In this issue

WFH, coming full circle

The idea of an office, where workers clock in and out at the same time every day, dates back to the industrial revolution in the west and became significant in Sri Lanka since around the nineteen fifties. Before that, people were paid on how much work they did rather than the amount of time they spent at work.

In Sri Lanka, covid-19 is posing two questions about the future of work. The first is one that companies are grappling with everywhere in the world: what is the future of the office? Work from home has acquired its own acronym, WFH, as the coronavirus linked lockdown and the disease’s rapid spread prevented most white-collar office workers getting to their places of work. That’s the first challenge, what is the future of the office as we know it in a post covid world. However, the second challenge about the future of work is more profound and will have far-reaching consequences.

Covid has amplified the inequities in Sri Lanka’s jobs landscape. Around 15% of those employed, in taxpayer-funded jobs, were unaffected by a jobs crisis that has engulfed the country. Over 40% of workers in Sri Lanka work in the private sector and almost all of them were impacted when private business revenue disappeared; layoffs and salary reductions were widespread. The third category are the self-employed who make up 40% of the workforce and had no fallback for any income loss during the lockdown.

The pandemic offers an opportunity for Sri Lanka to question the equity of a system that protects a minority who everyone else has to support.

It may feel like the pandemic has revolutionised working life but in some ways, it has simply come full circle. Before the industrial revolution, there was no working week, no 9-to-5s, and no fixed workplace for many people. Thanks to corvid, we may have come closer to the way things will look like when the world emerges from lockdown.

Echelon Magazine Description:

Intelligent Storytelling

The one thing that will define the Echelon magazine will be the quality of the storytelling. Echelon,published monthly, will cover in depth Sri Lanka’s most successful businesses, examine their winning strategiesand profile their leaders in immersive stories. Great stories are also never limited to words, and our approach includes rich photography, bold graphics and leading edge design which together will make for a compelling read.

But business doesn’t start and end in a boardroom;it extends to the golf club greens, to international travel and to pursuits that blurthe lines between commercial venture and sheer passion. The Echelon team will present the best in business and lifestyle coverage that will appeal to an exclusive and affluent readership: an otherwise hard to reach demographic.

Content will be developed by one of the most experienced and proven teams of editors, financial journalists, photographers and designers in the country.This team has already raised the bar for powerful and expertly crafted business news. Shamindra Kulamannage, will lead the editorial team.

The reputation of Echelon is being built on the separation between editorial and advertising. However we are also looking for the most creative and impactful new formats that can be applied in our magazines, iPad app as well as website to help our clients reach our audience. We are flexible and creative and we will have a solution for every single advertiser who wants to reach our audience.

We are passionate about creative results and about working with our advertisers to help them create bespoke multi platform creative solutions with our in house creative team and of course our sales team.

Echelon will be a great place to show off the products and capabilities of our clients because they will be surrounded by an editorial product that is expertly crafted, full of integrity and intelligence.