Working from home: adaption, challenges, and recommended practice on a crises : a qualitative study in Bangladesh

Abstract: Bangladesh is the world's seven most populous country and its population with the average of 1000 people per square kilometer throughout the country. More than anything the country is facing unprecedented challenges due to Covid-19 pandemic. As of facing this unprepared challenge, the Government had to lockdown the country and the employees had to start working from home considering the situation and safety concerns. However, unlike the developed countries, the working from home scenario in Bangladesh is far more difficult as the concept is completely new. The difficulties are particularly seen in the advertising agency where the working culture needs to be collaborative. In addition to that, lack of preparation, shortage of right tools and support and overall, the new teleworking condition have turned the process overwhelming and complicated for the advertising agency employees. The purpose of this research is to explore the adaptation process of Advertising agencies during Covid-19 in Bangladesh. The research was qualitative in nature with an interpretivist perspective. As a deductive approach the concept of virtual work and its critical components were researched and later as an inductive approach email interviews with advertising agencies were conducted to discover and develop empirical understanding around the research topic. Through research it was discovered that the current work from home adaptation process has several shortcomings, without providing the required and special conditions for employees’ wellbeing and motivational factors. In addition to that, there is no adoption of any new collaborative tools that were found for the creative teams apart from the general communicative tools.