Will we get back to Normal??

February 22, 2021

Will we get back to Normal??

In early 2001 I was on my first visit to USA and it was a roller coaster ride I share to provide the foundation to this subject.

Landing in New York, the flight delayed I literally, I mean literally ran through the airport - unchallenged. Needing to board a bus, by force of habit went to the “wrong” side and sprinted back amidst traffic to get in, as driver shook his head in amusement and cop wagged his finger like to an errant child.

Wanting to see Washington in a day, started off by taking the wrong exit and landed up at the Pentagon and sent back with a smile. Finding no parking, found an empty place, decided to park anyway but asked a dignified gentleman also parking his car if it were OK only to be told that we had parked in the Senators parking area but being a holiday, the cops would maybe be nice to me. Later driving in slow moving traffic, jumped off, stood in front of the White House grill, got someone to click a quick picture and jumped back into the car. Later in the evening hopelessly lost and late arrived at Dulles airport with not even 45 mins left to board. Ran, jumped, helped by others entered the aircraft breathless as the air hostess smilingly teased – I can now close the door. Today I would have likely been shot at every stage.

Right through the trip I was stuck by the vast spaces, walked all over the place in airports admiring the beauty, the newness. A different life but at every place a trust that nobody seemed to break. You drove by a toll road throwing in a bunch of loose change, not duds.

A few months later 9/11 happened and life changed – horribly. One wondered whether life would ever be normal. On my next visit, half of Frankfurt airport was shut off from aimless walking, Chicago was like being confined in a jail. Just standing on the road waiting for a friend to pick me up invited an angry reprimand from a cop driving by who turned around and came by to investigate and warn me.

The security, the reporting time, the curtailed freedom and many more changed but soon we adjusted to the new normal. People went back to being friendly, helpful, and as they famously say in India – Please adjust – we adjusted.

Back home in India, 2008, 26/11 happened and soon after life again changed. We could no longer walk into hotels or shopping malls, even shopping areas like before. We were frisked, X-rayed, saw many a security chaps walking around. Many felt claustrophobic and fearful to take rooms that were at the end of the corridor, in top floors etc. But soon we again got normalised and walked through metal detectors with nonchalance, threw our bags into the X ray machine and once again like before life said – Please adjust – we adjusted.

2020 brought in a change – COVID - that affected the entire globe, every human and this time the scary part was that we could not see the “enemy” and there was nobody who could protect the world. For all we knew we were an enemy for our parents, children, family and this feeling was horrible. If anybody died, we felt that WE had killed them, never mind that legally it was not murder but we felt that way.

We were prisoners in our homes, shunned family, friends and were in turn shunned by others. If we heard somebody was sick, or died we no longer rushed to be with them, help them, hold them. Instead, we left them to manage things alone. Cities looked dead.

Organisations like always were told – Please adjust – and everybody adjusted. Soon, organisations sensed profits, money, in the situation. They cut back on costs, started making plans for a new life post COVID. The work from home they said would become the norm, the home could be anywhere in the world they said – even a deserted island in the sea as long as you had internet and Amazon to deliver stuff. Advertisements spoke of how without getting up from your bed or chair you could do anything.

But humans are social animals. Be it hunger, thirst, sex or whatever else humans want and need companionship. The work from home is a novelty only for a while. It is a decision pushed down by many managements initially by default and later by design seeking to make a quick profit and bonus. The prominent media, especially business media right through this period has excessively focussed on how the CEO, the top management, the rich and famous are spending their life at home, in lock down, working from home. I have wondered for long at the huge disconnect those running these stories have.

If in one story, a film star grins like an ape at us as he horses around with his grandson in his private gym at home, other top company CEO’s talk of beach views, garden views, private dens and the media tells us that this is how we handle work from home. They think they are encouraging the masses to accept this life, see the joy in it.

Sorry, 99.9% of those working from home are juggling kitchen, bedroom, single internet connection, fighting for a laptop etc. A humungous number of children are playing on the streets for a year now because they do not even have a mobile smart phone let alone laptop and forget internet to attend online classes. They are losing education, mid-day meals, development and much more. No human can survive this beyond a point

Parents focussed on work earlier because children had schools, colleges, offices had canteens and food courts and today they must juggle everything within 2 rooms. The mental and psychological impact of this was obvious and coming but, in the excitement, and novelty of the freedom many had this was ignored. Also, there was this fallacy that people living in USA, UK, Europe, developed economies would not have such issues and at best the so-called 3rd world citizens would face this. Further with arguments on commute time, saving cost, being with family kind of arguments especially for the 3rd world countries the opinion was that even they would not face such challenges. Again, a fallacy.

If one sees the resistance to lockdowns in almost all countries, barring mortal fear everybody has been flouting it. Those in fear are feeling the pressure now. While no statistics exist, as of now, I am confident that mental health challenges are increasing, having effects especially on younger children which we have not been able to fathom. It is having effects on adults which is yet to be visibly seen and acknowledged. Those with a strong family and friend network are managing this situation better.

In short for those who ask – will life get back to what it was before, will we prefer office and not work from home, will we see reduction in office space, less travel and more online time etc, the answer is YES, but only till business leadership across the globe gets the rude jolt that awaits them, and stop all those plans they have been making of a new working culture. By then many a life would have been lost.

Doctorates have been earned researching body language, eye contact, etc, their importance and suddenly all that cannot become a false notion. Humans cannot concentrate with their ears for hours through the day, they can get disoriented. A debate, discussion, cannot be held online beyond a point and issues will not get solved. The attention span when sitting across the table between 2 people can be for a whole day but on a call cannot last beyond a couple of hours at best and still achieve less. What would take minutes to understand in person often takes much longer and still leave misunderstandings online. That productivity has gone up is a fallacy. Given the emergency people performed but life cannot be an emergency for life. It just needs one person to punch the laptop screen in anger, throw the smart phone and like a hungry tiger everybody will walk out and go sit in offices, malls, cinema’s, restaurants etc. Life will get back to what it was before, albeit with some changes, and the current WFH and online meetings will soon go away.

Humans need other humans so much that this isolation cannot and will not work. Delay in returning to earlier times will be more in advanced nations and large organisations even in in India more due to the inability of the top management to accept reality. Home grown companies and smaller enterprises have already returned to normal. India is almost back to normal and only some large organisations are still tip toeing around the issue.

While it is difficult to predict when we will hear the words – Please adjust and we adjust, one thing I am willing to predict with confidence is that we will have a kinder, gentler, caring world. People will realise the importance of freedom, human contact, trust. World over people will start understanding others better and be more accommodative with their global fellow citizens. People will realise that having a friend, family is more important than anything else. The work life balance will take on a whole new meaning and bring change.

I see no reason to panic or worry about the current situation. This uncertainty will last till end 2021/ early 2022 more in the advanced economies by which time others like India, Bangladesh, Vietnam would have started running. This is not about naïve optimism but the simple fact that humans cannot live in isolation, and societies cannot progress. One visit to any market or public area in India is testimony to this.