There is a lot of buzz about how the world is transforming itself in an exponential fashion to mitigate the effects of the deadly COVID-19. While the white-collar professions have quickly adopted transforming the workforce to remote workstations and online meetings, there are industries such as entertainment, hospitality, and administrative services that have seen enough havoc over the past few months. Microsoft hails, “2 years of digital transformation in 2 months”.
While those of us who are fortunate to keep our jobs, it is high time for us to practice austerity for the good of us and our dependents. Let us make sure we empathize with our coworkers. People who had indirect employment in office spaces through catering, transportation, security services, and housekeeping, have literally lost their jobs and are clearly helpless. The kind of emotional trauma, those people are going through to provide for their families is quite unimaginable. I am sure corporates are keeping the essential needs of their indirect employees’ funded. It is high time we contribute back to the people we used to know, the faces we saw in the cafeterias that served food, the smiles we exchanged at the security desks, the cab drivers who made sure we reached offices on time every time, the housekeeping staffs who cleared our coffee spillages before someone trips and the list is endless. While the policymakers and corporates doing their part, we need to be extremely sensible and sensitive to attend the needs of whoever we can to make the livelihoods up and running.
Humanity always thrives. We have seen the worst in the past – the manmade famines to feed the wealthy bellies, the wars to feed the egos of power-hungry nations, the inhuman acts of extreme intolerance against the races, classes, and the oppressed and so on. But in the end, humanity thrives. The tough times always gave room for innovations and inventions, say for instance the dissolution of the Soviet Union that has opened the doors for Globalization, The World War aftermaths have opened the doors for the United Nations and their subsidiaries such as WHO, the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and so on to promote peace and prosperity around the globe. Having said that, I am quite optimistic about the new opportunities we can look forward to in the next few years.
The scale of the transformation is set to push the geographical, cultural, and economic boundaries. Yes, the times are extremely uncertain for everyone as the vaccine availability does not seem to be a reality at least until the early next year, as the clinical trials are still to show significant improvements. The post-COVID-19 times are compared to the post World War -II times, and I think they are not exaggerating when they say this. There will be changes in the way our businesses operate. Several businesses will diminish in scale or set to vanish altogether, and several businesses will see escalated growth, and several new businesses will emerge. Let us take a close watch to study the socio-political and economic changes. I think it is important for each and every one of us to adapt to the new norms sooner. After all, they say that the early bird catches the worm.
Sharmili unplugged....... 