Work from Work @ UN – The Mini Globe

 

Work from Work @ UN – The Mini Globe

Ever since I joined the UNHQ in Dec 2019, I have wondered about what makes the place so special and unique. Lately, it has dawned on me that the UNHQ is the most diverse place in the world and de-facto is the mini-globe under one roof.

Remember walking in the secretariat lobby on a normal working day (which seems so distant, in past and future both), one hardly meets two people from the same nationality. Even if they are, they are from a different ethnicity or background. Its a beautiful garden of many kinds of colourful flowers, each of which adds a different hue to the landscape.

                                        
                                                                       

This makes the place extremely rich with experiences and perspectives. One feels that we are so ‘incomplete’ alone and soon it becomes a habit to seek different viewpoints before making a decision.

The organization provides a forum at the international level to discuss myriad of issues of domestic, bilateral, regional and truly multi-national variety. This unique opportunity to discuss issues prevents violence and hence I feel that the UN is truly an organization for the humanity. May it get stronger.

I feel thankful that during this pandemic, our organization could support its staff in numerous ways like flexible working arrangements which allowed us to take care of many other pandemic inflicted issues, that one feels proud to be part of this great and historic organization.

However, I lately feel that we may be slowly losing the fondness to work from work. While work from home and flexible working does seem to provide a relaxed opportunity to let us clean up that cupboard in our house we have been meaning to sort out while still being ‘at work’, work from work may offer more efficiency in terms of a quick ‘walk – chat-discuss-decide – act- relax’ progression over a ‘schedule a MS Meeting – discuss with camera switched off and mics muted while checking mails and preparing a meal – decide – postpone action – back to virtual meeting’ routine.

In my views, hence, we must pray that we get back to the ‘working from work’ and ‘homing from home’ routine to restore some semblance of normalcy.