Why are employees reluctant to work from office?

 Now that we have bid adieu to Covid and offices want their employees to work from the office rather than from the comforts of their home. And this has led to a tussle as employees are reluctant to work from the office. When forced to return to office, employees tendered their resignation which shocked the companies.

Now let’s see the reasons WHY employees don’t want to work from office

Rental issues

During covid times To - let boards were very common and landlords incurred huge loss as tenants were leaving the city. Now when companies have forced employee to come to work, landlords have raised the rentals to cover up for the loss incurred during the pandemic. Employees are unable to find decent accommodation at an affordable price.

Work life balance

While working from home, people were saving a lot of time commuting, especially in a city like Bangalore, which got global attention for its traffic situation. Employees are away from home for 10 -12 hours daily, 2 -3 hours of it is in traffic. While working from home employees can spend those hours with their family members. Because family is always there to support them whether they are with a job or laid off.

Managing household chores

While working from the office, employees used to get only weekends to take care of the issues at home like grocery, technician, and visiting shops before making purchases. By the time these activities were done, their weekend was over.

While working from home employees can handle these things along with work. Like Groceries can be bought during weekdays after office hours, technicians can visit house any day of the week. Such practices gave employees ample amount of time for their weekend to go out on weekend getaways with family.

Healthy lifestyle

Covid taught us to lead a healthy lifestyle as well as to boost our immune system. While working from home people had a lot of time so they utilized it by taking care of their health.

When I was in Kerala, I used to walk daily for over an hour, which boosted my body's metabolism rate too. As I was sweating profusely.

In the work from office scenario people will be back to square one when they will have no time to take care of their health.

Betta fish / Fighter fish as pet at home

 

I always wanted to keep a pet at home but keeping at home is a big responsibility. Especially when you are out of town, who will take care of your pet. Some cities have pet shelter homes but not all cities have this privilege. So, I evaded pets at home.

One of my friend suggested that I keep an aquarium at home and I said setting up is not easy as it consumes a lot of space, hence I disapproved it. I wanted a low maintenance pet.

One day I was at an aquarium shop. I saw fish in a glass bowl and I was attracted to it. I enquired about it from the shopkeeper, he told me about the fish and its upkeep.  I was like, this is what I wanted. I immediately bought that fish and kept it at my Kerala home. Daily I used to feed it food and change water when required and over a period of time, it became a part of life. 

When I was about to shift to Bangalore, I wanted to take the fish with me but it was not possible so I left it there and gave its responsibility to my mom. Now my mom has become fond of it. 

Here in Bangalore, I was missing something at home and I didn’t know what it was. One day when I was at a friend's house, I saw her aquarium and then it struck me that I was missing my fighter fish at Bangalore.   

The day I was back to my house from her home, I bought a fighter fish. Though it was a small thing, it made me happy. Everyday morning after I get up the first thing, I do is to feed my fish. 

Initially the fish was less active but now it is active. The moment I see my fish lying stale in the bowl, I skip a heartbeat. Evening also the first thing I do after going home is check on the fish, touch the glass and the fish will start playing around. That makes me happy. 

Sometimes when I am alone at home, I even talk to the fish, I know it doesn’t understand anything but still I do that.  Sounds crazy but it’s funny.

 One more thing that I have noticed is that, the aura of my house has changed from the moment I got fish to my home. There is lot of positivity in my house now, which I enjoy. Most important thing is, with the fish around me, I feel more happy now.

This fish is my responsibility and I want to take good care of it as long as it is with me. So, I have made arrangements that the fish is fed even when I am away from town for a day or two. 

Fighter fish is a low maintenance fish, anyone can easily keep it at home, if you can’t afford an aquarium. There is not harm in trying it out, I bet you will love it. 

Journey from a colleague to BFF during lockdown

 

I don’t think the lockdown of 2020, would be something that people will easily forget. It was the first time, when people were forced to stay home and spend more time indoors than outdoors. This gave many people an opportunity to re-connect with their family members and friends. I too connected with couple of my school friends during last year’s lockdown. My takeaway against all the hardships I faced during the lockdown was, I found a BFF.

I had known Ms A (let’s keep it that way), for couple years as we were colleagues at work place. During that time our interaction was limited as, we were in different teams and we had a lot on our table to finish for the day too. I left the organization an year after Ms A joined but we were in touch through messages and WhatsApp occasionally.

But during last year’s lockdown, Ms A, called me one evening. After enquiring about my well-being, she told something to me, which she wanted to tell me for a long time but something, stopped her from conveying it to me. Her revelation shocked me a bit as I was already aware about few things. But what surprised me was that, she really cared for me and I didn’t know about it. We both realized that, we wasted few years in opening up with each other, for the fears best known to each other. My suggestion to all my readers is, please talk openly about things with people who matter to you, otherwise you may also loose time like me and my BFF.

I must say that evening was all about surprises for me, I asked Ms A, what made her call me? She said, “’my husband told me talk to my friends, I will feel better’. The only person whom, she could think about at that moment was me, let me tell you, till the moment she called me, we just colleagues, not friends.

We spoke for close to two hours that evening, as we had a lot to discuss, which we missed during the years. Once we disconnected the call, I was wondering, WHY WE DIDN’T CONNECT BEFORE? But I made a promise to myself that, I will meet Ms A, once the situation normalizes.  When I was glued in those thoughts, I received a WhatsApp notification, it was from Ms A, where she stated, she had great time talking to me and will connect again when time permits. I replied her back with a smiley.

After that day, whenever time permitted, we would talk to each other, at least for an hour. Since Ms A is quite busy in her personal life and rarely find time to talk to me, I too made an exception for her. If I talking to someone and Ms A’s, call is in call waiting mode, I will pick Ms A’s call on priority. I think we can make such changes for people based on their situations at times.  

Last week Ms A called me, but this call jolted me completely as she made some shocking revelations. Though the call started on a jovial mode as usual but ended on a serious note. We all know pandemic has been hard on people especially for nuclear families. Value of family support was one of the best lessons taught through lockdown, when people were cut off the world for days together.

Ms A has decided to shift to her hometown from Bangalore, I remember she once discussed this idea with me but she was not quite sure about it. Before moving out of city, she wanted to meet all her friends in the city. But the stringent lockdown in Bangalore has poured water to all her plans as social get together’s are banned in the city, in wake of acute covid situation.

Even if the relaxations are eased, yet she can’t meet anyone, as she is leaving at city at the earliest. The moment I heard this news, I regretted not being able to meet her when situations were better in the city. Even if the situation improves, we will still not be able to meet each other because currently we are in two different cities. I am in Kerala and she is in Bangalore.

Ms A, told me that she might come back to Bangalore, when situation improves and then she will plan for a get together with all her Bangalore based friends, till then it’s a good bye from her. All this while I was hopeful of catching up with Ms A, sometime as she was in the city but now, I don’t know. That’s the reason, people say we should not take things for granted.

I just hope one day, we will meet in person and talk a lot, as we have many similar interest, one among them is we both are passionate about writing. Till then me and Ms A will be connected through phone calls only.  Even now, I am yet come to terms to the fact that Ms A, is leaving the city, I think that’s the bond between BFFs.  If, I can be grateful for the one thing about lockdown then it has to be, Ms A. But I so wish, I could meet her once before she left the city, an expectation far from reality.

My first mandatory quarantine in Kerala

 

I wanted to visited Kerala and be with my parents for a long time but 7 days of mandatory quarantine, forced me to stay back in Bangalore. I was under the assumption, that one day quarantine norm will be quashed and I will travel. Other reason for me to dodge quarantine was, I am claustrophobic and I wasn’t sure, if I will be able to survive for 7 days in a closed room, all by myself.

Later I realized that this quarantine norm is going off anytime soon, so I decided to visit my parents after a year (longest so far). For quarantine, I zeroed upon my aunt’s house, where my cousin sister had successfully completed her quarantine period.

I landed up at my aunt’s place by evening 6 pm and directly went to the room allotted to me, followed by a quick shower. Since, I was too tired due to exhaustive journey, I took rest for some time and for the l dinner to be served and immediately dozed off to bed.

Next day, my aunt said, full first floor is for you, so you can go to other rooms also, instead of being confined to one room itself. It gave me a fresh breeze of life as I could freely roam to other rooms of the floor without any fear. This made my life little pleasant full as being confined to a room was too monotonous.

I had planned lot of activities for those 7 days of quarantine but nothing materialized. As most of the time my ears were glued to the staircase, as my aunt would get me sometime things to eat at regular interval. Any sound on the staircase was an indication that someone is coming up. Usually I don’t feel that hungry but during those 7 days, I was starving most of the time, hence ate a lot and piled up some weight too.

My only way to communicate with the members of the house was through a glass panel. It was little difficult but good for the current situation. My dad was enjoying this scenario a lot. Couple of time, I felt like a new creature in zoo and people are visiting the place, to get a glimpse of me. But I was happy, in that situation too, as I was in the company of my loved ones.

First two days of quarantine were spend in taking rest as I was too tired due to hectic travel and my right feet was aching too. Since it was travel related ache, I decided to stay away from medicines and applied ice pack at the effect area, it severed the purpose for me.

I was very particular about few things during my quarantine period, first was to meditate daily, drink lukewarm water, eat healthy food at regular interval and take lukewarm water shower. Lukewarm shower because water is little cold in Kerala as they are pumped from well directly and people who are not used to this water, will get cold immediately. And I wanted to avoid falling sick especially during the quarantine period.

My friends and family members would call me frequently to keep a tab on me, so I was usually engaged with someone over call. Evening from 5pm – 7pm, I would at the balcony to get some fresh air and could see people walking down the road along with some vehicular movement. This was my, “me time” when, I didn’t want to take phone calls but enjoy the beauty of nature, as balcony would open to rubber plantation.

Despite all these activities, I felt lonely at times, then I would watch some movie or web series in my laptop. Based on my personal experience, I can say that it’s better to be quarantined with someone. Because sometimes your energy level goes down, there will be someone who will understand your situation better than others. Basic reason for energy level to go down was about the probable outcome of covid test, that people have to take after their quarantine period. This happens usually when are approaching towards the end of your quarantine period.

To sum up I can say that, quarantine period is like spending quality time at a resort where food and all basic amenities will be taken care for you but a visit to the pool or other places are barred.  In totality, I can say that my quarantine period was not that bad as I expected it to be, still I don’t to experience it again unless I have a quarantine partner.

Power of Unity! Thanks to Bangalore Mirror

A month ago Bangalore Mirror, local daily in Bangalore, launched a campaign for the citizen and the betterment of Bangalore. Bangalore known as the silicon valley of India, was struggling with potholes in different parts of the city. It has become a nuisance for the people to commute from one place to another.

Bangalore Mirror covered this story and requested people to participate in the campaign. Participation was simple, people had to take photo the pothole close to their locality and it to Bangalore Mirror. All photographs were send to an email id created exclusively for this purpose. The response was overwhelming, daily a page was contributed for this section, which contained photograph of pothole along with the locality. Sender name was kept confidential. 

Slowly authorities started reacting to it and potholes in key areas of Bangalore were filled with immediate effect with the assurance that other areas will be covered soon. My locality had close to 6 potholes and one among them was pretty big. With bike one can manage them but cars were a real terror. Due to potholes people stopped commuting by cars and resorted to bikes. But there were few people who used cars and paid for the potholes from their pocket. Bangalore Mirror covered such incident as well apart from images of potholes.

 Today morning was a pleasant delight for me, I saw all the potholes of my locality being filled and roads being tarred, making it convenient for commuters. We wouldn’t have seen this change if Bangalore Mirror had not taken this initiative and urged citizens to participate to betterment of the society and themselves.

Would like to applaud the initiative take by Bangalore Mirror, to make Bangalore roads pothole free. And their constant effort to keep the fire burning. Many times it has happened that people start up a thing but leave it midway when they don’t see any response from it, at the time stipulated by them. They forget the fact constant effort always yield result but one has to wait for it and should have faith in oneself. 

This win had reassured our belief in the power of unity, had citizens not participated in this campaign whole heartedly, results wouldn’t have been evident so soon. Together we can always make a difference but need a reason and constant support to stand for it.

Looking forward to see more examples of “Power of Unity”

Wanted the same auto driver for my next ride

Auto ride in Bangalore is pretty expensive and often lead to verbal brats. Hence people try to avoid it as much as possible. But it doesn’t mean people don’t use autos to commute, they do it since they don’t have many choices in hand. 

Biggest problem with auto drivers here is that very rarely they will go by meter. In case the distance is short they won’t go or charge Rs 50/ whereas the minimum is Rs 25/. When you get out of auto, change is something they will never have, we end up paying more than the actual meter reading. Some auto drivers drive auto very rashly as they need to find another customer, such drives can lead to accidents at times.

Last week me and 2 of my colleagues we boarded an auto from Lavelle road to Lifestyle close to garuda mall. 2 auto guys declined to take us as the distance was short, then 3rd auto agreed to take us on meter, we were happy and got inside. At a signal where other auto drivers would have taken a quick turn, he waited for the signal to green and then proceed further. We were impressed by it and a feeling of safety engulfed us.

Soon one of my colleague pointed out that the auto driver is handicapped and praised his effort in driving the auto cautiously.We reached our destination, meter reading was 33 bugs, we handed over 50 bugs to him. To our surprise he handed us back 20 bugs, I bet nobody will ever come across such situations in Bangalore. Very rarely you will find auto divers like this man. 

We didn’t wanted to wave off 3 bugs, so we checked our bags to give him the change, we found it and gave it to him. We just wished one thing that whenever we hire auto next time, we should get an auto driver like this man, so that we have a peaceful mind post the ride.

Gifts from my secret Santa

Most organizations secret santa during Christmas, where in every employee of the organization will get a chit, which will contain his / her secret santa. They need to get a gift for that person during the duration of the game. The gift needs to be placed secretly, so that nobody finds it out, till the finale date.

In Summit office also we played this game of secret santa, 1^st day I got a key chain with a chocolate in the first half of the day, during the second half I got an idol of ganesh ji. People in office were like, lucky guy got 2 gifts on the same day. Even I was wondering who the person was. I knew one thing for sure, that this person knows me well.

I started looking out for my secret santa and the first clue was in the gift wrap, that person’s handwriting. Handwriting was good and the ink used was black, then what, I did a surprise visits to all the desk to check the handwriting and the ink. 5 people were shortlisted but it was difficult to pin point, so waited for the second gift to come.

2^nd gift was a chocolate and a lip balm, in whole office there was only I person who knew that I use lip balm and the brand preferred by me. I started checking his office notebook to verify my doubt, my doubt was kind of confirmed by now but still wanted to take a chance.

3^rd gift told the story it was he only, I got a pen and a thump ring. I don’t like pens with rubber grip, he was the only person who knew about it because I had spent one full day in getting a pen without rubber grip and had told him about it. The pen was without rubber grip.

I was happy that my secret was one of my colleague with whom I spent most of my time in office and we share the same cubicle as well. Before identifying his identity I used to discuss with him my doubts about my secret santa. He used to change his strategy accordingly in terms of placing the gift timings. He knew I have full doubt on him.

But his 4^th gift was beyond my imagination, it was a customized coffee mug. He took picture from my facebook account, selected some best, my family. That mug had pics of my full family, my parent and my wife. All office pals liked the gift and said this person knows you very well and has put in effort and time in gifting it to you.

My secret santa was Anirban, I will call it sheer luck that he got my name.

Corporate Social Responsibility from Summit HR

Every individual has his/her responsibility towards the society where they live. Most of us keep cribbing about the wrong practices followed by the members of the society but only few have the courage to take corrective measure because it takes lot of courage and patience.

Many MNC today are actively promoting CSR in their campuses and encourage their employees to participate in it actively. Nobody is forced for such activities people do it voluntarily. CSR activities could be visiting old age homes, no plastic day, using public transport to commute to work on a particular day, marathons to name a few.

My office Summit HR took us to a school for giving a session on importance of Hygiene in an individual’s life.  Session was for students of class IV & V. When we were heading towards the class for the session, students started greeting us with “Good afternoon sir”. It was a pleasant experience for us.

Students were highly enthusiastic about the session as they has 3 new faces (myself, Badri & Nikhil) apart from their regular instructor. Students wanted us to introduce our self before starting the session and requested our active participation in it. We obliged to it. We wanted students to speak more and share their views on this topic rather than us making the first move. 

Students were brilliant and responded very well to the topics covered in the session. As part of the program, students were divided into groups and asked to enact a skit on any one of the topics covered during the session. Within a span of 3 min, students were ready with the skit and performed on themes beyond our imagination. 

Then came the most exciting part of the session a game about which me and badri had no clue but Nikhil was aware about it. Students wanted us also to be a part of the game, we participated in it actively. This game took us to our school days. Finally it was time to say bye to kids, they has requested us to visit them for the next session, we will try our level best for it.

It was a mind refreshing session for all of us. We laughed to the fullest keeping all tensions at bay. For some moments we became kids with the students. 

Would like to thank Dream a Dream and Nikhil for organizing the session for us and hope it continues near future as well.

Small act of bravery by Madhuri

We recognize people for their good deeds but very rarely try to do things by ourselves. Anyone can do it,  if we stop thinking about “what people will think about us”? We should listen to ourselves and do the right things at the right time than waiting for others to take the first step.

A real life incident from Madhuri from our office

Bangalore metro has been introduced only in some areas, some use it for daily commute while other use it for firsthand experience.  One of my office colleague(Madhuri) decided to try metro for coming to office for a change. During lunch break she told, “I cleaned Metro train today”. Our expression- What? Because Metro is well maintained, then she narrated the story.

She got into Metro from her station, next station some first timers including kids got into Metro and started talking loudly, disturbing the peaceful environment inside the train. Everybody was quite, soon kids started hanging on the support rod of the train, people accompanying them were least bothered by these ruckus. 

Commuters were annoyed but no one was willing to take the first step to stop them from creating nuisance in public transport. Suddenly someone from the crowd spit at the doors of the train. He was chewing pan, white colored door had red patches on either sides.

Everybody was quiet, this was the time when Madhuri took a tissue from her bag and started cleaning one of doors of the train. People were looking at the brave act undertaken by her. Soon one girl came to Madhuri and asked if she has more tissues, Madhuri gave that girl some tissues and together they removed the red patch from the door.

Entire gang of people, who did it, had suddenly become quiet. Kids took their place, no loud voices nothing. Peaceful environment of the train was restored by a small act from Madhuri.  I feel everybody would have appreciated Madhuri for her act, but nobody came forward to do it.

But we appreciate her act, I asked why did you do it? Her reply was I couldn’t see Metro train dirty.

Disastrous drive out of Forum parking lot

Forum is one of the most popular mall in Bangalore, since it was the first mall. Anytime you visit forum it is thronged with people. On weekends people struggle to locate a place to park their car or bike. Weekdays are much better.

Forum has mutillevel parking and it is pretty difficult for new driver to park their car in there. 26^th January, me, my wife and my brother-in-law(brother) decided to visit forum. Brother loves forum than any other mall, since he get good deal on CDs and DVDs at crossword there.

A signal before brother asked me will I be able to park the car in forum or needed his help. I asked him to park the car for me. We changed seats and brother drove us to parking. On reaching the mall we dispersed our selves. My and wife went to the food court their while brother went to look out for CDs. 

After spending close 2 hours we decided to head back home since we had to go for work the next day. Brother asked  me take the car out, I told it would be better, if he could do it. But he wanted me to learn it so I took control on driver’s seat.  Exit had slope like structure, with great difficulty I took the car to mid way and stopped for the other car to pass by.

This time when I tried to move the car in upward direction it started going down, I had no idea about what was happening? I tried one more time again the car started going back. Luckily the driver in the car behind us didn’t move his car up, I guess he has seen the L board in the car. Suddenly people gathered around the car offering help to drive it up.

Me and wife were too scared but brother was cool. With option in hand I asked brother to take the car out. I didn’t drive car back home asked brother to do it since the trauma of the incident was haunting me.

Just imagine if the car behind us has placed it just behind us some very big could have happened but his presence of mind saved the situation.   

Why is government against” Slutwalk” in India?

People always speak about women empowerment, liberation and things which could help them to grow in the society. But when time come for them to support women for things relating to women empowerment, these people they step back.  Forcing women to fight their battle all by themselves. 

Slutwalk is one such raging issue, where government and administration is backing women for raising protest against atrocities done to them. Slutwalk was suppose to be held in Bangalore recently, organizers had taken permission from the administration to support them for it.  Administration agreed to provide full support to them but on the day of the venue they not only backed out, even forced the organizers to stop it as well.

Abiding by the verdict of organizers cancelled the event, but just to inform people, who would gather at the venue they decided to come to the venue. Cops their manhandled them badly and were arrested despite making their point before the senior officials, nobody paid heed to their words. This has now led to great hue and cry among the citizens.

Its not the first time Slutwalk was being organized in India, in past also such events have been conducted. That time nobody raise their voice now administration is raising voice. I don’t think it is right in any way to discourage people who want raise issues concerning them in peaceful manner to be hammered by the administration using violence.

Society is against such marches saying that it doesn’t go with Indian culture as it portrays women in indecent manner. Just want to know, what the society has done to people who did forcefully stripped women in full public galore. There are so many such examples from about which society and administration is still silent. Wasn’t the dignity of women at stake then?

If it was accepted, then people keep mum about Slutwalk and watch it as mute spectators, which they are used about.