CHENNAI: For four weeks now, the COVID-19 scare has sent us retreating to our holes and rationing our stores. While we took our time waking up to the seriousness of the pandemic, the decision to move to a work-fromhome system came quickly thereafter in almost every sector. A fortnight in, this has had mixed responses from the employees themselves — some making the best use of it and revelling in indoor comforts and others growing restless and doing all they can to not break the curfew.
Yet, the decision has done wonders to the environment — even within this very short period. With the humans staying home, animals and birds seem to have come reclaimed the public space. In Chennai, human footprints at the beach have been replaced by the three-pronged claw-prints of seagulls and other birds that had otherwise been in hiding. “India has been under quarantine only for the last three weeks or so. While there have been no immediate visible changes in my surroundings, the magpie and robin calls have grown louder, not having to compete with human pollution,” says Yuvan, a naturalist. Pollution levels around the world have been on a steady decline ever since the quarantine; Delhi and Chennai have witnessed the change too.
The air quality monitors installed by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) at Velachery — one known to record some of the city’s highest air pollution levels — indicated a significant drop in AQI (air quality index that measures particulate matter) from 150 to a mere 31 last week. Vikas, a naturalist, points out that carbon emissions from the number of vehicles that usually fill the roads have plummeted. As of Friday evening, Chennai recorded an AQI of 78 (indicating moderate level of pollution), while the ideal is 0-50.
A practical routine
How much does the work-from-home system contribute to this change, you wonder? Quite a bit, it turns out; especially, when you take into account the city’s IT corridor that has given up the busy confines of OMR and gone home. The burgeoning sector and its demands on our resources has become so matter-of-fact that we map out traffic systems based on the timings of its workforce. When all this population is asked to sit home, it is only natural that the pollution levels drop. While the sector was the first to embrace the work-from-home routine in the face of the pandemic, it is certainly not something its unfamiliar with. Neelima Ghani, a master programme manager in a (multinational) software company, says, “We work with teams that are not co-located. We even have team members in different geographies.
To that extent, we were already networking across screens. Everyday, our team in office has an update meeting. Normally, we do it face-to-face but now we do it over the phone. We have set up a channel on the app called Slack, where employees can have their grievances addressed.” The system is absolutely fine for IT and related services, seconds Pradeep Parthsarathy, manager at WIPRO. “Except for the projects related to banking, healthcare research companies and the like, other industries are fine. The former have sensitive/ confidential data for which employees cannot be given remote access from home. In these cases, 30 per cent of the workforce can work from home,” he explains.
Being in sync
So far, things have been running pretty smoothly, it seems. Sheetal, a software engineer at Tidal Park, finds there is plenty to gain from this system. “During this quarantine, I have realised that I can get more work done from home. One email communicates everything that is generally said in a meeting and with platforms like Zoom and Skype, we have been in sync with all teams. Some of us with children may find it a little difficult to dedicate the same amount of time as they did in office, but it’s only a matter of scheduling now. If this gives us a second chance with nature, I wouldn’t mind working from home. It’s a good way to balance personal and professional life because everything is in one place,” she opines. The system is not without its woes.
Talking about the hiccups, Neelima says, “The only major problem we are facing is network connectivity; as everyone is working from home, net-work speed is slow. If that problem is solved, we can even consider regularising it. Although, from a managers point of view, face-to-face communication always helps with team spirit. It gives a personal touch.” Picking a similar concern, Pradeep says that too much time away from the office might disrupt the huge amount of teamwork that is necessary to pull off any project. “Any project that is being developed or implemented would involve a lot of interaction between the teams.
Say, three days a week of work-from-home, in future, may not be a good idea. However, up to four days a month of this alternative will certainly work,” he speculates, voicing out his thoughts about sustaining this work culture post-pandemic. Talking about the bigger picture, Niraj Bhatt, analyst at Citizens Consumer and Civic Action Group, points out that cities with power plants still register high levels of sulphur in the air and, therefore, air pollution; due to the coal they burn. Yet, there is no denying the contribution of the workfrom- home system.
“There has been a significant reduction in vehicular emissions during the quarantine. The emissions cause many environmental hazards and the lockdown has been beneficial in avoiding them. If work from home becomes a practice, we may have some hope of breathing cleaner air,” he remarks. (With inputs from Kannalmozhi Kabilan)