Impact of Work From Home for Teachers During #COVID19

We all have this new word added to our vocabulary during the past three months, #WFH work from home, earlier this was the domain of IT professionals, most who don't work in that sector would have looked at our friends and family with envy, saying you are living a pampered life. Especially for people in the teaching community, it was a distant dream which has no way of coming true. Enter Corona everything which was considered impossible became possible. Google Meet, Google Classroom, Zoom, WhatsApp Groups, Google Sheets made work from home possible to teachers also. So how is the grass in this side of the meadow?

"My day starts with a group message at 7:30 am and ends with a update at 6:30 pm, interspread with faculty meetings during lunch break and team meetings after classes" Anoymous Teacher

Extended work hours

So a typical day for a teacher starts with the head of the institution sending out the days agenda through WhatsApp group, next it will be followed by a text by the individual task in-charge sending their requirements on what needs to be done, this will be followed by frantic texts by students complaining they are unable to join the classroom or asking doubts. Some teachers even have it worse, where there is only a few minutes between one class and another. By the time they finish the class, various meeting and other discussions, it would be evening and they have still not finished their classroom evaluations and other tasks, so they sit extend and work so that they are not found wanting in the next class. The average teacher spends around minimum 10 hours per day doing academic and official work on a normal day. This is the plight of any teacher whose organisation is heavily into the digital classroom.

"I am asked to do additional work which is not my core functional role and i am judged for not producing satisfactory result in that activity"- Ramesh

Over worked and never appreciated

One of the frequent jibes which is given to the teaching fraternity is "you guys have it good, 8 hour jobs, lots of free time and yearly vacation " this is not the reality, in most schools and colleges, teachers are made to do a lot of work in addition to what their job description says. If there is an Inspection, teachers are asked to stay back and prepare the classroom, if it is a function teachers should stay back and go when all the lights are out. It is something which teachers have grown used to it, but this new #WFH has made it even difficult, for teachers, they have to spend a lot of time online, they have to pick up additional tasks like marketing, reaching out to parents, counselling students through social media etc.. In one of the Institution i know, every new initiative is pushed on to the teachers and they are made to assume full responsibility for the outcome. The teacher who confided in me said, the sad thing is the head of the institution is never satisfied and is quick to blame the faculties if the new initiative fails, but keeps quite when the initiative succeeds. This is the situation of most teachers during this #WFH period, overworked and never appreciated.

"How can an organisation be so inefficient and irresponsible, that they never communicate on time" - Rakesh

No clarity in the policy

One frequent complaint i get from various teachers is the leaders of their organisation are sending conflicting policy statements everyday. One of the teachers who spoke to me said, that they have started to work six days even-though they had a 5 day week before the WFH started. One another horror story is some colleges started to ignore government holidays for faculties, students were given leave and faculties were asked to carry on other activities on the holidays. Some colleges and schools have not paid the teachers salary for the past three months citing no revenue during this period. This teacher asked a simple question, can you believe that this huge institution has no money and are running a hand to mouth existence? Most of the educational institutions do not have a clear cut HR policy and they coerce most faculty into agreeing to their terms, which will change dynamically to suit the management running the institution.

"I have spent more than a decade in teaching, i have no other career path available, what can i do?" - Shailaja

Depressed and Disappointed

I am doing the same job i did when i joined teaching, there is no growth in my career, this is the common grouse among various teachers , the career opportunity for teachers is very limited in India and even if they are available, the position is at entry level. The teaching fraternity in most self financing educational institutions is depressed and disappointed especially in this new WFH situation.

Conclusion

I am also a teacher in a self financing educational institution, and i know of the struggles of running a business, but what i found lacking in most of the institutions is the lack of empathy and willingness to listen to their employees. All the people who i talked to are grateful for their Institutions to give them employment during this tough time, but they are dissatisfied with the way they are treated . For all the business leaders who might read this, i would like to make an appeal the next time you come across a job application by a teacher, instead of simply throwing it into the reject list, call them and have a discussion, who might know you may get the next star of your company. And finally for all teachers who read this, be brave and head along with your head held high, for we are the ones who shape the future of this world.

 First Published in LinkedIn on 24-5-2020

Mission Lead Marketing - The Indian way

I came across this article about how Brands can drive across social change in Harvard Business review Marketing meets mission , it talks about how some brands were able to bring in behavioural change among people in the society. This is very vital in this situation of pandemic and fear. India is not new to these types of marketing , especially during festive seasons we can see plenty of brands rushing to give public interest awareness videos.

One great example is the campaign carried out during the Kumbh Mela in India , this was done by heat stamping a simple message in Hindi “Lifebuoy se haath dhoye kya?” (Did you wash your hands with Lifebuoy?).

You can read this at the campaign here Roti Reminder. 

Another such great campaign is by TATA TEA which ran this #JaggoRe campaign . It talks about the various social ills in India. They are also running a campaign website and facebook page JaagoRe FB . It talks about bribery in election , Gender bias , Plastic waste, and it's recent campaign talks about elder care during #Covid19 

Mission Lead Marketing is very useful for most developing countries, as they help people change their behaviour and also contributes to a positive image for the brands among its customers and general public. 

Indian brands do it all the time, there is this one advertisement where a joint family was having dinner, a little boy was angry with his mother for scolding him for taking 10 Rupees from his fathers purse and pushed away his plate, everyone was supporting the little boy, making snide remarks at the daughter-in-law , the Father-In-Law , finally snaps and says "If i was his mother i would have starved him for two days, today he is stealing 10 Rs what will he do tomorrow? " finally the ad ends with the FIL telling his DIL you  did the right thing. This is an Advertisement campaign by All-Out  mosquito repellent  #StandByToughMoms .  

There was a lot of controversy with this advertisement that it promotes patriarchy and how it is toxic, but i believe this advertisement depicts how a typical family  discussion runs , and nothing is wrong. The advertisement made it clear that a mother is right in disciplining a child and it clearly linked the being tough part with its product.

Tata Tanishq is another brand which constantly pushes this idea of a modern society and it positions itself as a modern jewellery for the modern woman. This particular advertisement of Tanishq stands out for its portrayal of a bride who is remarrying with a kid. In India there is a large scrutiny over the skin tone of a bride, and remarrying is a taboo, this advertisement broke all these taboos by showing the bride to be of dusky skin tone and having a small kid. 

These kinds of advertisement are what which will push through social change. And I fully agree that Mission Lead Marketing is a great concept and it will serve both the Brand and the society very much. Do share your thoughts on this in the comment section.

Leadership with Empathy - The missing piece among Indian Startup's

I have always envied the companies in developed economies for their flexibility towards work life balance and how they are open to people taking sabbaticals, but i would console myself with the fact that most people in those countries are at will employees with no job security. Now when many unicorn startups came in India and they were expanding like crazy, i started reading stories of how these companies were like those in developed economies and are the best places to work, i was really proud and happy that India was reaching  to developed economy standards.

So all this pride and joy towards these great startups came down crashing when they were exposed to #COVID19 crisis. Two such companies one is OYO and other one is a relatively unknown entity to me CURE FIT.

Companies downsize and fire employees during extreme emergencies, i agree but there is something fundamentally wrong about how these companies made this decision so i am writing my thoughts about it. 

Oyo is in a very tough situation and they have to take decisions to close down some operations, so there is nothing wrong about it right?, yes but they way in which they went about it and mislead some employees is what that irritates me. In UK the CEO assured that there will be no job cuts and within two days he announced job cuts. This is what heartless leadership means, companies can come together and decide to forgo some benefits and retain everyone's job or they could clearly outline a exit road map for employees so that they are ready to accept and manage their finances accordingly.

The second startup is even worse, this company has around 5000 employees, and has got new funding from the VC's  , so they had the bright idea to coast through the COVID19 crisis, shut down centres and fire 1000 people, nothing wrong in this thought process they want to save the remaining 4000 jobs and keep the company intact. What is wrong is they way in which they done with the layoffs. 

Firstly they did it on MAY 1st "International Labour Day" and secondly they way in which they communicated this. Many employees were asked to resign and not terminated and they were removed from the official WhatsApp group by their managers and asked to tender their resignation,

This is what a company without empathy does, there is another furore over the decision of top management which decided to donate 5 crores to various charity funds, for which the founders said it only covers a few days of their expenses and it make no sense in complaining over it. They were even very smug about it in their interviews and open letter which came after a few days when these decisions caused a huge social media uproar. Too little and too late i would say. So if 5 crore of the total donation is to be split among 1000 sacked employees it would amount to 50,000 rupees a huge amount i would say, might even help the people an additional 2 month buffer.

In their interview they were harping about how their company is looking for the future and they are right now giving free content and this means they have to run without income for a long time, and immediately within a few days they announce they plan on monetising the digital content.

So this raises a question whether  all the statements they were giving was for managing the public perception and may be it was under the principle that any publicity is good publicity. 

I read an article by BCG which stated that leadership which is empathetic and flexible is needed now. The more i read about the need for empathy among top leaders the more i am convinced that Indian Startups need to grow up.

This was the initial letter which was issued when they fired 1000 employees.

After much furore they have released another letter with a website which takes into account of the criticism and their rebuttal to it.

I have watched the entire interview of the founders of #curefit and also read their open letter, the only conclusion i could come was they made a big blunder in dealing with the firing and donation and were caught unaware in the social media backlash and now wanted to change the narrative so came up with this open letter and interviews.

This has reinforced my views that Indian Startups lack Empathetic Leaders and this will cause a big loss for them in future

 I am attaching some excerpts open letter by the companies management below so you can comment on my thoughts.

for reading the entire letter click the link below.

 1. Leadership in the new now BCG article
 2. Open letter of Curefit founders