Business And Work After Covid 19

Recently I read an open letter was written by the CEO and Co-Founder of Airbnb Brain Chesky to his employees. It was an expression of a well-crafted business strategy accompanied by a message that reflected care for his employees. For business over the world, this year is all about survival leave aside profits, and for survival and sailing through this tough time, we need to stand as one.

For sustaining business, Airbnb also decided to ask about 1900of its 7500 employees to leave the organization. But this shocking news was broken by the CEO in such a positive manner in this letter, as if he were addressing his family. The company has decided to be fair with the severance pay that employees should receive, are giving them support for getting a new job, providing health cover for an extended time and offering mental health support.

Many business leaders have been contemplating on taking hard decisions, just like Airbnb did, while some are changing the ways of working and have drafted plans of shifting most of their workforce to a work-from-home model in the near future.

Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, has announced that a large number of its employees will work-from-home till the end of this year. Those who return to work sometime in July, or whenever after the lockdown ends will see enhanced safety measures in place.
Facebook simultaneously made similar announcements of only having the necessary staffing at the office and allowing the rest to work-from-home till the year-end.

IT campuses will see a drop in traffic even after the lockdown opens, as many desktops are sent to employee homes. Cognizant India’s Chairman and Managing Director, Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, said that for decades the company has established a disaster management team and also readied a plan to put in action. These plans were also executed when Chennai and Kerala floods broke too. But, he mentions, that COVID 19 is a global-scale disaster that was unprecedented and the company is working with task teams for managing business continuity and at the same time protecting their employees' wellbeing. Like Cognizant, other IT companies Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro, and such others have also taken the required steps.

Other businesses in the service sector like freelance writing, tutoring, training, marketing, consultancies have also been able to keep their businesses functioning and will continue to do so even if the lockdown extends. But the manufacturing sector and those associated with it have faced a major hit. Those who will return to work after lockdown will see a changing work environment. The office structure will include norms of sanitation, using masks and other PPEs, thermal devices to check the temperature, frequent surveys are done to know how physically fit one feels, and most importantly social distancing using staggered desks and one-way hallways.

But the reality is that most of our offices are not built keeping social distancing in mind. Although today, social distancing is a reality, and a condition we will have to live with, till we are declared free of Covid 19  completely, which is again a distant fact. We wonder if workplaces can be redesigned so easily. It’s a huge infrastructural change and will require heavy investments which may not be possible for those businesses with thin profit margin and shallow pockets. Whenever we do, we will still return to work to share the same space with our colleagues, click on the same buttons on the elevator, use the same coffee machine and touch common door knobs. It is practically impossible to sanitise all these touch points every time a person touches it; and even if we go to do that, additional manpower will need to be employed.

So to cope with the ricks of exposure we need to practice these 10 tips:

1.     Always wear a face mask or cover your face with a cloth. Although WHO does not recommend masks for asymptomatic individuals, always cover your face with a cloth – preferably a scarf or handkerchief. Fold the kerchief for two folds before tying it. The use of masks should be made if any COVID 19 symptoms exist.

2.     Wash your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds using soap. WHO recommendation on handwash can be seen in this picture.

Performing Hand Hygiene

3.     Do not use a common napkin to wipe your hands or face, use tissues instead

4.     Using a hot air dryer poses a risk of spreading the virus into the air, so avoid that

5.     If you do not have a kerchief, but have to cough or sneeze, use the sleeve of your shirt as a place to rest your face

6.     Avoid close proximity with others, even if they are your office colleagues. Maintain social distancing.

7.     Avoid closed rooms where there are many people sitting together. This could increase the risk of virus spread.

8.     Isolate yourself in case of any symptoms

9.     Maintain cleanliness in your environment

10.  Throw waste directly in the bin. Do not wait for the housekeeping staff to do any cleaning. Remember they are also humans and at equally exposed to the risk of infection as any other person

Some other things to note:

1.     COVID 19 is highly infectious, although there are many other viruses and many studies which have shown that those viruses also spread. COVID 19 spreads far easily through the air droplets and touching infected surfaces, after which touching your face mouth, nose.

2.     Do not stigmatize people wearing masks. If others are taking precaution, then respect them instead of looking them down.

3.     There could be COVID 19 carriers, those who are asymptomatic.

As days are passing, the victims of COVID 19 are fighting a physical battle, and the homebound masses of people are fighting a psychological one. It may take longer for COVID 19 to be eradicated from this world or for humans to be immune. But to be physically safe and mentally less worried, the least we can do is protect ourselves from exposure with the above tips. You are welcome to share your thoughts too on how we can fight this together. Let's stand as one and surmount this.