MY PARTING SHOT: Rethinking normal - working from home should be the acceptable normal
The Coronavirus pandemic has showed us the possibility of some of the things we always thought are impossible. Our lives are so scripted right from birth. Grow up, start school, graduate, get a job, get married, have children and the script goes on and on. Some people’s lives have been unscripted. A colleague started my first year at campus with, had a child in her second year. She graduated a year later than I did. In our conversations, I asked her whether this was a mistake, and she greatly opposed my thoughts on a scripted life.
Who said one must have a child after school, and only when they get married? She insisted, this was her plan. And not even taking a dead year at university would stop her from achieving what she wanted. That for me, was fascinating.
The pandemic has exposed us to working from home. I, for one, haven’t had an opportunity to work from home, but my friends and colleagues have. One of them, their work depends on a laptop and internet. Having to go to their office every day, means expenditure on lunch away from home, breakfast and fuel too. He hasn’t stopped working even with the outbreak of coronavirus. He has frequently renewed his internet bundles and continued to work from home.
Over the weekend, his boss was furious over the new normal he had adjusted to. That even with the introduction of a staff van to pick every employee, he decided not to go to office, because he has been meeting all the work needs from the comfort of his bed. To re-think what the new normal means, should be the debate now. The old normal to be honest has been not just risky for many employees worldwide, but also expensive. As we get excited about the new normal, we are turning our heads to, have we thought about what sort of new normal these should be?
One of the new normal we should accept, is the permanent remote-work policy. Can employees work where they feel most creative and productive, even if it means working from home, permanently?
Early May, Twitter staff received an email, notifying them that they will be able to continue working from home as long as they see fit. The CEO noted that Twitter was an early adopter of a work-from-home model, though — like much of the rest of the world — that push has been accelerated by COVID-19 stay at home orders.
As Uganda plans to re-open up, this is the time to reconsider the feasibility of such work policies, especially for corporate companies.
The author is Ugandan investigative journalist with NBS TV, radio show host and a Léo Africa Young Emerging Leaders Program Fellow.
cmugume01@gmail.com
