Work-Life Balance in Covid19 – IPRF Study Communications professionals feel overworked, while working from home amidst the lockdown Lockdown, has forced companies to evaluate the positives and negatives of the concept and even employees are figuring out if this is what they wanted forever. Indian PR Forum (IPRF) thought of exploring what was going on in the minds of public relations professionals across India, while they are working from home. How are they managing their work-life balance, or what is their current happiness quotient when it comes to work. #workfromhome #covid19 #corporatecommunications #workingremotely #publicrelations #communicators #pr #WorkLifeBalance #wfhlife #WFH #coronavirus https://vikypedia.in/work-life-balance-in-covid19-iprf-study/

1. Work-Life Balance in Covid19 – IPRF Study
Communications professionals feel overworked, while working from home
amidst the lockdown
Report by Vikram Kharvi
While #WorkfromHome was something employees pushed for and employers resisted, #Covid19
lockdownforcedcompaniestoadoptthis conceptwillinglyorunwillingly. Employees acrossthe industry
including public relations practitioners, got a real taste of what the concept means to them and how
they can manage work as well as their personal lives simultaneously.
The lockdown has altered the ways organizations work. Organized sector was quick to adapt to the
change and moved to work from home with whatever tech support that was available. Work from
home, though quite common amongst techies and multi-national companies, it was however had not
gained grounds amongst Indian companies or evenmany employees.Workingfrom home has it perks
such as savings on travel costs as well time,being able to eat home-cookedfood and flexibility,ithad
many challenges as well.
Publicrelationscompaniestoalarge extentthoughtitwasimperative fortheiremployeestoworkfrom
office for better coordination and efficiency, barring a day or two of work from home, in a month as
complimentary value-ads.
Lockdown, has actually forced companies to evaluate the positives and negatives of the concept and
evenemployeesare figuringout if this iswhat theywanted forever.IndianPR Forum (IPRF) thought of
exploringwhat was going on in the minds of public relationsprofessionalsacross India, while theyare
workingfrom home.How are theymanaging theirwork-life balance,or what istheir current happiness
quotient when it comes to work.
We did an extensive study on work-life balance in times of Covid19 amongst public relations
professionals working in-house or in a consultancy. Following are the findings from our study, please
share your views, feedback and recommend us if we can do any other similar studies in future.
Public Relations practitioners are logging in more hours of work each day
29.9% work for more than 10 hours and 33.3% work for 8-10 hours a day; indicating that over 63% of
communicationsprofessionalsworkformore than8hours aday, since the lockdown.Manyhave quoted

2. inmultiple interactionsoverthe periodof timethatpublicrelationsprofessionalsfeel over-workedwhile
working from home.
 In comparisonbetweenconsultancyprofessionals andcorporate communicators,65% of
consultancyprofessionalslogin8+ hoursas comparedtocorporate communicators(58.51%)
 More womenprofessionals,loggedin8+ hours(67.7%) as comparedto theirmale counterparts
(58.3%)
 Bengaluru(77%) topsthe rank whenitcomesto professionalslogginginmore than8+ hours,
followedbyMumbai (69%) and Delhi (64%)
 Seniormanagementprofessionalslog inmore work(33%),followedby middlemanagement
(39%) thanjuniorprofessionals
 The same istrue in the age group as well.Professionalsinthe age groupof 35-45 are puttingin
more hours of work(32%) than othersage groups.
Do professionals feel more efficient while working from home?
Whether practitioners feel they are more efficient at home is still a question mark, as 38% of
say they are neutral to the feeling, 33.6% do agree that they are more efficient at home.
Having said that sizeable proportion (28.5%) do not feel that they are any efficient at home
Does work impacts their personal lives?

3. Over50% of practitionersfeel thatworkisimpactingtheirpersonallivesasitintrudesintotheirfamily
time. 25% didn’tthinkworkintrudestheirpersonal life,while 23% professionalswereneutral tothe
feeling.
Biggest anxieties or worries on your head at the moment
Healthof self andtheirfamilies(34%) are the biggestanxietiesprofessionalsare facingtoday,followed
by fearof job lossesandsalarycuts.While we have notheardtoo manynewson joblossesinthe
industryatboth the sides,butthere were reportsof salarycutscomingfrom across the quarters
How are seniors supporting employees in current situation?

4. Do employees get all the required guidance from their seniors?
55% of employeesare happywiththeirseniors’support,while 53.5% feel thattheygetall the required
guidance fromtheirseniors.However17-25% of practitionersare unhappywiththe supportand
guidance theygetfromtheirseniorsinsuchtimes
Have you experienced any of the below?
29% of practitioners feel tired or over worked by the end of the day; while 26% of practitioners feel
anxious, when they are not working; while 22% of practitioners find it difficult to disengage from work
after the day’s work is over.
Note:
 Surveywasconductedamongst295 practitioners
 30% were corporate communicators,while 70% were fromconsultancyside.
 54% were womenpractitioners,while43% were male practitioners.
 39.5% were seniormanagementpractitioners,followedby36.5% middle management,12.5%
lowermiddle managementand 11% entrylevel
 32% representedthe age group35-45 years,followedby26% of practitionersinthe age group
of 30-35%, 18.4% inthe age group of 25-30 years,13% - 45+ andonly11.5% were inthe age
groupof 20-25 years