Grey Areas

By Talha Masaood

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the world has switched from a manual way of working to a digitalized approach of utilizing the virtual reality of Internet resources. Consequently, many schools and universities, organizations and government institutes have had to make a sudden shift from partially IT-oriented work and education to a completely Internet reliant structure of services. As a result, those of us who were not ready for such a change was caught off guard and thus struggle with several complications in managing ourselves and in adjusting to the swift pace of cyberspace.

To begin with, without the physical presence of a teacher many students find it hard to discipline themselves for an online lecture. Accordingly, it has adversely affected the general academic performance of many students.

Similarly, those organizations who have adopted the policy of work from home for all employees to comply with, also struggle with the same issue of adjusting to the intangible means, and nonphysical presence of employees in a virtually constructed working environment. Many such employees who work from their homes believe that the office environs ensure the visibility of the employees working on their assigned tasks.

Some schools and universities have taken the initiative of engaging their teachers into attending online workshops for learning how to meaningfully utilize all online resources to ensure the proper discipline of students, their comprehension of the lecture material, and assessing the assigned assignments. Conscientious students are trying hard for some interactive study sessions on WhatsApp groups and other social media platforms. Likewise, people who work from their homes are learning to be diligent in their work while maintaining faith in their organizations/supervisors to be duly appreciative of their honest efforts. Organizations such as the human development foundation (HDF) are also devising strategies to adopt all possible means of meaningfully engaging and supervising all their employees. For instance, at HDF all employees are routinely required to submit a schedule of their daily tasks and a report of their completed assignments to their seniors. Resultantly, such measures create and sustain a healthy, productive working environment, and keep all the employees connected to the entire organization.

However, adjusting to all these changes requires us all to be patient and understanding of each other. Instead of doubting the integrity of a teacher or a student, an employee or a supervisor for their delayed responses, let us trust and give time to each other for getting used to these changes. For this is a time to educate ourselves about knowing that everything is not always in black and white, right or wrong. There are some grey areas to be acknowledged and appreciated as neither right nor wrong but a blend of the two colors, a shade in between, for it denotes reasons which are understandably compromising, and require us to be generously patient and perceptive of others.