and morale boost. He also thinks that the communication gap increases during WFH, and applying emotional intelligence to Impact of Work from Home (WFH) on the Work-Life Balance of Professionals Working in the Telecommunications and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Sector: An Exploratory Study in Bangladesh 75 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue IV Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals