John Donne’s famous words, “For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee” have to be taken seriously if the current scenario means anything to us. COVID -19 has enveloped the entire world in the worst ever chaos we have seen.

At present, the planet is under the tight grip of the coronavirus Pandemic. Globalization is punishing everybody for someone else’s unpreparedness. The pandemic has exposed how fragile we are in the face of a globalized health emergency. The virus is inflicting at a tremendous speed. As many as 30 new diseases have emerged in the last two decades and now threaten the health of hundreds of millions people. For many of these diseases, there is no current treatment, cure or vaccine.

COVID-19 that makes us helpless is a glaring example. Work life has evolved itself into a new dimension by taking the idea of comfort zone to a whole new level. This for more reasons than not has not gone down really well with all and all though there are more than one ways at looking at its impact on our daily routine, one must reconcile to coming to terms with reality and that is a tall order for the common man who has been more of a socialite from the time of creation.

COVID-19 has transformed people’s approach to work in several ways across the globe. There’s a whole new work culture that has been put into place not because by need but more so by choice. The need of the hour is to understand the ramifications of not following a protocol that determine not just one’s but the peoples live around as well. This paradigm shift in both personal as well as professional lives is beginning to shape our future for the better given that a cure to this pandemic is still in the distant offing.

This might offer no comfort to us realizing the catastrophic events that seem to make headlines each day and this has undoubtedly given rise to a race among the nations to be the first to find an antidote.

While we give the scientific community time to give us relief from this vexing issue, it will also serve well to realise that this dreaded plague has proven to be the Achille’s heel to just not the powerful and mighty but the poor as well and worst hit are the developing and under developed countries whose per capita income is way below decent standards of living. The whole infrastructure warranted a more clinical method of addressing people’s basic issues such as transportation, food and access to medical facilities. One must not negate the impact this had on migrant labour on which a chunk of manpower is reliant on and this includes both domestic and international market. Therefore, it becomes only logical to perceive the reinforcing of changes to the way we do things. While online class rooms have been the talk of the time, professionals across banking, industries, retail outlets and the like have devised ways to adapt to the situation.

While the costs of renting out offices, travel expenses and time far outweighs the work from home regime, it will be worth a thought to balance these with the potential to collapse economies in the absence of effective implementation of guidelines to check the spread the outbreak. One thing that binds all of us together in times of a crisis of this magnitude is to exercise caution and diligently follow the advice offered by experts. The reasoning behind this prefecture is to realize that a nation’s wealth are its people and any reluctance to consider this basic principle would only mean a sure path towards collapse of financial fabric.

Of course, every society has a mix of the affluent and the one’s that run their house holds on shoe string budgets and the changes that we choose to adopt has dented every one’s pocket with the poor bearing most of the brunt.

It may feel like the pandemic has revolutionised working life but, in some ways, it’s simply come a full circle. On a broader perspective, this may be closer to the way in the things we look when the world emerges from lockdown.


The new way of life brought upon us because of the crisis, calls for equipping ourselves with new skills and behaviours. Along with this, the ability to develop clear, focused thought amidst this frustrating and stressful situation will go a long way in helping people function at their optimal levels and may lead to a better life. Resilience, innovation coupled with foresight and collaboration are some of the things that hold a paramount importance in these uncertain times.

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References:

  • www.deccanherald.com
  • www.CIO.com
  • www.google.com
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