Office Management In a COVID-19 Era

Abstract

By the time the World Health Organization ("WHO") upgraded the status of the novel Coronavirus Disease (officially known as COVID-19) outbreak from an epidemic to a global pandemic on 11th March, 2020, the virus had already travelled beyond Wuhan, China, its point of original outbreak in December 2019 and crossed international borders. Given the rapid rate of infection and increasing number of deaths in the wake of the unprecedented spread of the virus, various emergency measures have been deployed by municipal, local, state, national and multilateral authorities to contain the outbreak. Besides being a public health crisis, COVID-19 continues to trigger severe social and economic consequences for individuals, corporates and governments across the world. Specifically, markets and industries are reacting negatively to the pandemic. Global stock and commodity prices (especially crude oil) have plummeted to unprecedented levels in recent weeks, with grave multiplier effects on economies. The general consensus is that this trend is not expected to reverse anytime soon, given the impact of current border closures, international travel restrictions, and lockdown of large swaths of movements of persons in many cities, countries and regions of the world. This paper analyses the key socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 and measures taken by Office managers for mitigating its impact on the operations of organizations. Keywords: Office Management, Socio-economic, COVID-19, Organization Journal Reference Format: Idiake, C.O. (2022): Office Management in a COVID-19 Era. Journal of Behavioural Informatics, Digital Humanities and Development Research. Vol. 8.No. 4, Pp 15-26. Available online at https://www.isteams.net/behavioralinformaticsjournal. dx.doi.org/10.22624/AIMS/BHI/V8N4P1