Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran in conversation with Prittle Prattle News
Manoj Vaz, an Author, is advertising series, ‘Diamonds amid coal’
‘Diamonds amid coal’ is a series by advertising guru and author Manoj Vaz about career and commercial opportunities in the new world order created by the COVID 19 pandemic.
The world, as we knew it had changed forever. Ironically, in the business world, people who had the most BC (Before COVID) have the maximum to lose. Airlines, hospitality, retail chains, manufacturing units, SMEs, and even highly paid skilled executives face the brunt. But there is a new breed of workers, entrepreneurs, SMEs, and corporates rising like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes.
#1: THE WORKING MOM
India’s female employment rate had fallen from an already low 35% in 2005 to 26% in 2018. A more recent official survey shows the price has declined further to 23.3 percent. Poignantly, a leading weekly released a statement last year that claimed, “Women are less likely to work in India than they are in any country in the G20, except for Saudi Arabia,” said the article, citing data from a Deloitte report. Saudi Arabia? Now, that’s a shocker.
This abysmal ratio of female participation in the workforce is many—the most pertinent being marriage and childbirth.
As if the guilt and social stigma working mothers suffer from not being with their children all day were not enough, even laws purported to be pro-women are working against them as the recent tumble indicates.
As many as 1.2 crore Indian women could lose their jobs thanks to a new, progressive law that mandates employers to allow 26 weeks of paid time off after giving birth.
Arguably, this is a step forward for women’s rights. Yet critique says that organizations are less likely to hire women candidates due to their concerns about the act’s requirements, especially at smaller companies
One of the main factors is what some economists call the ‘motherhood penalty,’ which takes a toll on educated women’s workforce participation. This motherhood penalty results in India’s most educated women quitting jobs midway through their career.
For instance, though women make up 51 percent of all the tech industry recruits, only 34 percent of all employees remain, women, according to a 2011 study by Nasscom.
IS THE PANDEMIC A GAME CHANGER?
As the COVID 19 pandemic continues to force crores of employees to work from home and experts forecast these flexible work options could be here to stay, these long-term adjustable work options could be a game-changer for ladies at work.
A study says that roughly 31% of women who took a career break after having kids said they imposed to do so due to a lack of workplace flexibility,
Employers have no choice but to consider the long-term effects of working from home by creating and tweaking policies in favor of women. What’s more, the mental bias against working from home is long gone, with startups and organizations realizing it can be as if not a more efficient way of working.
For instance, Unacademy has announced that 60 percent of its 1,000-strong workforce will work from home. Other Indian tech companies like TCS and HCL are also looking at a significant portion of employees working from home. Others have either followed or are following suit.
In the work-from-home situation to become a pattern for a more extended period now during Covid-19, companies are opening new positions targeting women looking for a professional world career as tremendous value addition.
Research shows that the number of work-from-home jobs posted on recruitment pages has seen a spike of over 30% and consequently, the number of applications from women job seekers, have risen 50% in March compared with a month earlier, and both percentages seem to be increasing as we enter July 2020.
Experts and HR heads say that the work-from-home environment could turn the tables for women who have been making career compromises due to childcare, elder care, and other familial commitments. Organizations are thus creating job descriptions and review guidelines to operate WFH at scale. And women who perceived as more sincere, loyal, and dedicated are the new aces of the WFH pack.
WFH is the new norm and no longer a barrier for career progression, promotion, and increments.
But all said and done; women must be in the driver’s seat and promote themselves aggressively.
Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran, born in the middle-class underbelly of Mumbai, it took Manoj two decades and a random IQ Test to realize that he had an IQ of 169.
Initiated his career in advertising as a copywriter in Madison Advertising but soon realized that he was too independent to toe a line and started his creative boutique, Touché Communications in 1991.
Twenty-five years, 50 clients, and a few awards later, he realized that writing for clients did not give him the creative satisfaction he craved. It dawned upon him that being in a hectic, deadline ridden industry will never give him the time to follow his dream.
He shut down his running ad agency and started writing Tinsel, a novel he had started two decades ago. Tinsel soon climbed up the bestseller charts.
Since there were no Indian books for the super-smart, internet and gadget savvy age group of 10 to 17 years, he started writing The Magic Chest Series.
“The introductory book in the series The Kidnapping published in May 2020 and in less than a month, this second book The Meth Mystery was published.
He plans to write three more novels in this pandemic inflicted year. July Morning – an inter-racial romance based in Goa, Dot – an edge of the seat thriller and Our Souls – an irreverent social satire.” says Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran to the reporter of Prittle Prattle News
