Corona Virus (COVID-19) Threat
Corona is no longer a Swedish beer or a product variant of Toyota. It is a virus which causes fever, flu and cough like symptoms and is highly contagious. The number of deaths has scared all the world. More than a dozen countries are under lockdown and smaller economies are dwindling. It is a time where we need not to panic but stay alert, self-isolated and above all clean.
This might be a gradual shift towards living a life that we had given up on over the years. People have become more social yet uninformed, more vocal yet inactive and above all doing things just to stay relevant rather than effective. Digital age has changed our lifestyles but somehow instead of making us more productive it has made us more lazy. We entered into digital age a little unprepared, or perhaps this is time for which the new media of communication could come in handy. People in 20th century could remember and find old documents from their own memory whereas an hour old e-mail is requested to be resent by people in offices these days. All of it was awaiting a scare to wake people up and be more productive with what is available to mankind in order to get rid of things and DISEASES that are threat to humanity itself.
Public and large corporations have a role to play in order to get over the Corona scare. Scare can be taken care off by public but for this not to get more scary it is the employers who have to play their part. It is time we let go our corporate pride and learn to look beyond greed. Employees working in sales, front-end marketing, supply chain and hospitality services are most vulnerable. They cannot stay unprotected and need to be taken care of. When given a choice people think of families and risk their lives to earn bread for them. It is time that such companies whose employees are in direct public exposure should try finding ways to mitigate risk of any exposure to COVID-19.
Companies should learn to trust their employees and encourage work from home. This is the time for which mankind’s advancement in technological innovation is to make real difference, so please be that difference. It is time we realize to delegate and empower. Corporations are worried that such measures may hamper employee productivity and more importantly the numbers will go down. My take on the issue is that if you guys don’t act timely the whole company might come down crashing.
Unproductive ideas like forced mandatory leaves (not bad but definitely discouraging for employees) will only strengthen the belief that employee doesn’t come first. The better way to deal with it is to create low key panic alarms like alternate days for employees to come or dividing physical presence on a fortnightly basis. The low use of resources will cut down cost and with already a significant drop in businesses it is imperative to think of cost cutting to stay in the market.
Corona is not a threat to anyone who has better immunity but then why risk lives of so many others just because we can tolerate it. Moreover, COVID-19 is recurrent so it is best to restrict movements in this digital age. In Pakistan, people are still taking it lightly and I see restaurants, cafes and public places flooded with people because all educational institutions are closed till 5th April, 2020. Now the steps are taken to ensure low close contacts and thereby avoiding transmission of this highly contagious virus in order to protect communities at large while this is something many are not realizing. Grab your essentials and stay at home. Everything is now click of a button away (not for all in a country like ours I agree). But those equipped with this luxury should grab this opportunity to play a positive role in society. Be the change to bring about a change.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
