New Office Norms

Seeing your office may make you feel like Thanos has returned. Post lockdown, when you finally go to your office, you may have your doubts if the office has relocated or if Thanos is back with his snap.

This is because your typical work day will either be WFH, in which case you’ll not have to come to office, or physically going to office.

When you physically go to office, you may need to collect sanitizers and desk mats from the reception before proceeding to your desk, where you’ll spend the rest of the day. The office seems unusually clean. There is a circle on the floor, inside which your chair is located. The desk is there as usual.

Nothing new, right? Except there is something new! You will attend meetings from your desk even if you and your boss sit in the same office. Online meetings!

Your co-worker, who sits next to you, will instead be seated at a safe distance. At the middle of your desk is a glass frame seperating you and the co-worker who sits opposite you.

As you look around, you realize the absence of many of your co-workers. Turns out they’re WFH.

When you go to the bathroom, you may need to stand in marked circles to practice social distancing. You have to wash your hands and then touch the door handle.

Lunchtime! What’s cooking in the canteen? No, you are recommended to bring your own lunch rather than depend on canteen food.

You notice that people are required to follow social distancing even in the elevator, when you’re going to get some coffee.

When it’s five in the evening, it’s time to go home, as opposes to six or seven as it might have been earlier. As you pack your stuff, your employer emails you saying that it is your turn to work from home the next day or the next week.

You realize that your company has realized that work-from-home is actually a viable option. The email reminds you that “safety and productivity shouldn’t be compromised, so we are working in shifts.”

As you wear your mask and come outside, you notice other people going home. Hopefully congestion would’ve come down, thus reducing pollution and crowds.

Comment your opinion.