BENGALURU: Last month, Google’s chief business officer Phillip Schindler was explaining to his employees via videoconferencing why Silicon Valley-based start-up Zoom has edged out some of the biggest names in technology, when suddenly his son surfaced on the camera and asked if his father was using Zoom. The incident was similar to last year’s BBC TV broadcast. An academician was on air when his children venture into the room while their helpless mother tried to make it look like no big deal.
In Covid-19 times, these scenes are the new normal; the world is adapting to the remote working environment. From corporate honchos to artists, Covid or no Covid, the work shouldn’t stop and it hasn’t.
Bengaluru-based artist Danish Sait, for instance, has put the quarantine time to right use by using a mix of social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram to publish funny content on the new life patterns, grabbing millions of likes.
Even for formal set-ups, such as IT industry where 90 per cent of employee base is already working from home, the adaptation to work from home has not been a daunting task. Tata Consultancy Services, which has over 70 per cent of employees working from home, recently started a Twitter poll asking people to post pictures of their work from home environment. A lot of companies have outlined their focus on carrying on with the remote working environment even post Covid, while leveraging the videoconferencing, chatbot and other tech solution tools to navigate the new normal.
So, while people are juggling between their work and household chores, dressing up does play an important role even as the internet is flooded with pictures of CEOs, employees donning sharp corporate look from waist upwards.
“In testing times like these when we aren’t in our respective offices and not having in-person meetings, it can be quite daunting and one can easily slip into a lackadaisical attitude. This is reflective in not just how we think of ourselves but also engage with others. The effort we make to dress up gears us up to be in a spirited mood,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO, GreyHound Research.