Juggling act: Tips for balancing remote work and home life in 2020

A worker at her band office desk [Photo: David Jackson]

Any remote worker can tell you how office demands have invaded the home in 2020 and started creeping into every corner of the day. But Jessica DeGroot is no ordinary worker. She is an expert in work-life balance as head of the consultancy ThirdPath Institute. “Work was taking over entirely, and I was becoming less and less efficient,” said DeGroot, who is working from her home office in Philadelphia, while her husband has commandeered the kitchen as his own workspace. “I just thought, I gotta do something different here.”

Almost six in 10 employees say the pandemic has made their workdays less defined, according to a Pulse of the American Worker survey conducted by Prudential Financial. Some 60% of remote workers say distractions from family, housemates and pets make it difficult to get work done, according to a study by insurers Chubb. Only a minority, 43%, say they have been successful in keeping work and family separated. That is just not sustainable, especially as the global pandemic drags on.