NAME- Ms. Neetu Agarwal

Designation- Assistant Professor at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management

We took an interview with Ms. Neetu Agarwal, to find out the changes in her life, during and after the lockdown or the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is what she told us:

Q1. Are you a working woman or a housewife?

A. Working woman

Q2 How many hours did you put into work (office/housework) before Covid 19? How has that changed in the New Covid-Era?

A. Before covid:

Office: 13-14

House: 3-4

New covid era:

Office: 8-9

House: 7-8

Q3. How has your schedule changed? And, how has that affected your health (both physically and mentally)?

A. Before covid, the maid was there but during the lockdown, I did all the household tasks on my own.

Q4. Did you have any sort of Domestic help before Covid-shutdowns, and how have you managed that situation?

A. Before covid maid was there but during the lockdown, I did all the household tasks on my own…

Q5. If you are working from home, how challenging has the situation been if you have people to care for at home?

A. It was very very difficult for me to balance both home and office. As in my home, there is one bedridden person and a small kid… Taking care of them along with the office and corona was a very tough…..very tough situation.

Q6. In the early stages of Covid, did you get anxious about the fact that you have to stay at home? If so, how did you approach that situation?

A. For this question I would say that I was not anxious as my father-in-law was hospitalized during those days… Somehow it was acceptable to work from home for some time.

Q7. Did your relatives come to live with you? Also, did it add to your burden?

A. No…no relatives were there at my home.

Q8. Were you faced with financial difficulties?

A. Absolutely no

Q9. Whether working women were afraid of being laid off?

A. See if you are placed in a good organization then absolutely no…otherwise it is very natural to be afraid…

And for me a big no.

Q10. How close did the family members become?

A. My family oriented..from starting only I was very close to my family so lockdown didn’t affect our relationships….. it became stronger…

Q11. If you have kids at home, what did they feel about colleges and schools shutting down and how did it affect their lifestyle?

A. No comments my kids are one year old…

Q12. Do you now prefer working from home if given a choice of permanent work from home?

A. Yes

Q13. How demanding is your profession?

A. A little bit

Q14. If you are a teacher, then how has this changed your teaching habits. How did you adapt to it?

A. Yes, offline to online

Q15. If there’s any silver lining in this situation, what do you reckon is yours?

A. For this I can say being a working woman it was good for me to spend more productive time with my kids…

QUESTIONNAIRE BY :

– Reshu

– Harshit Sharma

– Yash

– Vaishnavi Nimma

SARS-CoV-2 has forced all of us to adapt to new formulas for production, work and relationships. From the interview, we saw that the COVID-19 pandemic has majorly affected physical and mental well-being. It has been tough time, people confined to their homes, industries at minimum production levels, hospitals overflowing, borders closed and, in general, a world put on pause by the whims of a virus. Yet, the pandemic has improved the bonding between the family members and relatives. There has been an overall change in the lifestyle and working pattern after the lockdown. Especially, the work-from-home lifestyle and the online classes have changed the way of working and learning respectively.