‘This Work from Home is great, yaar. I just take my classes online from my study upstairs. There’s no driving up and down during peak hours—which normally totals about three hours daily! Don’t have to bloody dress up either. I’m dreading going back to normal work.’
My neighbour made these cheerful remarks during our irregular chats over the common wall which separates our properties. He was a sailor like me once, but quit sailing long ago, and has been teaching since at a maritime school in Delhi for merchant navy officers. He added that he was convinced online classes would be the ‘new normal’ in the future, even after the pandemic fear recedes.
I, always on the lookout for a topic to blog about, experienced a eureka moment. True, many experts and their aunts have already spattered the internet with what they think a post-pandemic future would be like. So what? Could I not put on my thinking cap and ponder too? So I did. And here’s my take, for what it’s worth.
Work from Home (WFH) is here to stay, I’m convinced. It was already in place during the last few years, but more of an exception than the rule. Since the lockdown worldwide, it’s become the norm. The future? Well, work may not be fully remote, but it won’t be clustered in offices, either. That’s because WFH has benefits for both employers and employees. For employers, office overheads will decline in terms of rented space, office furniture, and extra staff. For employees, they’ll save time commuting, spend more time with family and keep closer tabs on their children.
With fewer people occupying offices, office design may be modified in a post-pandemic world. Digital, touchless, and voice-activated technology may be introduced. A robot may disinfect your space daily or bring you your coffee at your work station. You may be able to unlock your washroom door or turn on a light switch by speaking to it. Possible, isn’t it?
(Do fewer people attending office mean the deaths of office romances and gossip around the water cooler? I don’t think so—where there’s a will, there’s a way. I have full faith in fellow man.)
Learning from home (LFH?) will stay too, even after schools and colleges open fully. Of course, millions of children may not return to school in third world countries for various reasons. But for the more fortunate ones schools, colleges and universities will continue with their courses online, with teaching undertaken remotely. Teachers will have to adapt. Digital learning has already emerged as the ‘new normal’ everywhere. The success of Byju’s is proof of that. I think online/blended learning will become an integral part of school education. And college students may find campus to be optional. Top colleges worldwide may lose their snob value.
Advances in video conferencing may render business travel redundant. Why would a company waste time and money to send someone halfway around the world in order to attend a two-hour conference or a one-day seminar, when it can be done from the comfort of one’s home? People will be forced to take the plunge and learn applications like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. And they’ll find that these apps are not as difficult as they thought! (If I can pick up these apps, anyone can.)
With the decline of business travel, business travellers may get their lives back and spend more time with their families. Leisure travel, however, may thrive and save the airline and tourist industries. Not short weekend jaunts by air—that’ll be history—but longer, better-planned vacations to explore the world, maybe? Airline and tourism will have to innovate to survive. But they will.
Meeting your doctor, your lawyer, or your chartered accountant—may all become virtual, saving us the hassle of traffic, parking, and juggling our schedules. Tele-health and telemedicine will become household words.
Online retailing is here to stay. Jeff Bezos of Amazon has become one of the two richest men in the world—that should convince you. Retail stores will have to reinvent themselves if they want to survive. We may see robots and other artificial intelligence in the big stores trying to create a safe environment and enhancing the visitor experience. Online grocery—having your daily needs delivered to your home—is already here. The success of Amazon Fresh, Zomato Market, Grofers, Big Bazaar, etc. are proof of that. Online food delivery will continue to be popular.
The film and TV industry may go virtual—actors and sets included. Entire virtual worlds may be built from scratch, featuring high-resolution sets. Computer-generated backgrounds may separate actors from each other and the crew.
Seeing so many once-popular restaurants close down the past year, my friend in the restaurant business told me that micro-restaurants are the future of fine dining—intimate 6-to-12-seat dining concepts, often spearheaded by well-known chefs. These restaurateurs won’t need a fancy room or formal service to deliver an excellent dining experience. Their operational costs will be low, execution easy, and creative control all theirs. The space requirements will be minimal, as will be the rent, utilities, and insurance.
Roads may get decongested with WFH and LFH becoming normal. Maybe commuting time from A to B will get halved, or is that too much to hope for?
What is going to get hit hard? Well, high-priced commercial real estate markets will for sure, as companies may no longer look for large office spaces. Haute couture—high fashion—will certainly suffer. Everything related to dressing up will be hit quite significantly. How many weddings or parties are you going to attend in the post-pandemic era? You certainly won’t need fancy clothes for your virtual meetings with colleagues, friends or service professionals. Airlines, tourism I’ve already mentioned. Luxury goods—fancy cars, watches, jewellery—will take a hit. They already have, and may not recover.
Affordable Internet may become a universal human right. High-speed Internet will become a necessity for living, studying and working, as crucial to our well-being as electricity and running water. 4G mobile networks will make way for 5G, then 6G, then 7G…
Today’s children, when they grow up, may not remember a time when not wearing a mask was acceptable. Physical distancing will be so ingrained in their psyche that they may try to connect to each other by social media rather than in person. Sitting 6 feet apart from each other in a theatre or stadium may be the new normal; anything closer may make them uncomfortable. Couples may get married with their masks on.
What else? I’m trying to think…. Oh, yes! And Mukesh Ambani will become even richer.
Beetashok Chatterjee is the author of ‘Driftwood’, a collection of stories about Life at Sea and ‘The People Tree’, another collection of stories about ordinary people with extraordinary lives. A retired merchant ship’s captain by profession, he lives in New Delhi with his memories of living more than 40 years on the waves.
His book is available on Amazon. Click here.
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