1- Abstract

• Transition to Home Settings
  
    - COVID-19 health measures, such as social distancing and lockdowns, led to an extraordinary shift in the work environments of middle-class jobs throughout various sectors.
  
    - With the closure of schools, daycares, and non-essential businesses, many individuals were compelled to adopt remote work arrangements. This created a challenging scenario where employees found themselves balancing professional responsibilities while simultaneously managing home schooling and family care activities.
  

• Data Collection
  
    - The study drew upon qualitative data through journal entries from a diverse group of participants in Nova Scotia, Canada. These individuals documented their daily experiences of adapting to remote work due to the pandemic.
  
    - Participants responded to carefully designed weekly prompts that facilitated deeper insights into their evolving daily routines, challenges faced during work-from-home scenarios, emotional states, and coping strategies used throughout the transition.
  

• Participant Reflections
  
    - Documented changes in the reflections indicated notable challenges in juggling work responsibilities with heightened family obligations, often leading to emotional fatigue.
  
    - Participants expressed mixed emotions: some described moments of fulfillment and connection with family, while others grappled with feelings of isolation and stress due to the blurring of work-life boundaries.
  
    - Many individuals voiced hopes and expectations for a post-pandemic life, eagerly envisioning a return to stability, routine, and social interactions that characterized their pre-pandemic existence, often highlighting the importance of work-life balance moving forward.
  

Emotional Dynamics and Scholarship

• Connection to Arlie Hochschild's Scholarship
  
    - The narratives facilitated an in-depth exploration of Arlie Hochschild's theoretical concepts relevant to emotional labor during crises, specifically:
  
      - Feeling Rules: These are socially constructed conventions dictating the appropriate emotional responses one should exhibit in various situations, which can be especially taxing during unpredictable circumstances like a pandemic.
  
      - Emotion Work: This encompasses the active regulation of feelings to maintain social interactions and personal well-being. Participants detailed how they navigated their emotional landscapes to adapt to the new norms of remote working.
  
      - Gender and Work: The data provided valuable insights into how traditional gender roles influenced perceptions and experiences of emotional labor, noting that women often bore the brunt of balancing professional tasks with increased domestic responsibilities.
  

• Resistance to Norms
  
    - The struggle to meet pre-existing expectations while simultaneously adhering to emerging protocols resulted in participants actively resisting cultural norms, including:
  
      - Busyness: The entrenched social expectation surrounding continuous productivity as a hallmark of effectiveness, which was challenged as many participants learned the value of rest and downtime.
  
      - Productivity: Participants reflected on the redefinition of productivity, often realizing that quality of output does not solely depend on quantity.
  
      - Exhaustion: Many acknowledged the unsustainable nature of constant engagement and overwork, emphasizing a newfound understanding of the emotional and physical toll that such demands can exert on personal health and family dynamics.