Some of my views on the post pandemic world.
Circa January 2021. Driving to work now, in our not so bustling city, is a joy. It feels like the clock has been turned back twenty-five years. On most days I am able to reach our production facility in about twenty minutes, a journey that would pre-pandemic have taken forty-five to fifty minutes. Life is flowing much easier. The trees along the roads and the plants in the medians look happier. I can feel the leaves waving at me with big grins as I drive past.
Often, I stare at the ocean from my window at home. I can now see much further across the seas than I ever could. My skin rejoices with each passing gust of wind. The summer heat is far less oppressive. My being relaxes as I sip my cold brew.
The city is still bustling, but from homes now. From co-working spaces. From all the little cafes around the city that are being used as meeting spaces and offices. The density has been distributed.
That was me daydreaming. Is this what my beloved city of Mumbai, my home, feel like post the pandemic? My vote says “Aye”. Decongested as people have gone back to the smaller towns and villages. To better quality lives. Decongested as many are now working from homes or local co-working spaces.
There is a lot of conjecture about how the world is going to function post the pandemic. The words “New Normal” are being used by many of us in several contexts. What this new normal shall be is anybody’s guess. What many more of our people have definitely learnt is working from home, conducting meetings without having to physically congregate and depending on e-commerce services to source for our regular needs. All this means less travel. Less travel means less load on our city’s infrastructure. Leading to a happier city. A happier populace.
Being tech-savvy, using e-commerce was always easy for me, but e-meetings would make me cringe. I always preferred to have physical meetups to discuss work. Work from home was welcome at times but I always felt that I needed to be at the office to be more effective. More efficient. These several weeks at home have also meant that I have learnt to adapt. E-meetings do work now for me.
What are the many benefits of work from home?
Less traffic on the roads. This means less need for more road infrastructure and less consumption of fuel. With pressure reduced to build roads and bridges the city coffers will have more money to spend on maintaining and improving the current roads. Reduced consumption of fuel will reduce the country’s import bill and cut down on CO2 emissions. Less pollution for all of us to deal with. This alone is good enough reason to ensure that work from home becomes the norm rather than the exception.
Reduced commute for individuals means more time with family and more time for personal passions. A far smaller carbon footprint for each of us and a substantially improved quality of life. The work life balance finally starts getting a nudge in the right direction — same amount of work and yet more life. More time for leisure activities you love, less drudgery.
Being location agnostic would mean more people could make the choice of leaving the cities. More reduction in cost of living, better quality of life and lesser load on our creaking cities. This does need better communication and better data in our smaller towns and that has already happened in most parts of the world now.
Businesses will also get much better understanding of different cultures and their challenges and of different geographies. A business based in New York could create teams all over the world without relocation costs and without work visa hassles. Most importantly they could hire the right and appropriate talent from across the world, making their businesses more efficient.
Less need to travel for work means less need to fly. Isn’t that wonderful. Less time wasted in security queues and waiting for delayed flights. Not to forget the flying time and the oh so plastic flight meals. Reduced movement to and fro from airports, less traffic on the roads. Reduced consumption of aviation fuel. Less pollution. A happier Earth.
The more I think about it the more it seems that work from home will be the panacea to solve many of our modern life challenges. The domino effect will be fantastic, and I am sure many experts have already studied all this. I am simply excited with all the possibilities that I am seeing.
All businesses will save resources. Less office space, less rental costs. Great reduction in office supplies, office snacks, power costs (less to heat and less to cool) and security and surveillance costs. Some of the money saved could be spent on better salaries and social activities for all those working from home.
Impact for local businesses. As people move away from town centres and cities there will be a big boost for all kinds of local businesses. Cafes and restaurants, co-working spaces, local retail and local manufacturing. Many new opportunities will crop up.
Individuals will benefit in many ways. The need for formal office wear will go down, money saved. Less office distractions, but home distractions will have to be managed. Less office politics. More time to exercise. Overall being happier productivity will go up. Although some may have to ward off workaholic tendencies. Others may worry that they will have to work beyond office hours and for those in different geographies it will mean that work could be at odd hours.
There is a risk of boredom. Whilst businesses will have better people retention in general, they will have to put in some processes for people in far flung places to engage. Teams could be planned based on location giving people the opportunity to meet up easily. Businesses must encourage such meet ups and even pay for them. This will avoid social disconnect for all those working from home.
Although every business is not a good fit for work for home, there are many that are. And for many it could be some aspects of the business that can work from far flung locations. Back end work, accounting, finance, data management are some that can work from away locations. Some that are a perfect fit are education and training, computing and IT services, insurance, finance, call centres, data management services, virtual assistants, translators and several others.
The work from home movement is a great opportunity for property developers. They can purpose build apartment blocks with a view to supporting work from home. Somewhat like co-living. Lots of common infrastructure. Co-working areas in the building where residents could get the office type environment and still work on independent projects. No politics and all the benefits of social engagement. Private spaces for voice and video calls. Common areas for activities — table tennis, carrom, gymnasium and swimming pool if possible. Meeting spaces. Conference facilities. The possibilities are limitless. Completely missed, perfect wi-fi in all parts of the complex.
I am sure that working from home will also have many challenges and businesses will have to work out processes to manage those. But overall the world and the businessed will see huge benefits.
The other major shift that I can see, post pandemic, will be the support for local businesses. I for one am most definitely going to support this in every way that I can. This will have a massive impact in many many ways. Local consumption for locally produced goods and services will drive local economies and have a positive environmental impact. It will need a lot of awareness efforts on the part of all involved. India has just launched the #GoVocalForLocal campaign. The plan being to drive this idea down to every level of society.
I am at a point where all my business has been very adversely affected by the lockdowns. My focus now is on how to reinvent myself. I am on the prowl looking for an opportunity that works for me. I have been scouring the internet and the depths of my own left and right temporal lobes attempting to get an idea worth pursuing. Urging my logical and my creative side to dig deep into their reservoirs and come up with some good options to explore. If you have any suggestions, please do share.
In the meantime, I shall continue to tap away and working on stimulating my grey cells.
Written By Mohit Gupta
Week 21, May ’20
