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Voices of Sunway
Work-

From-Home :

Yay orNay? DHARMIDRAN ANANTHARSEKARAN

Sunway University Lecturer

e irreplaceable human touch

“I am grateful for it when I realise that I could As all educators the world over can attest, the most
actually see my little girl grow up, right in front challenging aspect of working from home (WFH) for a
of my eyes. We working moms do not usually teacher is gauging a student’s level of concentration and
get a golden opportunity like this,” she said. engagement during online classes.
NURUL AIN MOHAMED TAHIR
Sunway Putra Hotel
Human Resources Manager Being a people person, Ain missed interacting For Sunway University lecturer Dharmidran
face-to-face with colleagues and guests.
Anantharsekaran, it was challenging to adapt to online lectures
e silver A tough balancing act Pre-pandemic, Ain would organise fun and as they were not only devoid of instantaneous physical
lining of the interactive training programmes for her team interaction with students but required him to teach by looking
COVID-19 As a working mother and a millennial, and had the exibility to ‘go all out’ to create at a camera and speaking through a microphone on the laptop.
memorable experiences for the hotel guests.
Nurul Ain Mohamed Tahir was thrilled at
pandemic is that the prospect of working from home “During conventional physical classes, it is rather easy to
working from (WFH) during the pandemic, as she could “A hotel will never be the same when there are gauge the student's attention by observing their body
language but with online classes, this can be a challenge as
home (WFH) ful l her dreams of the coveted no guests. When the rst lockdown happened, there are privacy and Internet speed issues for some students
everything changed. No in-house guests and we
‘Insta-mom’ life – exible working hours,
has now become LIM CHUAN YANG “Rather than just nipping over to a self-care, and children playdates. had a skeletal workforce at the hotel. Adminis- and even lecturers. We had to change the way of delivering
a norm around Sunway IT Shared Services Robotic Process Automation (RPA) colleague’s desk to discuss a thing or two, trative sta were relocated to di erent o ces to lectures to ensure maximum engagement, concentration and
cognition,” said Dharmidran.
work in separate teams, with a change of
the world, with Consultant you have to set a time to meet online, or “Little did I know, it was far from what it working hours. It almost felt like we were in an
looks like on social media – I was not even
you have to wait for a reply via Microsoft
experts A boost for productivity and employee motivation Teams messaging,” he said. close to having any work-life-balance when abandoned building – it was heartbreaking,” After a year of WFH, Dharmidran is currently back teaching
expecting the I rst started WFH,” said the Sunway she said. in campus in ‘hybrid mode’, where some students attend
physical classes while others tune in online as not all students
Putra Hotel Human Resources Manager.
trend to A work commute that was once a In WFH mode, Lim – who lives alone – Not only did Lim miss the social Now Ain counts herself blessed to be physically are back on campus. “Personally, I prefer to work from o ce
used the time that he would have spent
engagement with colleagues – he also
30-minute drive became a 30-second
continue walk when Lim Chuan Yang began on socialising pre-pandemic, on work. missed his ergonomic o ce work setup. For Ain, the challenge was in balancing back at work with strict SOPs in place, due to because education thrives on collective cognition, which is
post-pandemic. working from home (WFH) during the Being at home more often also allowed Almost a year of WFH in a poorly between her roles as a mother to her the recent pick-up in the hotel occupancy rates. only possible with physical interaction,” he said.
“A little bit of normalcy – that is a relief,”
2-year-old, and a HR manager.
con gured chair had left Lim with
pandemic last year.
Lim to indulge in hobbies such as
But is WFH a cooking, building custom mechanical back pains. she said. WFH did improve his family life, as he could personally
blessing or a “ e time saved on the work commute keyboards, and reading. “When we rst started the WFH policy, attend to urgent and important family matters.
curse? Berita really adds up; I felt like I could get more With less distractions at home, Lim As busy workdays meant little time to everyone was into it 24/7 – back-to-back “ ere is de nitely a lot of pros and cons to be “I spent less time getting stuck in rush hour tra c and getting
Teams and Zoom meetings were so
considered before we can make WFH a perma-
things done. I appreciated that I did not
prep for lunch, Lim relied heavily on
Sunway speaks have to sit in tra c and contribute to found that he was more productive at food delivery – further exacerbating the exhausting. Furthermore, I had a toddler nent option. It is always tough to step out from the kids ready for school. What I disliked most about WFH is
with three carbon emissions,” said Lim, who only work, especially solitary, focused tasks unhealthy, sedentary nature of WFH. who sat in most of my meetings while our comfort zone, to learn and adapt to unstable Internet network connection. I also miss engaging
something new, but if WFH will be the new
with students and colleagues, tea and co ee breaks as well as
watching Peppa Pig videos; it was not easy
Sunwayians on returned to the o ce full time in April such as writing a code or testing a bot. Moving forward, he believes WFH is to focus,” she said. norm of working, we need to move forward driving around to run errands,” he said.
this year.
their WFH For Lim, the transition to WFH was here to stay, as employees the world over with the times. Otherwise, we will be left
experience. Pre-pandemic, the Sunway IT Shared relatively easy as his work les are have warmed up to the concept. Other distractions included poor WiFi behind,” she said. Productivity-wise, there was not much di erence for
Services Robotic Process Automation accessible on any device via the cloud. connection at home, drilling noises from Dharmidran, who stuck to a work schedule even when he
(RPA) consultant would work from 9 am “WFH is not suitable for those whose “If we return to the status quo, it is a neighbours’ homes, and the insatiable Employers need to establish clearer WFH WFH. Compensating for the lack of physical interaction,
until 7 pm or later, before heading o to physical presence is required on site at missed opportunity for companies to desire to constantly eat. policies to ensure employees clearly understand Dharmidran engaged with students during non-lecture hours
dinner or to play sports. the workplace, such as factory workers demonstrate that they are savvy and what is expected of them and how their perfor- on social media and online messaging platforms to ensure he
and customer service personnel. For adaptable to changing times. e time is “I am more productive at the o ce. WFH mance is measured remotely, she said, adding was always contactable despite the physical distance.
“Conventional wisdom says that WFH everyone else, the option of WFH is a now for corporate leaders to demonstrate requires a lot of self-discipline and good that this would address the trust issues some
improves work-life balance, but powerful tool that can make us more that they are listening and willing to time management. For some individuals, it employers have with allowing their teams to “As much as the pandemic has changed how we perform our
experience has shown us that WFH blurs productive and motivated,” he said. embrace a culture of empowerment and may not be relevant, depending on their WFH. day-to-day tasks, I foresee that sooner or later, working life
that line separating work from your trust in allowing their employees to job function,” she said. will return to pre-COVID times. Even though technology

personal life. Some end up working more However, WFH left much to be desired choose whether to WFH or from the “With the current pandemic, we must has advanced tremendously over the years, it cannot replace
hours than they normally would, causing when it came to collaborative work – o ce. If we do not, the company risks While it took time to get used to WFH, anticipate changes to happen anytime. Work- the human touch, and more so in the education industry,”
their work-life balance to deteriorate,” problem solving and brainstorming becoming an undesirable destination for Ain said that once she did, it turned out to ing from the o ce may also be a health risk. he said.
he said. sessions were things simply done better talent, stunting our future growth and be a blessing in disguise. erefore, a strict SOP must be always adhered
together physically. innovation,” said Lim. to, and this cannot be taken lightly.”
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