Personal stories during Covid-19 lockdown; WORK FROM HOME, an opportunity to shift some paradigms?

The Coronavirus pandemic has affected almost the entire world. The global economy has been negatively impacted as the world is trying to fight the virus together. Businesses have been shut down, offices have been closed, small business owners have no income, laborers are jobless, people living paycheck-to-paycheck have been forced to go homeless, and unemployment is rising to its highest. However, most businesses and offices are working from home during this pandemic. Technology has come to its best use now, not just for working from home, but for other reasons like electronic payments, social distancing through video-calling platforms, sharing their talents on social media (yes, I'm talking about Tiktok), and so forth.

Hi, I am Biliz Maharjan. I currently work in a merchant banking company as an Associate Research Analyst and IT Manager. Our company is also working from home at the moment like most of the companies in the world. We have been doing so since Day 1 of the lockdown. I would like to share my thoughts on whether the idea of "work from home" has been effective for us in any way. Is working from home really doing any good?

For those wanting a quick answer to this question, YES, it has been doing good. During the initial days of working from home, I honestly did not think it would be as effective as it has turned out to be. Cut to a month later, my thoughts have been changed. But I speak for myself here because I cannot speak for my colleagues. I will tell you why it has been effective for me.

Work from Home

Working from home does not mean that you are grinding for 8 hours a day from home. We work for at least 4 hours a day. During those 4 hours, we are entirely focused on office work. Now when I say "we", I mean our team. At 9 am in the morning a general meeting is held discussing our tasks for the day or any pending tasks from the day before. We each share our thoughts and ideas in the general meeting, which is usually kept short for about 15-20 minutes. Once the meeting ends, we each start our individual work but we stay connected online. Individual meetings and departmental meetings are held if necessary.

Working from home has been an opportunity to learn new things. Since I am in the IT department, I have had the opportunity to study new Softwares and applications that might be useful to the team for productivity, innovation, entertainment, or any other reason.

There is time to sit back and think about things when I am at home. Usually, when I am at the office, I am focused on my task for the day. I just do what I am required to do. But at home, I can question things and think for a moment about what I am doing and how I can do it differently.

I have fewer distractions at home. This might be surprising for most people. But, yes, that's true. How? Because I control my environment at home. Sometimes my mom does call me to do this and that. But that was in the initial days when she did not understand what work from home really meant. Now she knows and she does not call me or disturb me during work-time. At the office, however, there are distractions. For instance, if I'm working on something, someone calls me to do something else, then I get distracted off my previous work. Also, I can hear my colleagues talking on the phone, vehicles passing by, or people talking to each other when I am at the office.

In the end, working from home is all about how you take it. I took it as an opportunity to learn. In fact, a study in the U.S. found that 77% of the workers were more productive when working remotely (https://bit.ly/2St2Pvv). Also, a different study found that 90% of employees said that more flexible work arrangements increased their morale (https://bit.ly/3bWYFDR).

What Else?

Besides the regular office work, I started a blog during the lockdown (https://bilizmaharjan.blogspot.com/). I've always wanted to start one but could not really figure out what I would be writing about. In this blog, I just write about random things that I like or that I am interested in. I have started reading more books. Well, I've always been a reader but I have the time to read a lot more books now. I also play the guitar and make videos on YouTube (https://bit.ly/2ymrYBl). I have composed a few tunes during the lockdown as well. Besides this, I am also learning UI designing.

It has been a productive lockdown period for me. It's all about how you utilize your free time. I think this is the time to learn or do whatever it is that you have always wanted to do but somehow you were not able to do it. But, in the end, health comes first, which is why we have been in this state of lockdown. Always make health your first priority. Let's fight this disease together by not being together.

Biliz Maharjan, Associate Research Analyst and IT Manager at KCL Astute Capital Limited

Dear readers,

We at Sharesansar believe that each of us have stories to share from our Covid lockdown experience. We also believe that someone’s not-so-interesting personal story can become a reason for many to feel in comfort because most of us are going through strange times these days.

So, Sharesansar has decided to provide a space for your thoughts and is accepting short write-ups from our valued audience for our new Readers’ Corner section. You can email us your write-up with positive message to sharesansar@gmail.com and we will definitely promote positivity as much as possible from our platform.

#StayHome #StaySafe #StayPositive #FightCovid19