Q3. Very often, one hears that life just got a lot more busier, but not necessarily more productive. Is this true? What are your thoughts around this? Are you getting more work done since travel time is virtually zero? Has your work productivity gone up a few notches in these two months?

The biggest downside emerging from the lockdown is the hectic work lives being led by all participants regardless of whether they work for MNCs or Indian organizations. This has raised serious questions on potential “burn out” and requires remedial measures to be put in place on a war footing. This is food for thought and a High Action Area for the HR folks.

• All participants report a work day spanning 10-12 hours on an average. Typically their day starts around 8:00 am and ends by 10:00 pm. This was unheard of in pre-Covid times as there was a clear physical distinction between office time and home time. Also, the work pressures did exist even then, but now it seems to have gone up manifold due to blurring of home and office space. There is no such thing anymore of work-home life balance.
• 90% of work comprises of routine work which is
  • Product Trainings / Briefings
  • Brand Performance Reviews at Zone, Region and HQ level (people were left wondering as to what the sales function would then do!)
  • Doctor Webinars for respective brands (a major killer)
• All participants felt that this never ending work cycle has resulted in extreme levels of exhaustion / fatigue to the point of burn-out. Their managers seem to be as clueless on how to manage the workload since they too are grappling with the same situation themselves. So it is a snow-balling effect which shows no signs of abating. What’s worse is that no one in HR or Corporate HO is making attempts to address this critical issue.
• The issue of productivity is striking. Almost all participants felt that considerable work is getting done. But this is by “being busy” and not necessarily by “being productive”. A serious observation made by some was that their line managers keep insisting on work updates every hour ! This probably stems from the culture of being supervised (read policed) closely in an office environment which has now been dismantled in lockdown. The colleagues felt let down and do mention that there is apparent “trust-deficit” between them and their line manager.
• Another important issue of Work Productivity is Work Load. In many cases, people felt that the work being asked from them at times is nothing more than a mere administrative task and even felt that this was a tactic being employed by the manager to keep them busy. So Parkinson’s Law of “Work expands to fill time” is in effect here.