WFH Diaries: For Babita Baruah, it's work as usual in the company of Netflix, books

WFH Diaries ft. Babita Baruah, Managing Partner, GTB India (WPP) cruises through how a typical day pans out for her as she divulges further into her lockdown routine.

With more than two decades of experience in the advertising domain, Baruah believes in the power of influence of the communication industry towards a purposive future. WFH Diaries with Babita Baruah seeks to delve into the leader’s daily routine during the lockdown and how she copes with it.

Baruah is an early riser and she starts her day by offering a prayer of thanks. Post which she sits among little plants and trees in the small garden set up of her house, not without her coffee. “I feel they stand for resilience, longevity and seeing years and years of incidences, troubling times – yet they stand tall”.  

Baruah and the folks at GTB India commenced work from home from March 16.  Sitting at her work desk in the living room, she adds, “My husband is an artist and our house is like a mini-museum. I feel very inspired by the art around me”. Even on regular days, she likes to sit at that corner decked up with fairy lights and paintings.

Further, on the work front, she informs that the team has divided work into three large buckets. First and the most important is people and their physical health, mental well being. There are various engagement activities planned. For instance, starting from inviting an external guest speaker to virtual birthday celebrations to impromptu quizzes, the team has done possibly everything.

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The second bit is where the business comes. She elaborates, “Apart from regular client talks, we also brainstorm around recovery plans and how do we sort of bounce back. The third bit is what I feel very important and passionate about is to be very open and honest with the team”.

According to her, this is the time where you have to put all cards on the table with regular updates which are all about being transparent and letting people know that we are in this together.

Baruah’s evenings are pretty much a mix of very healthy but sometimes an unbalanced mix of Netflix and lots of reading. She is also doing a lot of video calls and catching up with family back home and friends. “You must be wondering why I haven’t spoken about cooking and cleaning at all. Yes, I have done my bit of swabbing but I am very blessed to have a husband who is a chef too. He is not professional but close to it. So, we are being served very delicious dishes,” she laughs.  

Watch the video as Baruah gives us a sneak peek into her lockdown work routine and how she usually ends her day.