STAGGERED OFFICE HOURS IS THE WAY FORWARD: EXPERTS AND OFFICE-GOERS

With lockdown restrictions being eased in stages, Mumbai is slowly limping back to business. However, with limited public transport available, maintaining social distancing during the 'unlocking' is proving to be a major challenge. As a concrete and achievable solution, urban planning and transportation experts stress on the need for offices to implement staggered work timings for employees. They have called for the government to roll out policies encouraging staggered work timings in offices.

"Peak hours are generally for two to three hours in the mornings and evenings. The number of people travelling in a local train rake during peak hours varies from 2,000 to 6,000. If we stagger the timings by increasing the peak hour slots to three times of what they are, there will be substantial dissipation of the rush. The crowd will be lessened as it will ensure not everyone heads out to work at the same time," said Pankaj Joshi, Executive Director, Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) and Founding Trustee, Society for Environment and Architecture, Mumbai.

"Organisations can also classify their employees into two categories, where half will be working from home and half will go to office, on alternate days. For those going to office, there should be time slots divided for them for the completion of tasks or assignments,” Joshi added.

Adapting to these policies will ensure social distancing is followed at workplaces as well as reduce the number of people stepping out for work, Joshi said.

"Every office will have to make a plan as per staggered timings, and this includes both government and private offices as well. It has to be implemented as a planned initiative throughout the city or the purpose will be defeated,” he added. Ashok Datar, an expert on urban transportation, said in a city like Mumbai, maintaining staggered office timings should be the way forward, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. Mumbai is a city with high population density and staggering office timings will ease the burden on public transport," said Datar. "Offices and organisations need to divide work hours into shifts and the employees could be allocated different shifts. As a result, arrival and departure will be staggered. This will ease the crowds using public transport and ensure social distancing is followed," Datar said.

He added that along with staggered office hours, employees of private offices should also be allowed in trains to avoid overcrowding in buses.

"Mumbai requires at least 6,000 buses, whereas BEST has close to 3,000 buses. If employees of private offices are not allowed in trains, there will be overcrowding in buses. This will defeat the purpose of staggered timings,” said Datar.

Regular commuters and employees of private firms also echoed these suggestions, calling for implementation of staggered office timings across the city.

"Due to the lack of enough public transport options, people are unable to reach their office at times. This is why staggering of timings are necessary in offices. It will ease the pressure for both the employees and employers,” said Abhisek Yadav, a corporate communications executive.

"The government needs to make stricter policies on staggered timings. If the government doesn't take it seriously, it won’t be followed. If the organisations relax timings and divide projects into slots, it will be more effective," said Supriya Joshi, a marketing professional.