Reimagining the workplace of the 21st century

 By Captain Mahmood Al Mahmood

The announcement of a bank loans reprieve for Bahrainis and Bahraini companies is a timely move to support individuals and corporations to face a sluggish market with a measure of equanimity. As the ‘second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic swings around the world, this economic measure will help many households and businesses to tide over and ‘hang in there till the worst is over.
MPs have also backed utility bill rate cuts and this makes sense at a time when WFH is the norm for adults as well as students. In summer, a household full of working individuals can see utility bills spiralling and this is not covered in office allowances.
Indeed, one thing that will undoubtedly change after the pandemic is office HR manuals. The WFH culture is going to be with us going forward and if we expect our workers to deliver productively, we have to ensure an office-like environment with the cost of extra electricity and internet as well as equipment such as laptops and printers factored into the home office costs.
Now that we have had a year and a half to get used to WFH, one thing that we are all getting a handle on is managing office timing. The first flush of expecting employees to be on standby for an unbelievable 18 and 20 hours just because they were not in the office is giving way. Companies are noticing the burn-out factor among executives and the large giants such as Amazon and Google actually wrote in guidelines for a ‘disconnected’ week when employees were asked not to sign in and just take a clean break so that they would come back refreshed.
These are new ways of doing business and along with economic cushions to break the freefall, they help us to reimagine the world.