An Introduction

Facing a host of challenges ranging from the global Covid-19 pandemic to cyclones, a group of interns from FLAME University in India worked with WageIndicator managers between April and June 2020. This is their story.

An Introduction by Priya Madhu Srinivasan

The world, as we know it is gone.

With every passing day in the year 2020, we are becoming more and more aware of the fact that the new normal is that there is no normal. Along with a viral pandemic, we have had cyclones, uncontrollable forest fires, rising food insecurity and water scarcity, unemployment in thousands and unrest in all parts of the world. These are unprecedented times. The world seems to be getting more and more overwhelming each day. None of us have ever lived through anything remotely like this.

In the midst of this situation, 23 second-year students from FLAME University in Pune, India, signed up as interns with the WageIndicator Foundation. Initially due to spend their summer months working in-house as interns throughout India, they were now all living at home due to the Covid-19 restrictions. WageIndicator, being a global organisation with online team members working remotely from countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond, was an appropriate fit for students having to do their internship online. Spread out in cities including Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Navi Mumba, and Sonepat, the students' brief was to work in a variety of fields ranging from social media marketing to content creation to collection of primary data to data analysis. For many interns, who were being managed by WageIndicator managers in the Netherlands, Italy and South Africa, it was a challenge.

Nevertheless, the beauty of humanity is how we adapt, persist and try our best through it all. To capture the very essence of what life is like during this time, I had a chat with the employees and interns of the WageIndicator Foundation.

The WageIndicator Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation based on the mission of labour market transparency for the benefit of all employers, employees and workers worldwide by sharing and comparing information on wages, labour law and career. Making homes into WageIndicator offices all over the world, in the midst of a pandemic while going through cyclones, fires, earthquakes etc. the interns and employees are working tirelessly for this very mission.

In this time capsule, we will get to know the people behind this foundation and take a closer look at their lives during these extraordinary times. What was a “normal” day during the pandemic? Was there any sense of normalcy? How did it all affect them emotionally? What do they do to take care of themselves in such trying times? What does work life balance look like when working from home? What brings them hope? What are they learning from this? How does one transition their whole life to a screen?

Let us take a closer look into how humanity has adapted in “Masks on: a time capsule for 2020”.