How 5 women-in-charge are managing work from home

Our current worldwide emergency has thrown life into a tizzy overnight. Conversations that were tiptoed around gain ground and become our new realities. Take for example, the work from home dilemma. Where, around the world, it is normal to work from home a couple of days in the week, in India, it wasn’t seen as a requirement or even something companies had to think about before now. So, when the novel coronavirus came around like an unwelcome guest, and turned our 80-per-cent-office-20-per-cent-home life on its head, we were all left with nothing but the persistence to adapt. And adapt we did.

While Vogue continues from home, sans shoots and printing workshops, we were keen to know how other professions are adapting. How does a banker bank from home? A store owner and her strategy for the future? A lawyer using Zoom as a substitute for a courtroom? Read on for five women weighing in on work from home and what the future of their distinct fields might look like.

Tina Tahiliani Parikh, executive director, Ensemble

As the lockdown was announced, how swiftly and easily were you and your teams able to adapt?

We were in the midst of launching our e-commerce website! Everyone worked really hard and well to birth this new baby. I would say that in about 36 hours we were up and running with different technologies like Google Hangouts and Zoom.

With your stores shut and now the e-commerce site up and running, how are you driving eyeballs to Ensemble?

We have tried to create content that responds to the time we are in. Work-from-home wear, inspirational content, something that draws from our incredible bank of archives (we just did something on the renowned couturier of the '90s, Rohit Khosla), putting the spotlight on our relationship with our various designers, how they have responded to this crisis, and also something to lift everyone's spirits. We have also kicked off the #RewearRevolution at this time in line with how women will be shopping within their closets as we come out of this, as well as buying investment pieces they can reuse.

How do you think this work from home scenario will change the way we approach our professions and our work/life balance when we come out of this? Do you think there will be a shift in our mindsets?

Yes, I think that all of us have realised that with all this technology, it will actually be really nice to work from home at least one or two days a week! I have found it quite effective. I am able to think and reflect in a way that is quite different from the office, which is so full of distractions!

Aditi Kothari Desai, director and head, Sales and Marketing, DSP Investment Managers

As an asset management company, what did this change require to be as functional without the same facilities as one would have in an office?

We’re not a manufacturing company where your godowns stop or there’s a supply chain issue or a shop where people can’t come. The markets are on throughout. The good thing is that we have been very tech forward for some time now. Our website Invest.DSBIM.com allows you to make investments, look at your portfolio, and buy and sell.

What are the benefits of working from home?

I think working from home, which people talked about but didn’t integrate that much into the working function because it somehow still felt distant, is no longer going to feel that distant. Technology will allow much more flexibility. It’s going to be a very positive thing for women in the workforce, especially those with kids.

Do you think this new normal will push us to reevaluate our approach to different aspects of our lives—for example, a healthy work/life balance, fitness, and our mental wellbeing?

Where my industry is concerned it was high time that people started filling in the forms digitally, not being so dependent on the old, physical way of doing things. Digital is more efficient, it cuts mistakes, it saves time and you can just get more done. So I think the ‘do it yourself’ habits that are going to come out from this will be very good for our industry in the long run, making everyone acquainted with softwares like Zoom and Webex will cut down travel. All of it adds to being good for the environment. At the same time I do not feel doing something so sudden is always very good for the world at large. This was done very suddenly; if it could have been done gradually over time we needn’t have gotten the kind of shocks and sadness that we’ve seen.

Samyukta Nair, food and fashion entrepreneur

Can you share with us how easy/difficult was the transition to prepare yourself and your team to shift to a work-from-home operational model?

The week leading up to the lockdown was incredibly overwhelming. Both my fashion enterprises, Clove and Dandelion, are at different life cycles and have different consumer touch-points, which meant we had to adopt different strategies best suited to each. While Clove closed its doors without having an online presence to direct patrons to, Dandelion was blessed with orders coming in that we couldn't fulfil without putting our manufacturing unit at risk. Currently, our energies are vested in building our new website for Clove and design development for future collections and categories at Dandelion.

At this time, I assume connecting through social media is one of your main points of interaction with your audience. How are you maintaining the balance between your content being relevant with regards to the current pandemic but also offering your viewers a welcome distraction from the same?

We decided to change focus early on and launch Clove Chronicles, a series which was aimed at moving away from consumption to provide our audience an insight into our world via our social media. By sharing our favourite influences from the world of design, recipe features, behind the scenes sneak peeks into artists we love and everyday inspiration in the form of quotes, with a feed I personally curate, we want to focus on the silver lining at the end of this dark cloud.

How do you think this lockdown will change the way customers and industries approach retail? Do you think we will be more mindful of ethical and sustainable products and practices?

With all this time for a lot of reckoning and rethinking I am certain we will adopt more conscious forms of consumption and choose to be less trend driven. Brands will need to work hard to maintain brand loyalty, effective communication and value creation, which is not going to be largely price driven anymore. Even from a design point of view, the kinds of places we will visit, the restaurants we will dine at and the sheer frequency of travel are going to be impacted. There’s no denying that the world will no longer function as we once knew it to.

Karuna Nundy, supreme court advocate and international lawyer

As a lawyer, what does working-from-home entail for you? Can you walk us through a workday?

We're working on a few priority cases and projects. I'm on the Global High-level Panel on Media Freedom—it's run by Lord David Neuberger and Amal Clooney. My part is to look at religious blasphemy, the Charlie Hebdo cases and those around the world who reported the Charlie Hebdo cases. Everyone’s situated around the world so we do Zoom calls for that. We just built a Supreme Court case remotely from scratch—to protect the Bhopal gas victims from COVID-19. They were being turfed out of the hospital dedicated to them in the Union Carbide "settlement"—so it could be dedicated to COVID-19 patients. What's crazy is that out of 14 coronavirus deaths in Bhopal, 13 are gas victims. We had to act quickly, to identify the steps needed to protect the gas victims, given they are an extremely high risk group. We had an online hearing with the Supreme Court, I wore my gown and band, and argued our petitions, in the presence of two judges on video conference.

Do you think that now that we know there is an alternate way of working—things can be smoothly run even across digital platforms—how do you think this will affect you going back into the field?

I do quite a lot of tech and international work, so my team automatically has a real comfort with working online and remotely. Now it's been stepped up a few notches. There are benefits to being in the same place, working together under a roof, but now we know exactly how limited those are—the costs and the benefits—so that's interesting. I think [at the end of the lockdown] I would still like my team to come into office but we could be more flexible for those who are self-driven.

It’s a function of extreme privilege to be able to work remotely. I think for those of us who can protect ourselves post lockdown, while the virus is still a threat, we have to figure out what works best.

This is a very tough time for many. Domestic violence is spiking, women's usual support mechanisms have been cut off. Under the Domestic Violence Act, it’s not just physical violence that is recognised, it’s also withholding cash or food.

In domestic violence cases, it’s important not to slip into Stockholm Syndrome or resign to reality but brainstorm with a trusted and competent friend, map out possible options and see if you can leave or renegotiate the situation with whatever resources are available from the outside. The government really must step in at such a time. They have to create safe shelters so people have somewhere to go if they escape from their abuser. Helplines that connect to police, hospitals, shelters and counselling, need to be strengthened. A universal basic income is vital, for all vulnerable groups to survive.

Shinjini Kumar, consumer business manager, Citibank

How easy / tough was it to realign yourself to a work from home scenario? Is it something that your job requires anyway outside of this unique time?

While my job does not require WfH normally, we do have WfH friendly policies and technology infrastructure for video meetings etc. I have worked from my home in the hills for a couple of days at a time. I have really enjoyed that and found it productive, even fun! I have a large team of over 2,000 people; in different job profiles. We had to ensure business continuity while different parts of the country went into lockdown.

What did you have to do to prepare your staff to deal with the situation?

We tried to do webinars and make resources available to deal with WfH challenges like how to keep data safe, dealing with stress, finding the balance between family and work etc. What I also learnt is because your home is now your office, you have to still keep your home fun. What worked for me was moving to my husband’s library, where I normally never go.

We saw a big opportunity in moving clients to digital, converting phone calls into emails and chat, to ensure client experience and service is uninterrupted.

Do you see any specific challenges in your field—short term and long term?

Short term—we need to stay focused on health and safety concerns for our workforce and work with policy makers and law enforcement on changes in our life and work styles such as lockdowns, curfew passes, work from home infrastructure, etc. In the long term, the impact of COVID on economies across the world and on our clients are going to pose significant challenges to financial institutions.

Also read:

Let these fashion influencers inspire your next work from home look

6 essential tips you’ll need if you’re leading a team remotely during the coronavirus lockdown

Celebrity inspiration you need to ace waist-up dressing for that work from home call