PJs are the new office attire

It used to be wake up, deck up and show up at the office, but now it has changed to wake up and show up on the office WhatsApp group. 

The work-from-home culture has changed a lot of office cultures, especially the official decorum of looking presentable to the office and showing up on time. 

Till March 22, I would spend three and a half to four hours every day in my commute to work and back. But as the Covid-19 general holidays began, it feels like I have saved a lot of time and energy. Now, those four hours can be used for binge-watching or any other task. 

But over everything else, the most important change that the WFH has brought for me is not needing to change my comfortable pyjamas for going to work. Now that I work from my home, precisely from my bed, I can still be in my PJs – because nobody is watching, and hence not judging. 

So, now all I do is wake up with the alarm at 9:50am and search for my phone. Once I locate it under the pillow or sometimes on the floor, because I must have dropped it in my sleep, I hurriedly open the office WhatsApp group and shoot th text "online". This has become our morning routine at work. 

On the other side of the message is my boss and colleagues, and on this side I am still lying in my bed in my nightwear – waiting for my brain to wake up before I can start my work day. 

I would freshen up and turn on the laptop and start my daily work - without needing to change my outfit. This essentially means that I save a lot of time for the "early morning deck up" part and now I can instead use those extra few minutes to eat breakfast or enjoy my morning coffee. 

When we started working from home in late March, I had posted a question on my Instagram story asking my friends and followers if I should still wear my office clothes even if I am working from home. I got mixed reactions. 

Few of them said I should continue to the wake-up, deck up rule while many people said that I should not do it as it is not needed. Most of my friends said - "working" is important, not the attire. 

Over the last three months, I have realised that it is not only me but most of the people out there who are working from home are doing it comfortably in their PJs. 

But what about meetings? The work-from-home culture has changed face-to-face meetings to Zoom video meetings. Many of my friends would deck up their upper body during meetings, but some people are too lazy to do that too. 

I do not change into my office attire during meetings, because nobody is watching, and PJs are comfy.