It really IS a new kind of normal that we all need to get used to
Today marks the start of my second week back working in the office. With the cases of new infections slowly dropping in my country, the government has implemented the recovery phase of the country where almost all economic sectors are allowed to open. This will hopefully help to stop the increase in the number of unemployment or those being retrenched.
For my company, we’ve been allowed to resume operations at headquarters for the past 4 weeks now.
However, to ensure that all staff and employees adhere to the new requirements such as temperature screenings, social distancing, etc, the management has requested all of us to work on a rotation basis. Meaning, every department is required to split their staff into two teams — Team A and Team B and these two teams will rotate between the office and working from home. For example, when Team A is working in the office, Team B will be working from home and vice versa.
Needless to say, it’s definitely different from how things were just a few months ago.
The first week of being back in the office was weird. It was quiet and half the office wasn’t in. Not only that but just before the pandemic, the company did a restructuring so some people got laid off while others were relocated to other operational areas. The part of the office where I’m stationed at, 90% were those who got laid off or moved to other operations.
The entire week, there were only 4 people (including myself) in an area where usually, would house about 30 odd people. It was quiet, it was dark (some lights were not switched on to save electricity) and it was very cold (fewer people, less heat) in the office.
Office spaces were different too. You can no longer sit next to someone else. There have to be social distancing practices in place so seats were all marked to ensure you know where you can sit and where you can’t.
Even the office cafeteria had changed. No longer was buffet food served. Everything has to be ala carte and orders needed to be made in advance so that by the time you get to the cafeteria, your food is ready and you can quickly eat and leave. There was a dedicated WhatsApp group created just for this and staff can place their advance orders in this group.
Meeting colleagues was fun but also weird. We could no longer shake hands or rather, everyone was very wary of shaking hands with one another. Instead, elbow ‘bumps’ were used or a simple nod of the head to say hi. For those who are really cautious (or paranoid), face masks were worn at all times. But then again, I’ve been seeing nothing but people with face masks on for the past 3 months so it’s nothing new really.
Another thing that has changed is meetings. Where a group would gather in a meeting room, everything is done virtually now, even when all the participants are in the office at the same time. Video conferencing has been the way to go and a face-to-face meeting is done only if there is a real urgent need to do so.
This week will probably see the same things happening and honestly, it’d probably be this way for a good few months, until the number of new cases drops to zero and stays that way for a good while or until a vaccine is found.
Honestly, it’s going to take some getting used to but it’s something that we all will have to do. This is the new normal for now, especially post COVID-19 or rather, DURING the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the new normal for when we go out, it’s the new normal for when we’re working in the office, or anywhere for that matter.
But we’ve had to adapt to different and difficult situations in the past and this time will be no different.
The important thing is to ensure that things not only go back to how it used to be (because honestly, I don’t that’s possible) but to actually be better than how it used to be. This pandemic has to be a lesson that we all learn to better ourselves in every aspect as we possibly can.
We’re survivors and we’ve got this.
I Am Benny Lim 