Tag: work from home

The Work From Home pandemic!

~ PA ~ 5 Comments

I know you may think, I am out of my mind, but trust me, when I say the next challenges pertaining to human creativity , collaboration and trust are all going to arise from this so -called magic bullet of work-from-home! Join me here as we try to gauge what is perhaps greatly amiss and why what’s missing here will eventually end up causing the next pandemic with connotations spanning the mental health, financial health and work health of individuals and corporations world over! So here we go!

As the virus came calling, governments did what humans are great at doing- imitation- yes imitate what’s happening with the other nation; so as one nation locked down, so did others- well not to blame anyone for so much little was even known as things started to go from bad to worse and by the time people knew what had to be done and there was too much of cheese all over the place to avoid people from tripping, falling and breaking their bones- so the holy answer to all problems became the lock down and with that piece of unwarranted medical harakiri came the second unintended consequence of “work from home”!

People forgot in no time,even their ability to think and see how suddenly, just because the law of the land said so,working from home became fine! It is the same company perhaps, which would have made you move houses so that you could cut the traffic and reach on time, perhaps it is the very same firm which said, the offer letter could be given only if you stayed within a 10 mile radius and can make it ot the office on time, these are the very same offices which cut your leaves, salaries because you clocked in ten minutes late , three times over in a month just as recently as a few months back, now they all seemed to be just fine- for them- even as your privacy and peace at home has been plundered, looted and laid threadbare- whether it is that pet calling for you attention, that maid coming in at the critical moment through you presentation or the small kid who simply doesn’t understand what the parent is doing toying around with an electronic gadget- all and many such more minute scenarios are laying the foundation for your next disaster in the making and if you are not careful, the next one will even shame the virus- because the next challenge coming your way will be more personal- created by you and can only be solved by you!

To begin with, let’s try to understand what has actually happened! One fine day, your organisation was informed it’s not business as usual- like many others you too rejoiced with the thought of being able to work in your pyjamas and seem cool- to post snaps from your kitchen and show your superhuman skills of being able to work at home and for office at the same time- well this was the first checkmate- you just proved to your firm that the work given by your firm- and the price at which it was given to you doesn’t seem to make any sense- so as a consequence- your work-from-home hours suddenly started to stretch beyond your levels of comfort and sanity- so that now forget the kitchen you also find it a challenge to relieve yourself! Add to this the next layer of complication that gets added when you have more number of family members “working from home”- conversations overlap, conversations are overheard, jokes become a pain point and tonality becomes a point of debate- next any remaining confidentiality- whether its that email to your colleague., vendor or boss- doesn’t miss the attention of the other members and often your emails will be spell checked and langage refined- finally at some point your people from office will know- you have got a communication expert sitting by you helping you counter your one more incompetence which now lies more exposed than ever!

Likewise there will be countless odditties that will come to the forefront and few of them will many a times not what you had been saying all the while to the people with whom you worked at the workplace and now that they have intruded your private space- well the sad fact is there is no place to go further and create ambiguity- so what does this to the trust between people? Well as colleagues you have mental images and comfort evolved dealing with specific individuals- not everyone you know makes you equally comfortable hence- you tell what you think is the level of comfort for both of you- but with this private space intrusion there is a new level of problem- a lot of people come to know what you have perhaps not told- because it may not have been necessary- or required or because you didn’t want to- in any case what that ends up doing (which again is unwarranted) is erodes a small amount of trust and once this process starts, trust me there is no going back and it’s just a matter of time that you will see so-called team re-alignments and working dynamics change and in extreme cases people shuffled across the board and in a few other case ejected from the system! All simply because your privacy got intruded and you really had not planned for this shit coming your way!

To all this drama when you add multiple stakeholders and also add the other work-from-home members from your residence (now which resembles kind of a public arena-because of the kind of activities that seem to start at 8am and end only around midnight!) the chaos and confusion only adds up and in some cases is bad enough to drive you crazy enough to either share some unpleasant exchanges with the people in the zone or simply hang up your boots and say a hasty goodbye to what would have otherwise been a smooth career pathway- the one that you had aspired for and set out to achieve right from your college days! So what’s really happening here? Is there a way out of this and way to manage this? How long will this go on and what’s really the matter- the work or you?

Let’s start from the beginning! Do you remember few of the conversations that you had when you took up this job (which has now intruded into your privacy)? Yes, topics like- work-life-balance, respect for private time, no calls or emails on holidays and weekends, why you must move closer so that you can commute and be in the office! Why the office discourages working from home- because they respect your privacy! and now this very office is advocating the very opposite of all that was said and agreed upon- why? The Virus- not at all- you see, global businesses, whether you are selling donuts or some high end jwellery have been under stress even before the pandemic broke out and globally the capitalists led- world of corporate blue collared elites have been waiting for an opportunity to correct the systemic wrongs and the pandemic just happened to be the blessing in disguise that they were ecer waiting for! This once in a lifetime opportunity gave them the reason to dishonour their corporate lease agreements, defer payments to vendors and staff indefinitely (unless in few nations where in the governments intervened and set the rules of engagement – to salvage some sanity), get even with the governments of the day to extract deep discounting for the next few years so on and so forth, not to forget the reset of their banking terms and conditions (the corporate ones- even as at an individual levels you still get hounded by debt collection calls!) So you see, the real thing about asking you to work from home is the least interest of your safety- but in the larger interest of corporate finance and the compulsions that go around with the nexus of business and politics the world over- nothing to say good about and nothing to whine- because neither I am the business nor the government! and you ended up thinking the work-from-home- intrusion to your privacy was a sacrifice that you are doing for upholding your company! Well keep thinking that way- and wait for the next nightmare!

The other serious level problem that has happened is that as individuals begin working connected through distributed spaces- human brain the way it is- trust erodes rapidly and you add a personality angle to it, this differentiating rate of trust erosion for all the right and wrong reasons helps accelerate the fall of teams and bring in the “new order”- read creating lean teams as the new need of the day- thereby kicking in pay cuts and job losses- each and every aspect of this is linked to the innocent looking solution of “work-from-home”! The things that help this, are the ability to track meticulously- time everything to the nth second and no more- lobby meetings, board room chats and walk around the office so the sudden addition of a 60-80 minutes of additional time through the day- ironically enough ends up making you look more non-productive than ever before and you too begin to loose a grip as the normal way of planning does not help as work seems to get over sooner than you think and as the battle to prove efficiency amongst colleagues takes centre stage- each one send sup undoing the other one and eventually create enough fluidity so that when the time comes- all are swept away in one masterstroke of team realignment! The only way that individuals hope that the organization still holds interest in them is by understanding if their home-office furniture ordered is coming in or not! I mean really! So is there anything that we can do, if this is all a game cast at the upper crest of societies and nations, do we stand a chance?

Well, as history says, when the war is with the system, you need to be in the system to beat the system or develop and evolve it, never has anyone been able to alter the course of history by staying aloof, unaffected or away from it! The fact remains that even as we engage and present ourselves to work with corporates or business houses- irrespective how experienced or inexperienced you are- you need to have your own intrinsic non-negotiable terms and conditions! Like all offices have a office rule book or a manual or better still a code of work , you too need to come up with a code book for your life- I mean, after all isn’t that the most important thing that you should ever be bothered about? Something that core and intrinsic, because when all else and everyone leaves you at some point in time- which they will certainly do- what stands with you apart from your shadow will be the core values systems and the intrinsic systems that construct and make you who you are! This, my friend is the essence of being able to stand firmly and face all the storms and high waves that may ever come your way- by harnessing the strength of who you are and for that to happen you need to be connected within and know yourself as well as you know the vocation that you pursue nor the people who matter you! Once you have cracked this essential adb vital code, rest assured, there could be a hundred more vurusses coming your way, the next time an organization asks you to work-from- home,you will know what is coming your way and chances are you’ll either insist to work form office or politely ask them to get in touch with you once the offices reopen! Exposing your private life for the capitalist greed of businesses and politicians is the last thing that you should ever do- this is similar to a soldier allowing spies into the nation! Think about it! Is anything really worth it -at the cost of peace, harmony and the wellbeing of the core unit that you represent in the society- the family that you have!

The work-from-home pandemic is the greatest illusion and perhaps even more dangerous than the virus, the virus will eventually will be tamed- there be vaccines and solutions through medical interventions, but the pandemic of work-from-home if allowed to get a foothold- will end up eroding the basic functional units of the societies the world over- these units could be families- small or large, could be partners living together, could be friends, or good people working on something bigger and better together! All of it will be lost to be enslaved to the greed of the growing capitalist clut with or without collusion of the political class of the day! The only way through this and to stem this, is by knowing who you are, what your value systems are and very importantly having the courage to say No- when enough is enough and guarding your private zone with every ounce of courage that you have!

I leave you here with these thoughts, for you to reflect, what your experiences have been and possibly urging you to create a blueprint for yourself and the unit that you hold close to you- so that you guard yourself from the next attack that may come your way disguised as yet another some new way of living or working!

Ciao for now, grab that coffee and I will be back soon with another article!

Connected gadgets and disconnected people.

~ PA ~ 2 Comments

As the world starts to pull up itself from the shadows of an ongoing pandemic and tries to grapple with the severe economic melt down which has come along with it (no the virus didn’t cause the economic meltdown; how we dealt with it, caused it!). As humanity we are flirting dangerously with a strange alteration in human behavior for the first time in over hundred years- this new changed behaviour- of being connected with the world through gadgets and not people! This article tries to explore the aspects evolving around it and what perhaps may eventually manifest from this new trait! So let’s explore and get our grey matter working!

Even before the pandemic broke loose, we have been living in an era where we have had technology uncomfortably in-your-face kind of scenarios and with the latest slew of people tracking applications required- few optional and few mandatory, our connection with the digital- virtual world has got far more creepier than you think!As individuals more and more of us wait for an opportunity to get online- whether it is to check the weather, the status of the pandemic, the latest update on the neighborhood or just to know if people still like you over your social media handles! The reasons can be many, few valid and few as dumb as they can be! Any aspect of technology and online driven compulsiveness may be essential for one individual and the same can be an absolute disaster for another, it all depends on- who these individuals are! Say if you are a successful artist and want to stay connected with your follower base through some short videos or pics, it certainly works and perhaps works pretty well to uplift morale of your followers- if you carry that kind of an infectious and inspiring persona, but what about if you are that odd one who has been struggling and these times have made your struggle that bit more spicier! Well, for an individual who is already at logger heads with time and space an overwhelming experience over the virtual world can be really dangerous and make a person withdraw or become over-expressive in ways which may not help, especially during these times, when the vital people connect is, all but missing!

Add to this the latest fallout of the lockdowns the world over- organisations and business have been quick to announce policies and measures asking people to work form home! Now what this has ended up doing in majority of the cases, is create an even more challenging work space for individuals! (unless you own a 5 room apartments- where perhaps two rooms can be occupied by the working members of the house, one by the kids and one by the pet that you have, not to forget even the kitchen is held hostage either by your maid or your in-laws or parents as the case may be!) You see, as long as people went to their offices to create value or destroy the existing value at their work place- all that got played out away from the watchful eyes and ears of your spouses, parents, in-laws, kids and pets. Now that people are working form home, or anywhere that they are (but not at workplace) people around – family and friends- get a first row seat to individual personalities and complexities like never before! All that verbal abuse, emotional tantrums, abrupt meetings, calls being cut, truncated, work that never seems to end, a lunch break that never seems to happen and a weird situation which just stays to hang on- like forever! Earlier even if you had a bad day at work- people would dissipate much of that negative energy by the time they finished their commute and reached their residences- now when all that negativity has lad home in your residence- needless to say there will be unwanted reactions and behavioral patterns erupting with closed confines of your home as well! Add to this that extra element of not being able to talk to reach out to your colleague at office for guidance and counsel- like it used to normally happen- a short break- a cup of tea or coffee on the way back or that 45 min quick beer to plan for the next day to counter what would have unfolded this day- you just end up getting stuck and consumed with your work- with no real cut off in the real sense of it!

Sure enough, office video calls, con-calls, emails and all of them work and work pretty well, but think about it, these tools have been there for such a long time- if these were indeed really that effective- why do you think any major corporations or a business house would have spent millions and millions of dollars to create reputed and state of the art workplaces? There would be some reason right? Well think around that bit when you have time! The fact is remains that, humans always knew the relevance and importance of having place of work and place of residence as two separate locations and it was perhaps a wiser thing to do- ask any innovator or a scientist- they will tell you, many a great things and moments in their lives which proved to be a breakthrough movement either happened at their designated workplace, designated home, or during commute , but never while doing WFH (work from home!) – it never really works!

Importantly if you thought only working professionals are facing challenges, think about it, even kids who are studying at school or colleges are facing and even more crueler scenario! The most badly hit, if you ask me are the school going kids, the youngest of them under 10 years- they have been disconnected from other kids at a vital time of their life when they are supposed to forge, foster and develop the social skills that are an essence of being a human and vital for social engagements and development of the society as these kids become grown ups in the next two decades! But if they have a weak foundation for social engagement set up right now, the ramifications in the long term will never be the ones’ that we desire! You may ask me, but this is just for a year or a few months, how can it impact? well think about it, experts have said, it takes about 21 days for a habit to cultivate and about 10,000 hours to master something that you wish to excel at! So either ways choose your metric and if your kids have been exposed to any of these, rest assured the new emerging behavior of your kids will be not what they had earlier charted the course for! They will unwittingly end up embracing the death hug of technology over the vital compassionate hug of humanity which comes only by being connected with people! We may end up cultivating societal failures and in the next two decades form now , many failures of social engineering/engagement will get attributed to this generation which did not build the vital foundation of social engagement with fellow humans- intentionally or unintentionally! So is there something that we can do about it? Well the answer is yes and no! Yes we can, that’s what makes us, humans special, and No- if the capitalist greed of the top 1% of the world doesn’t stop doing from what it is currently doing; Globally societies will end up driving their young generations into a space where they may just end up being the human extension of technology! We may end up in a space where we don’t lead technology and set the pace for the future, rather get pulled and pushed all over the pace as technology decides how it wants to use/abuse or not use our human services for its propagation! Let’s leave out those 1% and see what we can do within what’s possible at our own individual levels to ensure that we stay connected the way humans should!

Create rituals! Yes, organised rituals at your work desk as you start to crunch you day- and make people to people- non-work talk an essential aspect of this space! Make it a point to use the famed 80:20 principle when you connect with other people- let this 20% of time be used to have that human conversation which revolves around shared values and aspects that go to define and uplift human life! It could be as simple as , “How’s everyone at home?”, to something like “How’s your novel writing coming up?” or perhaps “How’s your thesis going?”, it could be about good times, planing small get- together (law permitting in your space and city), anything but work! Next, make space for those corporate and work life related – bitching calls- no matter whether you are good or bad at the job that you do- you will be a part of this- either creating and leading it or at the receiving end- as long as these remain harmless and don’t impact the sanctity of the work values and ethics, things will be fun and needed to vent out your frustrations where they need to be done! There’s no point breaking crockery at home because you had a bad day- you just end up adding to your won expenses and unwanted next set of complications dealing with people at home! Make an effort and time your exit from the day’s work- this is easier said than done! But, unless you don’t put your foot down, things will not change, remember- the organisation pays you as per the contract that you have signed up for- anything extra that you do- is the loss of the seconds of your life and a windfall gain day-in and day-out for the organization! It’s kind of you work for 40 days of the months and get paid for 30! Limit your screen times to what is vital and essential, stay away from the screens unless you are going to end up someone getting killed! Stop that unwanted urge to keep checking and re-checking that like, comment or views on our social pages and presence, the fact is, trust me it doesn’t matter, unless you are in that fabled 1%!

When it comes to kids, sure enough quite challenging to ask other parents to send in their kids for play dates and all that (depends on IQ levels of the parents largely)! So if you have young kids around in your family or extended family take a few minutes off each day- talk to them and explain to them what’s happening and keep up that conversation and curiosity up and running, for heaven’s sake don’t let a search engine be the answer to all the questions that their inquisitive minds have and if you do this right, they will emerge the other side of this storm – still curious, young, inquisitive and full of life and courage! This us what we need as humanity more than anything else- A resilient younger generation which has been formed and forged by a severe storm, which has not been dented or broken but rather become stronger and even more sharper, the way the things have unfolded around them!

Think again, when you have that compelling urge to stay glued to your gadgets! If you are still reading this, well it’s about time you complete the next few sentences and race back to your family/friends for that quick chat and re-discover the joy of being connected with humanity!

I leave your here, urging you to reflect and decide for yourself, the balance that you wish to cultivate with the gadgets that you command and the people that you cherish!

Ciao for now, will be back with another article soon! Until then stay wise and stay safe!