The lockdown in Auckland and Waikato is taking its toll on parents who are working from home with children on their school holidays.
Photo: 123RF
Chartered organisational psychologist Frank O'Connor has worked with companies ranging from multinational corporations to small enterprises in New Zealand and beyond during his 30 year career.
He said he is seeing more fatigue among those in management positions, because they are overseeing both staff and their own children.
"Some of the most challenged are parents who are also managers of people," he said.
"It's really hard for them because they've got people at work who are sometimes behaving a little childishly and other times quite maturely and they've got kids at home doing exactly the same thing.
"They get quite worn out and we're seeing a lot of what we'd call fatigue. It's not really Covid fatigue it's just fatigue, they're tired and it's hard to rest."
O'Connor said there will not be a one-size-fits-all answer to working from home during lockdown, and because of that it's important employees talk to their employers about what their home life entails.
"If you've got care responsiblities for kids or for older people, make sure the people at work know about that," he said.
"This can be a real challenge for people who think everybody's in the same situation but an employer can't accomodate something that's going to make a difference to an employee if they don't know about it."
He had seen some creative ways parents keep their kids occupied.
"One thing that's been going on in Auckland is even though they're not a physical bubble, there's a couple of families that are a virtual bubble," he said.
"They have a duty parent who is focusing on keeping the kids occupied on several screens at once, so it's almost remote babysitting, while the mum gets on and does an hour or so of steady work without interruption."