The New Work-Place: Creative, Productive And Secure

A Happy Work Place Feels Like Home!

A work-place is an area where everybody collaborates and brings new ideas with their own creativity in order to build something. This is a place where work should not feel like a burden and colleagues feel like family. Just as in home, we may fight or we may have difference of opinion, but our hearts don’t feel different from one another. This is a place where everyone is respected equally, safety of none is compromised and all are given equal rights.

When Home Becomes Work Place

In the current scenerio, when social distancing is being given importance, majority of the companies have allowed their employees to work from home. According to a survey, this has boosted productivity among employees, and in the future it is likely to become a norm. Hence, it needs some set of regulations to work smoothly:

1. Fixed Timing: As we work in office hours for fixed duration in weekdays and take offs on weekends, similarly WFH should have fixed working hours. It will also allow employees to dedicate fixed time to work and keep their family life separate.
2. Team-Bonding Activities: Since all the employees are scattered at their home, it is important to evoke feeling of teamwork through fun activities, for example, by playing games like tambola, dumb charades, etc. together for some time.
3. Assigning Fixed Tasks: There is a high probability of distractions and loss of productivity at home, so there should be fixed tasks assigned by the seniors in order to prevent the employees from getting distracted from work.
4. Data Security: There should be an agreement between the employees and the employer to not breach important data of their companies. It will prevent misuse or piracy of organisational data.
5. No cut in paycheck: Since employees are putting similar effort in mantaining the trust of their employer, their paychecks should also have the same salary regardless of the place where they are working.

Our Heros Working During The Lockdown

Some of us don’t get a chance to stay at home with our families, instead they feel proud working for the nation and saving lives. Yes, you guessed it right! These are all the essential service workers, including those in police, medical and sanitation workers. If we call them our ‘superheros’, it won’t be wrong.

Since the virus is dangerous and they are no exception, they also need some protection and equipment to protect themselves from the deadly coronavirus. Hence:

1. We need to ensure these people get top-quality PPE kits along with face masks and gloves.
2. Many people who are being caught by rumours attacking them need to be protected. Also, curbing these rumours would ensure that no medical worker gets harmed during the screening process.
3. Enough food and water should be supplied to them so that they don’t get ill in protecting others.
4. Their paycheck shouldn’t be halved; instead they deserve double the amount of paycheck considering the amount of work they are contributing.
5. Their families should be respected instead of getting indifference from the society.
6. There is a lot of possibility for sanitation workers to get in contact with the virus. They should also be given high-quality equipment to ensure their safety.

Daily Wagers Worst Hit By The Pandemic

More than three-fourth of the population in India gets salary equal to or less than ₹20,000. Among these, most earn daily wages to feed themselves. These include: rickshaw pullers, construction site workers, sex-workers, and many more. They all are the worst hit by this pandemic.

Most of the organisations and our government have arranged food and shelter for them, but many have been deprived. Some of them, like the sex workers, are not even offered help due to social stigma. People should understand the coronavirus doesn’t discriminate among anyone and hits all equally. As a society, we should ensure everyone stays safe and doesn’t sleep hungry.

The Future Of Work Place In The Pandemic

The pandemic effect is such that our ways of working are surely going to change in the near future. After the lockdown ends, we need to ensure that we break the chain which means we mantain social distancing. Following are the SMILE steps which should be considered to ensure safe working environment:

1. Sanitization: Proper sanitization of every employee needs to be carried out before they enter the workplace.
2. Minimal Staff: Half of the staff needs to work from home on alternate days so that proper social distancing could be mantained at the workplace.
3. Ill person quarantined: Everyone should be monitered in the workplace for symptoms, and if anyone feels ill, he/she should be sent to home for a 14-days quarantine.
4. Love to recovered person: If anyone recovers from the illness, he/she shouldn’t be ignored and should be encouraged as the person fought a battle in which they won.
5. Expenditure on illness: Everyone should be covered through health insurance provided by the company, so that they need not to pay heavy expanses after suffering from the virus.