[Women of the Pandemic] The virus has definitely taught us how quickly we are capable of adapting to changes, says Shivangi Mudgil of Appscrip

I was over-the-moon and happy to be a mum in 2020. Every day with my son Rehan was a new adventure and learning.

But looming over my joy was also the reality that my business at Appscrip was getting affected with the slowing down of the economy because of COVID, so for me, it was like I had two babies to take care of at the same time. It was overwhelming trying to focus on my business in the new normal while taking care of my newborn. 

I had little energy left at the end of the day for my own work so I tried to squeeze in work here and there during the day when I could. Still, I was frustrated that I couldn’t make commitments to leads on Skype for calls and opportunities because my schedule was unpredictable. 

But I never gave up. I made sure that I bought myself time for work whenever I could.I used to compartmentalise a lot of the work within naps. Balancing one’s career with motherhood isn’t always easy, but it can be beyond fulfilling to have the best of both worlds.

Most importantly, be sure to embrace your beautiful, imperfect, exciting, raw, adventurous journey. After all, isn’t that what life is all about? You know, good things take time. It took some time, but everything fell back to its place. Maybe primarily because I had the utmost will to do so! And as they say, when there’s a will, there’s a way. 

COVID-19 came as a challenge to us at Appscrip, as we were working on the new set of products in the company and we had expanded our workforce for the same. We had to implement a work-from-home policy with the rising cases. People also had to move to their hometowns and work remotely. 

While a lot of companies were cutting salaries and laying off their employees, we clearly decided to support our employees both emotionally and financially. We made sure we give bonuses to people who are working hard to meet deadlines and also added incentives for those who were coming forward to take more responsibilities.

As founders, Rahul Sharma and I did not take salaries for an entire year. We distributed the profits made by the company in the last financial year amongst the best performers of the year to motivate and encourage our workforce.

We believe a hybrid work model will help us keep our team happy since they now live closer to their homes, save more money as the cost of living is lower in these cities and also have access to local food and culuture that we feel folks who migrate miss the most. 

The pandemic has definitely taught us how quickly we are capable of adapting to changes. Within months of the pandemic, many people adjusted to living their lives differently - how they worked, how they learned, how they interacted with others, how they spent their time, and how they lived their lives.