Shahnaz Husain
Suddenly, my life is on hold and I am going through a totally new experience! With a lockdown suddenly upon us, the situation is totally unprecedented. The health crisis has thrown the entire world out of gear. Leaving me and my family aside, I must also think of protecting the health of thousands of my employees. My organization, like other companies in India, is under lockdown. Our offices are closed, employees are working from home. For a change, I am not getting swept away by the tidal wave of appointments and meetings! Before closing our offices, I emailed a circular to all our employees, telling them about the basic precautions they must take, washing hands, using hand sanitizers, maintaining social distancing and staying at home. I also wanted to lift their spirits, so I appreciated their work and said that I am thankful for their support.
When you are running your own enterprise, you also become aware of the need to deal with the obvious economic crisis that will follow. The morale is down, so the biggest challenge I would face is to encourage team work. It also occurred to me that with employees working from home, the team is distributed. Fortunately for video conferencing and applications like Skype and Zoom, things are working out just fine. One thing I realise during this lockdown is the value of human contact. I have been writing emails and sending Whatsapp messages to be in personal touch with my team.
One aspect of running the organization during the lockdown is also to be in touch with our customers through social media and through our website. We answer questions from customers and suggest beauty solutions. Through social media, we highlighted our Hand Sanitizers and soaps, working out special offers. Our regular columns also offer beauty solutions and thus maintain brand identity.
However despairing a situation is, there is always a positive side. For decades now, I have been leading such a fast, hectic life, with busy schedules and hardly any time for myself. Now, I suddenly have “me-time.” I am doing the things that put me back in touch with myself, like painting and writing poetry. I am also spending quality time with my husband, listening to music and sharing ideas, opinions and laughter. I also know that we must all be patient and pray that this dreaded disease will soon be behind us. Let us give a thought to the underprivileged and how we can help them. I appeal to everyone to Stay at Home and heed the advice of doctors and the government. I am sure we will together overcome these dark days and welcome the sunrise of a new day.
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