“We are ‘business as usual,’” these were the words uttered by my former boss when we started the work from home set up on the 2nd week of March, while the rest of the country was on community quarantine. March was also my last time to be part of the sales division of our multinational company as the company moved me to another department. As the weeks progressed, the stringent lockdown meant that the business could not go as usual. A lot of companies were caught off guard on how this pandemic would hit us; even well-established companies needed to fast track learnings coming from their counterparts in China.
A new role in a work from home set-up is not exactly ideal; you need to expedite the knowledge and how-to’s as you move along day by day. The set-up, though, has been a blessing and a curse as it has always been something that lingered in my head ever since I became a mother. As I promised to be a “present parent” to my son, whom we waited for two years, I wanted to be there to witness his milestones while realizing my potential as a career woman. This quarantine period has been a blessing in such a way that it has exposed me to such a set-up. I didn’t expect how hard it was going to be. The line drawn between work and home became blurred, and I ended up playing catch up from one over the other. And that turned out to be a curse.
There were times where I am in a middle of Zoom meeting and my curious child would go in front of my laptop (sometimes naked) and would attempt to type in the keyboard and give me a naughty “will-mommy-get-mad-or-not” look. At night, when I try to put him to sleep, I would run through things-to-do at work in my head that I think my kid is imbibing the pressure and anxiety that I felt, which made both of us restless. Fortunately, I have an understanding boss, supportive teammates, and a patient husband who help me along.
In the second week in my position, a new colleague that I was working with told me that I need to be more agile. I was lagging behind in my deadlines. My initial reaction was to get offended as I pride myself on being a fast learner. But I chose to show her sympathy as I learned that she is under stress as the numbers of her product were down. Everyone is transitioning and adjusting. Some are still stuck on the processes of the past while others have embraced the need to be effective in this new reality. Not only are we in the middle of dealing with a pandemic, but also, parents like me are also struggling to be there for our children on top of full-time work. Each one of us has different struggles in this new scenario, and that completely warrants sympathy and consideration.
The pressure to perform, to be efficient, to hit the targets has always been lauded as good measurements of the ‘business as usual’ set-up. But the pandemic opens us to a new reality where kindness, compassion, and empathy are considered as a new way of sizing the performance of a company. The new normal sees to it that a company serves the people more than the profit along with the expression of genuine concern to create solutions for all.
When I took my DLSU MBA, I admit that the subject Ethics and Family life was not exactly my priority, unlike more traditional finance or business management courses. I now realize its importance in the situation we are in now. What I remember from that subject was to “work with a conscience.” Companies who stay true to the values of their credo stand the test of time. Company values and principles are made for this kind of situation, reflected down to their employees. Perhaps, as we move to the new ways of working, it will compel us to create a new set of standards that are more intuitive and caring. Hopefully, these new standards will outperform our business as usual metrics. After all, we are moving towards this new normal, and we have to make it work—kid included.
Jenelyn Culian-Legaspi is a Medical Scientific Liaison for Retail of Johnson & Johnson Phils. and a DLSU Communication Arts and MBA alumni. She is also a proud mother to a 21-month old adorable baby boy.