Ebook Quality of Work Life During Pandemic Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling 1St Edition Gitanjali Rahul Shinde Online PDF All Chapter
Ebook Quality of Work Life During Pandemic Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling 1St Edition Gitanjali Rahul Shinde Online PDF All Chapter
Ebook Quality of Work Life During Pandemic Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling 1St Edition Gitanjali Rahul Shinde Online PDF All Chapter
https://ebookmeta.com/product/mathematical-analysis-and-
analytical-modeling-1st-edition-ivan-stanimirovic/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/mathematical-modeling-in-the-age-
of-the-pandemic-textbooks-in-mathematics-1st-edition-fox/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/quality-of-life-a-post-pandemic-
philosophy-of-medicine-2nd-edition-robin-downie/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/mathematical-modeling-in-the-age-
of-the-pandemic-textbooks-in-mathematics-1st-edition-william-p-
fox/
Applied Mathematical Modeling and Analysis in Renewable
Energy 1st Edition Manoj Sahni
https://ebookmeta.com/product/applied-mathematical-modeling-and-
analysis-in-renewable-energy-1st-edition-manoj-sahni/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/applied-modeling-techniques-and-
data-analysis-1-computational-data-analysis-methods-and-
tools-1st-edition-yiannis-dimotikalis/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/quantitative-analysis-and-modeling-
of-earth-and-environmental-data-space-time-and-spacetime-data-
considerations-1st-edition-jiaping-wu/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/srinivasa-ramanujan-life-and-work-
of-a-natural-mathematical-genius-swayambhu-1st-edition-k-
srinivasa-rao/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/achieving-quality-of-life-at-work-
transforming-spaces-to-improve-well-being-1st-edition-suhana-
mohezar/
Studies in Big Data 100
Quality
of Work-Life
During
Pandemic
Data Analysis and Mathematical
Modeling
Studies in Big Data
Volume 100
Series Editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
The series “Studies in Big Data” (SBD) publishes new developments and advances
in the various areas of Big Data- quickly and with a high quality. The intent is to
cover the theory, research, development, and applications of Big Data, as embedded
in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics, economics and life sciences.
The books of the series refer to the analysis and understanding of large, complex,
and/or distributed data sets generated from recent digital sources coming from
sensors or other physical instruments as well as simulations, crowd sourcing, social
networks or other internet transactions, such as emails or video click streams and
other. The series contains monographs, lecture notes and edited volumes in Big
Data spanning the areas of computational intelligence including neural networks,
evolutionary computation, soft computing, fuzzy systems, as well as artificial
intelligence, data mining, modern statistics and Operations research, as well as
self-organizing systems. Of particular value to both the contributors and the
readership are the short publication timeframe and the world-wide distribution, which
enable both wide and rapid dissemination of research output.
The books of this series are reviewed in a single blind peer review process.
Indexed by SCOPUS, EI Compendex, SCIMAGO and zbMATH.
All books published in the series are submitted for consideration in Web of Science.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
Preface
v
vi Preface
what is ought to be? The selection of an appropriate machine learning algorithm will
completely depend on the descriptive statistics of the data set, and accordingly, the
outcomes can be analyzed for different purposes.
We would like to thank many people who encouraged and helped us in various ways
throughout this book, namely our colleagues, friends and students. Special thanks to
our family for their support and care.
We are thankful to BRACT’s Vishwakarma Institute of Information Tech-
nology’s trustees, director, all deans and head of the departments for their constant
encouragement, inexplicable support.
We are thankful to Dr. Mangesh Karad, Executive President and Vice Chancellor,
MITADT University, for his encouragement and constant support.
We would like to thank Dr. Nilanjan Dey Sir, JIS University, for his contin-
uous support and constructive guidelines. We are also very much thankful to all our
department colleagues at SKNCOE, for their continued support, help and keeping
us smiling all the time.
Last but not least, our acknowledgements would remain incomplete if we do not
thank the team of Springer Nature who supported us throughout the development of
this book. It has been a pleasure to work with Springer Nature team, and we extend
our special thanks to the entire team involved in the publication of this book.
ix
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction to Quality of Work-Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Characteristics of Quality of Work-Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Stages of QWL Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.3 Importance of Quality of Work-Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.4 Methodology to Improve QWL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Effects of Pandemic on Quality of Work-Life of Employees . . . . . . 8
1.3 Strategies to Reduce the Pandemic Impact on Employees . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.1 From Company’s Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4 Work-Life Balance: Tips to Reduce Pandemic Pressure . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4.1 Reduce Multitasking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4.2 Deep Breath and Meditation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4.3 Exercise and Eating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4.4 Define Individual Space at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5 Employee Engagement Practices During COVID-19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5.1 Virtual Yoga or Workout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5.2 Online Happy Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5.3 Cook Together Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5.4 Virtual Team Building Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.5.5 Games on House Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.5.6 Virtual Group Training Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.5.7 Host Virtual Lunch and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling for COVID-19
Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2 Need of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3 Tools for Mathematical Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
xi
xii Contents
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
About the Editors
Dr. Gitanjali Rahul Shinde has overall 13 years of experience, presently working
as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering, Vishwakarma
Institute of Information Technology, Pune, India. She has completed Ph.D. in Wire-
less Communication from CMI, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark on
Research Problem Statement “Cluster Framework for Internet of People, Things
and Services” in 2018. She has obtained M.E. (Computer Engineering) degree from
the University of Pune, Pune in 2012 and a B.E. (Computer Engineering) degree
from the University of Pune, Pune in 2006. She has received research funding for
the project “Lightweight Group Authentication for IoT” by SPPU, Pune. She has
presented a research article at World Wireless Research Forum (WWRF) meeting,
Beijing China. She has published 50+ papers in National, International conferences
and journals. She is the author of 5+ books with a publisher like Springer and CRC
Taylor & Francis Group. She is also editor of books with De Gruyter and Springer.
She is a reviewer of prominent journal IGI publications and IEEE Transactions.
job satisfaction, leadership, training, and learning, etc. She has presented a research
paper at DSMLAI 2021 organized by India-Namibia Centre of Excellence in Infor-
mation Technology and Namibia University of Science and Technology, Namibia.
Furthermore, she is a member of the All India Management Association, ACM, IS,
NIPM, etc.
Dr. Parikshit N. Mahalle obtained his B.E degree in Computer Science and Engi-
neering from Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati, India and M.E. degree
in Computer Engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, India. He
completed his Ph.D in Computer Science and Engineering specialization in Wire-
less Communication from Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. He was Post
Doc Researcher at CMI, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark. He worked
as Professor and Head in the Department of Computer Engineering at STES’s Smt.
Kashibai Navale College of Engineering, Pune, India. Currently He is working as
professor and head in Department of Artificial intelligence and Data Science, Vish-
wakarma Institute of Information Technology, Pune India. He has more than 20 years
of teaching and research experience. He is a senior member IEEE, ACM member,
Life member CSI and Life member ISTE. Also, he is a member of IEEE Trans-
action on Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Internet of Things Journal. He
is a reviewer for IGI Global—International Journal of Rough Sets and Data Anal-
ysis (IJRSDA), Associate Editor for IGI Global—International Journal of Synthetic
Emotions (IJSE), Inderscience International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing
(IJGUC). He is a Member-Editorial Review Board for IGI Global—International
Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence (IJACI). He is also working as an
Associate Editor for IGI Global—International Journal of Synthetic Emotions (IJSE).
He has published more than 150 research publications having 1711 citations and H
index 18. He has 5 edited books to his credit by Springer and CRC Press. He has
seven patents to his credit. He had worked as Chairman of various Board of Studies.
Chapter 1
Introduction
In the business organizations, quality of work is a practice that enables at all levels
(top level, middle level and lower level). This practice gives the organization an
effective shape in terms of environment, methodologies and outcomes. The quality
of work-life has twin goals to accomplish; it increases effectives of the functions
of organizations. On the other hand, it helps to improve the quality of life of the
working people at work [1]. In generic term, it can be said that quality of work-life is
covering the area of people’s feelings toward the dimensions of work in the work envi-
ronment. This includes economical betterment like rewards and benefits, effective
compensation structure, physical betterment like work conditions, health and safety at
work, security and equity, physical condition of workplace, etc. Psychological better-
ment that considers under the dimension of quality work-life including appreciation,
recognition, self-esteem, career development opportunity, training and development
opportunity, job enrichment, etc. The growth and development of the organization is
totally depends on how it works on attracting, recruiting, motivating and retaining
its workforce. Nowadays, business becomes so much competitive; therefore, they
are also focusing the talent of this manpower. They are planning on development of
talent and competency level of the workforce and how it can be equipped with the
going trend of the market [2]. If the people of the organizations are enjoying at their
work, their outcome level will go beyond the standard performance. Their effective
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 1
G. R. Shinde et al., Quality of Work-Life During Pandemic, Studies in Big Data 100,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7523-2_1
2 1 Introduction
I. Employees’ Attitude
Attitude of employees can be judged by their skills, knowledge, expertise,
experience for performing his or her work. Every job position should contain
particular attitude of the personnel like employees willpower to learn new
things, effort for team work and openness toward creativity and innovation.
II. Fair Compensation Structure and Job Security
The business house should maintain an effective policy on compensation
management. Salary and wage administration must be fair, equitable and
justified to all. It also includes job security. If the compensation does not
match with the performance level of employees, it will create feelings of
dissatisfaction [4]. From the part of the employees’, productivity level will
be faced negative consequences. On the other hand, job security provides the
assurance of permanent employment, and it generates improvement in the
domain of quality of work-life [5].
III. Opportunities for Personal and Career development
Every organization should provide career development opportunities to
create an atmosphere for better quality of work-life. In order to make the
employees efficient at their job and cope up with higher job responsibility
in future, proper training and development programs should be organized
periodically [6].
IV. Balancing Between Professional and Personal Life
Apart from job duties and responsibilities, the organization should provide
the time of relaxation to the employees’ with their family members. To get
higher productivity from the side of employees, balancing between profes-
sional and personal life is very much required. Work-life balance keeps
them happy and satisfied [7]. They will not be overburdened and pressur-
ized by huge work duties if proper balance between personal and work-life
is followed.
1.1 Introduction to Quality of Work-Life 3
V. Nature of Job
This refers to the allocation of job to the employees. If the job is dull,
monotonous and routine kind in nature, then it will lead to boredom, dissatis-
faction, fatigue. It makes quality of work-life poor [8, 9]. This can be modified
by providing recognition, growth, creativity, advancement opportunities. In
this way, the quality of work-life has a relation with nature of jobs.
VI. Level of Stress
Stress has negative impacts in productivity of an individual. The working
people of the organization always need a stress free environment. If the stress
level is high, the outcome declines, and if there is no stress, there is plentiful
outcomes. The quality of work-life depends on stress free working environ-
ment of the organization [10]. The goals of the organization can be served in
a better way.
VII. Risk and Reward
The individual should be paid more when they face risky and challenging
job. Less risk and challenge gives them less amount of salary. For taking
challenges in the job as well as risk factors, the organization must keep a
well-defined reward system. It acts as a motivation to the employees. There
is no doubt that highly motivated people will produce huge.
Various research studies and theoretical models have been established that the reten-
tion level of the working class in an organization can be increased by focusing their
needs and demands. In this regard, the organization can be benefitted in the area of
productivity, employee loyalty, recognition and reputation in long term. Organiza-
tional effectiveness is highly influenced by quality of work-life [16]. It has been said
that it is the input of level of employee satisfaction and result is increased economic
strength for the organization. There are so many significant factors that make quality
of work-life very important in the paradigm of business environment. This helps
(i) to raise productivity and profitability of business, (ii) it attracts talent and retain
them for long run, (iii) the rate of turnover and absenteeism is minimized, (iv) the
work-life quality is continuously improving, (v) a proper work-life balance provides
benefits to the families and communities (vi) generates job satisfaction and finally
(vii) builds positive image of the organization.
The efficiency level of employees indicates rising productivity. Work–life balance
creates influence on profitability index of the organization. On the other hand stressful
environment of work effects negatively on productivity. Therefore, company’s
management needs to form such policies, values, norms, ethics that show a posi-
tive image in the field of business effectiveness. This will surely help the employees
to engage entirely from their side. The loyalty of the employees must be created
by providing a good quality of work-life. Through the research works, several new
strategies are implementing in area of business, and it becomes easier to understand
how to attract and retain skilled and knowledgeable personnel. Attractive and suit-
able policies framed by the top-level management always focus on the practice by
which the people can stick for a longer period of time. Employees are full of human
capital, and they are motivated at their performance by receiving performance related
incentives, leave with pay facility, comfortable hours of work, recess or break during
6 1 Introduction
Quality of work-life is a prime practice in any organization under the vast field of
human resource management. It is very much significant and has a huge influence
on the people who are engaged in different establishments. The quality of work-
life indicates the employees’ statues in relation to their happiness and level of job
satisfaction. If we focus on one of the important parameter of qualitative work-life,
we must consider work-life balance. In the UK, the term work-life balance was
first introduced in the women’s Liberalization Movement. It was said that time that
average working hour should be 14 to 16 h in a day and in a week it should be six
days [20]. In this way, the entire concept of quality work-life became very popular
in the reform and re-establishment strategy. Quality of work-life provides employee
engagement in the organization. High level of engagement leads to high level of
commitment. Committed people produce more. Out of the productivity, the business
organization can achieve its objectives. In present time, due to the drastic effects
of pandemic, the quality of work-life of the working people is getting poor day by
day. Employees are far away from the workplace and are doing remote work in this
scenario. All the time, all kinds of facilities and resources are not available to do work
through this man–machine interface [21]. The work from home concept makes the
work-life balance unbalanced. Working people are not able to manage professional
life as well as personal life during these phases as lots of work are coming to them
from their workplace as well as from home too [22]. Due to the enhancement of
technology, the employers are shifted to run their business operations through work
from home method. The lives of the people are drastically changing for the wildfire
spread of COVID-19 pandemic. It gives the adverse effect to the young people’s
lives as well. Schools and universities have been closed, exam and other events most
of the time got postponed, and socializing with friends and family also is stopped
1.2 Effects of Pandemic on Quality of Work-Life of Employees 9
[23]. It is getting tough for the people including young to live in this circumstance.
Physical and mental wellbeing is getting hampered. Not only the young are suffering
in this way, the working class of the country is also facing negative consequences.
They are losing their quality of work-life. To keep in mind the effects of pandemic,
business houses are trying to do their operations at their best, but revenue generation
or profit maximization are not fulfilled by most of the organization in this ongoing
situation. Therefore, termination, attrition, lay-off, pay cuts, etc., are taking place.
People become very much unsecured in their job. They are facing job insecurity at
work. As compensation is most important factor for all the job holders, this is their
bread earning and sustainability. Being faced several uncertainties in the pandemic,
people are getting afraid off lose the job. In spite of knowing the fact of overburden
of work, they are not able to do anything opposite of employers; rather, they are
adapting the changes with new flow of work and the work culture in new normal.
The career development opportunity, training and development facility, monetary
and non-monetary facility and other welfare facility all become nil in most of the
organizations [24]. This makes poor quality of work-life for employees.
The work-life balance indicates the picture where the employees can manage
their professional life as well as personal life too. In this pandemic time, work from
home practice becomes easier due to availability of cloud based software, mobile
technology, advantages of smartphone and prolong activities of the Internet. A prime
feature of poor quality of work-life is stress. It can be said that by using these
technologies the business entrepreneurs can run their operations easily, but on the
other hand, the excessive level of stress makes the employees life blur. It becomes such
a practice where employees need to produce more in less time; result is physical, and
mental health problems are raised. Another striking thing in this crisis time; new trend
of work has been observed and named as ‘bossware’. It is one type of controversial
software implemented by business organizations. Through this software the work of
the employees can be tracked and monitored, while they are working from home. It
is the interpretation of the management to enhance the productivity of business by
this process. People are getting afraid due to under surveillance. The outcome is long
working hours for the employees [25, 26]. It is observed that proper tea break, lunch
break, attending invitation to friends’ home all are going to be vanished. Employers’
expectation is reaching beyond the level, and gradually the working hours take place
like 24 × 7. This is very much true that employees are the crucial assets of any
business house; by making them happy and satisfied, the organization can sustain in
the market for long run to create a positive image of the firm. To generate a better
quality of work-life, this is the responsibility of the employers to make a stress-free
environment at work. There is no doubt that quality of work-life becomes worst,
and in the context of human resource management, it has no justification. Every
organization should follow a suitable work environment and establish transparent
work-related policies that will encourage people to do work with happiness. Staffs
must be provided breaks and leisure time for spending with family members. Several
research studies have shown that large working hours affects health of individuals. It
creates cardiovascular disease, and due to mental health issue, people work-life can
be traumatized. Poor work-life balance is the reason of sleepless. Sleep deprivation
10 1 Introduction
is very much connected with cardiovascular disease. This also effects on physical
health. According to research studies, normal sleeping schedule should be on an
average 7 to 9 h per night. Due to these negative effects of stress, there is a high
chance of stroke, coronary heart disease and sometime mental disorders such as
depression, frustration and anxiety. Myocardial infarction and stroke- are causing
death. The two most significant factors are considered here to make non-effective
quality of work-life; they are sleep deprivation and myocardial infarction [27]. The
need of work-life balance is more important than ever, in this pandemic situation.
COVID-19 pandemic has got the birth of unpredictable work environment
including pressured work culture for the employees. During the period of isola-
tion at home, it becomes difficult for them to face the physical and psychological
challenges. In order to maintain a good and effective quality of work-life, not only
the employees are responsible, also the employers should extend their hand of help
toward the employees. They should provide all the welfare facilities and betterment
that are really needed in this time. The employees are the human capital of the organi-
zation. By using this human capital, the organizations can enable to generate financial
assets in true sense. Pandemic effects on employees are really horrible. Their lives
are facing risk also [28]. To keep in mind the importance of human assets, the system
must implement necessary attributes of quality of work-life.
Over the last few months, it has been seen that due to COVID-19 virus many people
are getting infected in many of the countries all over globe. With the speedy spread
of this corona virus, a negative impact has come in the area of economy, society and
business as well. During this pandemic, the business leaders have become very much
concerned to reduce the horrible impact of corona virus on business and employees
and their level of performances. According to Deloitte survey, it has been stated that
the pandemic has created an adverse effect on sales volume and cash flows. It is
also creating some risk factors including lack of supply of raw materials, lack of
tools, machineries to execute remote work, safety issues of employees and so on.
The executives of the business firms also mentioned that COVID-19 has made a
drastic change in the fields of organizational efficiency [29, 30]. The performance
target has been decreased by the employees of the firms. On the basis of Deloitte
research work, some interventions are made as a reduction strategy of the pandemic
impact on employees.’ This is a universal truth that employees are the assets of any
organization. By making them productive in the organization the business can earn
a higher level of profitability and improves, the efficiency level of its performance.
1.3 Strategies to Reduce the Pandemic Impact on Employees 11
In this pandemic situation to decrease the negative impact, the companies should
establish a cross-functional team, where all the team members are very much dedi-
cated toward accomplishment of objectives. To coordinate the activities of different
business units, the cross-functional team should provide necessary information
related to tasks to senior management. Every operations of different business units
must be monitored by this cross-functional team [31]. After the senior management,
the necessary information can be communicated with the employees of the firms,
customers, shareholders and partners. It is the peak time to analyze the critical roles,
responsibilities and key job positions in the organization. In this time, it may happen
that top management is away on business trips and also shortage of some efficient
employees due to the reason of sickness or in quarantine. This does not mean that
work stoppages are there; rather, the companies are developing a suitable and appro-
priate process of management regarding decision making under different scenarios of
business. The company needs to make safety guidelines to them who are at workplace
and cannot able to work remotely [32]. A periodical review is needed to maintain
proper hygiene in the workplace with applying disinfectants. The management of the
company must focus on analyzing the priority of the projects. The most important
and critical tasks of its projects and efforts of the teams should be nurtured in this
case. Low-priority tasks are given high flexibility.
The continuous communication between leaders and companies’ people during
this critical time can leave a lasting mark forever. An effective communication and
interaction among them make the company powerful and rejuvenate its work culture.
It is established that if there is a disruption, there always be a recovery. Company must
facilitate some remote work options that are flexible in nature. The business should
consider making a temporary basis succession planning for the company’s key exec-
utive positions and critical role positions. Always share the symptoms of COVID-19
disease and the prevention mechanisms among the employees. Conducting a series of
remote seminars and workshops with expert or health professionals is also required
very much to create awareness about the severity of the pandemic. In this sessions, the
question–answer round is also encouraged by these experts. They must try to give all
the answers that are asked by employees. During this critical time, the employers also
consider to provide financial and psychological support to the manpower. They are
providing additional insurance coverage, assistance in emergency, payroll payment
regular wise. Medical tools, equipments like thermometers, antibacterial products,
etc., are purchased by the management of companies to maintain proper health and
safety norms in the workplace [33]. They are very much concerned about to monitor
employees’ health, more over always focused on disinfecting the work environment.
Apart from activities, the employers need to review the existing sick leave policies
for physical betterment of employees. If there is a rise of illness among employees,
they do not need to show medical documents all the time. There leaves or absences
are to be considered on the medical ground.
12 1 Introduction
The people of India are not used to do work through the new method ‘work from
home.’ It is one kind of fancy idea of doing work. In this way, working people can do
work from anywhere and also spend time with family, relatives and friends. Remote
working gives negative impact on wellbeing of people. It makes people stressed. The
working hours become 24 × 7 during this ongoing pandemic situation. People are
getting frustrated as they have to meet high targets at work. Digital communication
has taken an effective role in this scenario to maintain all kinds of professional
communication. Study has revealed that Indians have faced a high level of burnout
over the last six months. As per Microsoft Work Trend Index, it has been said that
India has got second rank in case of highest number of workers who faced burnout in
Asia, and the figure is 29%. Statistics has shown that remote working practice creates
an additional 60 h of work in a month for the working class due to this COVID-19
[35, 36].
COVID-19 has changed our perspective when it is coming to the envisioning role
of the workplace. In this new normal, the employees have tried to adapt new ways
of doing work. The compromised productivity is coming out from these constantly
blurring work-life boundaries. Eventual burnout, continuous distraction, overloaded
1.4 Work-Life Balance: Tips to Reduce Pandemic Pressure 13
of information, etc., are highlighted among employees. Many companies are worried
to give calls for their employees for rejoin due to fear of speedy transmission of
infection. The work-life balance of the employees is getting poor. The situation has
made adverse impact on mental as well as physical heath of the working people. Few
important tips are jotted down to maintain a perfect work-life balance [37].
Several research studies have shown that in this phase multitasking can hamper
productivity of the work. This creates poor quality of work-life. It is suggested that
people should target on one thing at a time. Continuous correspondence through
emails and messages should be reduced. They need to stop themselves for being
responsive always and should create a boundary to eliminate conflict.
Meditation helps to reduce job-related stress. People who are suffering in high stress,
depression, frustration, they should do meditation regular basis. The deep breathing
technique also helps to create relaxation. It improves and controls the ability of
reaction to negative feedback. To diminish the stressors, people should hold the
breath for 7 s and exhale for 8 s. This pattern of breathing is aiming to decrease
anxiety and inducing sleep [38].
Physical and mental health’s are very much related to each other. Due to excessive
stress, not only physical health has been hampered, the mental health also is suffered.
Brain is the assets of manpower. They are using it in the workplace and making high
level of productivity. When it comes to stress and burnout, these brains become
brain-drains. Not only the employees, but also organizations face loss due to poor
work-life balance of employees. To overcome this, one should consume rich foods
and maintain healthy diets. Rich foods consist of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole
grains that have the ability to improve immune system and fight against deficiency.
Along with this, regular exercise is very much needed. Headaches, fatigue, anxiety,
stress, etc., will be removed through the practice of exercise and good foods. Regular
exercise releases endorphins, and it creates stabilized mood, helps to improve sleep
and increase the power of self-esteem to people.
14 1 Introduction
In the present time, as work from home practice is ongoing for all the establishments,
everyone needs to select a proper place while working. Otherwise if anyone does his
work to stay with family members, there are several kinds of responsibility that can
distract the person from work [39]. Moreover, household duties also can come while
working. This also gives stresses to employees. Therefore employees need to always
choose a dedicated workplace at home. When they have meeting to attend, they
should use this remote place at home. It also helps to maintain a balanced work-life.
For elevating mood of the employees to get a little blood pumping means a lot. To
be physically and mentally fit, employees need to take a quick pause from work to
attend the session of virtual yoga or workout class. Team leader can join the class
with the team members that are run by an expert [40]. Due to this work from home
practice, people are getting stressed and sometime depressed. This workout or yoga
will help them to engage at work actively.
Employee engagement does not mean that people always need to stay at work.
The team members are cooperated to make the operations effective of a team, but
sometime, they should know each other personally not only through work. Therefore,
casual settings of work also make the employees engaged. They will know better
their professional role in this way. The management can use their favorite video
conferencing platform like Zoom, Gmeet or Microsoft Teams to enjoy beverages
together. To keep in mind, the drastic effects of the pandemic fancy cocktail party
through virtual mode may be arranged to make the employees happy and engaged
in work spontaneously. Some lighthearted fun is also included under this juncture.
While working at home, the employees also can share few recipes with others through
the virtual platform. It is also one type of mind refreshment practice when everyone
is showing the recipes of their favorite meal. Budget of some grocery items can be
1.5 Employee Engagement Practices During COVID-19 15
shared for cooking purposes. It should make sure that all the meals prepared by the
ingredients maintaining all dietary restrictions, so nobody can be left the meeting
[41, 42].
During this pandemic, the work-life along with the personal life has been hampered.
The morale and job satisfaction level is very poor for the employees, and it has created
an adverse effect on quality of work-life. The employee engagement level faces some
negative consequences that is why commitment level toward the organization is also
suffering. People should be cherished all the time to be happy and work effectively.
Their mental health and physical health should be kept in a safe mode. In this area
of discussion, virtual team building activities are useful tool to engage employees
and make them connected with others while social distancing is on. Virtual team
building activities include a lot of things of fun, namely clue murder mystery, team
pursuit, code break, game show extravaganza, virtual beach staycation, virtual escape
room, virtual office Olympics, virtual time machine, etc. Clue murder mystery is a
fun activity where team members are solving who had the motive or commit a
crime. Team pursuit is making the team strong. The team members can enhance
their mental skill, physical skill and mastery. Code breaks give the opportunity to
the group members to solve puzzles, riddles in a competitive environment. Game
show extravaganza is related to the questions on pop culture, sports, world history,
geography and more. Virtual time machine transforms home offices into a virtual
game show experience including scoreboard, buzzer and all. Virtual beach staycation
is a team building adventure where taste and flavors of vacation can be taken by the
group. Escape room is the activity which is based on robbery. It is a brain storming
session of group members. The mastermind of the group will steal precious jewels,
and it is the duty of other members of the group to recover them before the time goes
out. Some hidden clues are there; people need to think deeply and should solve the
problems. This activity requires high collaboration and creative mind for problem
solving. Virtual office Olympic is also a team building activity where the teams are
competing with each other in relation to finish their assignments or tasks, which
group can take the chance or challenge to present their teamwork in front of others
first [43–45].
House party is a type of app that is connected with face-to-face social networking.
Over the last few months, this app becomes very much popular toward one of the
useful modes of employee engagement index. This is well known in abroad rather
than in our country. House party comes into action with some new and unique social
16 1 Introduction
features, which are unique games. Employees can spend some quality time with
each other with the app. The app allows many numbers of available games; by this,
employees can connect with their co-workers. The names of the games are like heads
up, trivia games, etc.
In this pandemic time when employee morale is very much down all over globe, there
is something that can be considered as teams’ personal and professional development.
Training is the process by which employee can enhance their skills and knowledge.
Training is short term where development is long term in nature. To boost up the
moral of the employees, few effective training should be provided to them such as
emotional intelligence or EQ-based training, time management training on practical
basis, effective communication and training. EQ training helps to develop leadership,
self-awareness and social skills. Practical time management training provides the
concept of minimum distraction while working and make the time optimum utilized
while working at home and in the office both. By the help of effective communication
training, the team members are becoming efficient communicators. This helps to
develop verbal, non-verbal and written skills of the employees [46, 47]. People can
be engaged in this way, and they can improve their physical and mental betterment.
1.6 Discussion
schools, colleges were closed and teaching, examinations were carried out on online
platforms. These platforms were new to teachers as well as students. The real estate
sector faced tremendous loss in this pandemic as people were scared and no one was
ready to invest their money in such an uncertain time. The agriculture filed is also
suffered as raw materials required for agriculture were not available readily due to
pandemics. There is a need to understand and analyze the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on the Quality of Work-Life (QWL) in these mentioned sectors. Various
mathematical modeling besides machine learning techniques may help to understand
and draw useful inferences and normative interpretations.
1.7 Summary
It is well established from the period of Taylor’s scientific management (1910) system
that management should take care of the betterment of the employees. This is the duty
of employers to improve the quality of work-life, not only this pandemic time rather
this should be a continuous process to make employees’ productive. Better quality
of work-life ensures greater participation and higher involvement of employees.
Quality of work-life directly and indirectly connected withthe retention ratio of
skilled, talented manpower in the organization. Due to poor qualitative work-life,
the talent can move from one organization to another organization, and this is a
loss for the organization as there is involvement of high replacement cost. In this
new normal time though the quality of work-life and work-life balance have been
destroyed, but this is not a good sign for them as it creates lots of problems in rela-
tion to their mental and physical health. Human resource plays the key roles such
as developing, reinforcing and changing the culture of the organization. Therefore,
their quality of work-life must be taken care. Basically, quality of work-life covers
all essential elements of employees as well as business. This is based on recruit-
ment and on boarding of employees, retention strategy, managing employees perfor-
mance, training and development program, pay and perks management, discipline
management, grievance handling procedure, development program for executives
and many more. Manpower is highly motivated when they receive these facilities
from their employers. The brand value of an organization not only depends on effec-
tive usage of physical, financial and technological resources, also highly focused on
human resources and best practice on quality of work-life to make them productive
continuously. This helps to improve the functions of business in its all sphere.
18 1 Introduction
References
1. Saraji, G.N., Dargahi, H.: Study of quality of work life (QWL). Iran. J. Public Health 35(4),
8–14 (2006)
2. Nadler, D. A., & Lawler, E. E. (1983). Quality of work life: perspectives and directions. Organ.
Dyn.
3. Lawler, E.E.: Strategies for improving the quality of work life. Am. Psychol. 37(5), 486 (1982)
4. Cummings, T.G., Molloy, E.S.: Improving productivity and the quality of work life. Praeger
(1977)
5. Sirgy, M.J., Efraty, D., Siegel, P., Lee, D.J.: A new measure of quality of work life (QWL)
based on need satisfaction and spillover theories. Soc. Indic. Res. 55(3), 241–302 (2001)
6. Havlovic, S.J.: Quality of work life and human resource outcomes. Ind Relat: J. Econ. Soc.
30(3), 469–479 (1991)
7. Kraut, R.E., Dumais, S.T., Koch, S.: Computerization, productivity, and quality of work-life.
Commun. ACM 32(2), 220–238 (1989)
8. Adhikari, D.R., Gautam, D.K.: Labor legislations for improving quality of work life in Nepal.
Int. J. Law Manag. 52(1), 40–53 (2010)
9. Kanten, S., Sadullah, O.: An empirical research on relationship quality of work life and work
engagement. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 62, 360–366 (2012)
10. Fields, M.W., Thacker, J.W.: Influence of quality of work life on company and union
commitment. Acad. Manag. J. 35(2), 439–450 (1992)
11. Chan, K.W., Wyatt, T.A.: Quality of work life: a study of employees in Shanghai. China. Asia
Pacific Bus. Rev. 13(4), 501–517 (2007)
12. Crompton, R., Lyonette, C.: Work-life ‘balance’ in Europe. Acta. Sociologica. 49(4), 379–393
(2006)
13. Lockwood, N. R. (2003). Work/life balance. Challenges and solutions, SHRM research, USA,
pp. 2–10.
14. Delecta, P.: Work life balance. Int. J. Curr. Res. 3(4), 186–189 (2011)
15. Kalliath, T., Brough, P.: Work–life balance: a review of the meaning of the balance construct.
J. Manag. Organ. 14(3), 323–327 (2008)
16. Fleetwood, S.: Why work–life balance now? Int. J. Hum. Res. Manag. 18(3), 387–400 (2007)
17. Lewis, S., Gambles, R., Rapoport, R.: The constraints of a ‘work–life balance’approach: an
international perspective. Int. J. Hum. Res. Manag. 18(3), 360–373 (2007)
18. Gregory, A., & Milner, S. E. (2009). Work-life balance: a matter of choice? Gender. Work
Organ. 16(1), 1–13.
19. Majumder, S., & Biswas, D. (2021, February). Fundamentals, present and future perspectives of
quality of work life. In: Proceeding of first doctoral symposium on natural computing research:
DSNCR 2020 (Vol. 169, p. 271). Springer Nature.
20. Majumder, S., & Biswas, D. (2021). COVID-19 impacts construction industry: now, then and
future. In: COVID-19: prediction, decision-making, and its impacts (pp. 115–125). Springer,
Singapore.
21. Schieman, S., Badawy, P.J., Milkie, M.A., Bierman, A.: Work-life conflict during the COVID-
19 pandemic. Socius 7, 2378023120982856 (2021)
22. Duan, Y., Iaconi, A., Song, Y., Norton, P.G., Squires, J.E., Keefe, J., Estabrooks, C.A.: Care
aides working multiple jobs: considerations for staffing policies in long-term care homes during
and after the COVID-19 pandemic. J. Am. Med. Dir. Assoc. 21(10), 1390 (2020)
23. Dewey, C., Hingle, S., Goelz, E., Linzer, M.: Supporting clinicians during the COVID-19
pandemic. Ann. Intern. Med. 174, 752–753 (2020)
24. Jaiswal, A., Singh, T., Arya, Y.K.: “Psychological antibodies” to safeguard frontline healthcare
warriors mental health against COVID-19 pandemic-related psychopathology. Front. Psych.
11, 1415 (2020)
25. Li, J., Ghosh, R., & Nachmias, S. (2020). A special issue on the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on work, worker, and workplace!? Implications for HRD research and practices in
time of crisis.
References 19
26. Creese, J., Byrne, J.P., Conway, E., Barrett, E., Prihodova, L., Humphries, N.: “We all really
need to just take a breath”: composite narratives of hospital doctors’ well-being during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18(4), 2051 (2021)
27. Palumbo, R.: Let me go to the office! An investigation into the side effects of working from
home on work-life balance. Int. J. Public Sect. Manag. 33(6/7), 771–790 (2020)
28. [30] Amin, K. P., Griffiths, M. D., & Dsouza, D. D. (2020). Online gaming during the COVID-19
pandemic in India: strategies for work-life balance. Int. J. Mental Health. Addict., 1–7.
29. Hjálmsdóttir, A., Bjarnadóttir, V.S.: “I have turned into a foreman here at home”: Families and
work–life balance in times of COVID-19 in a gender equality paradise. Gend. Work. Organ.
28(1), 268–283 (2021)
30. Wolor, C.W., Solikhah, S., Fidhyallah, N.F., Lestari, D.P.: Effectiveness of E-training, E-
leadership, and work life balance on employee performance during COVID-19. J. Asian Fin.
Econ. Bus. 7(10), 443–450 (2020)
31. Sethi, B. A., Sethi, A., Ali, S., & Aamir, H. S. (2020). Impact of Coronavirus disease (COVID-
19) pandemic on health professionals. Pakistan J. Med. Sci. 36(COVID19-S4), S6.
32. Majumder, S., & Biswas, D. (2021). COVID-19: impact on quality of work life in real estate
sector. Qual. Quan., 1–15.
33. Irawanto, D.W., Novianti, K.R., Roz, K.: Work from home: measuring satisfaction between
work-life balance and work stress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Economies
9(3), 96 (2021)
34. İlkkaracan, I., Memiş, E.: Transformations in the gender gaps in paid and unpaid work during
the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from Turkey. Fem. Econ. 27(1–2), 288–309 (2021)
35. Anwer, M. (2020). Academic labor and the global pandemic: revisiting life-work balance under
COVID-19. Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for leadership excellence and advance working paper
series, 3(1), 5–13.
36. Matulevicius, S.A., Kho, K.A., Reisch, J., Yin, H.: Academic medicine faculty perceptions
of work-life balance before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Netw. Open 4(6),
e2113539 (2021)
37. Dewey, C., Hingle, S., Goelz, E., & Linzer, M. (2020). Supporting clinicians during the COVID-
19 pandemic.
38. Kelker, H., Yoder, K., Musey, P., Harris, M., Johnson, O., Sarmiento, E., & Welch, J. L. (2020).
Longitudinal prospective study of emergency medicine provider wellness across ten academic
and community hospitals during the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Square.
39. Mazerolle, S.M., Goodman, A.: Fulfillment of work–life balance from the organizational
perspective: a case study. J. Athl. Train. 48(5), 668–677 (2013)
40. Caligiuri, P.M., De Cieri, H.: Predictors of employeesâeTM preference for working from home
post-pandemic. Bus. Econ. Res. 11(2), 1–19 (2021)
41. McKim, A. J., Sorensen, T. J., & Burrows, M. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and agricultural
education: an exploration of challenges faced by teachers. Nat. Sci. Educ. 50(1), e20060.
42. Chanana, N. (2020). Employee engagement practices during COVID-19 lockdown. J. Public
Aff., e2508.
43. Reinwald, M., Zimmermann, S., Kunze, F.: Working in the eye of the pandemic: local COVID-
19 infections and daily employee engagement. Front. Psychol. 12, 2544 (2021)
44. Dwiedienawati, D., Tjahjana, D., Faisal, M., Gandasari, D., & Abdinagoro, S.B. (2020). Trans-
formational leadership, communication quality influences to perceived organization effective-
ness and employee engagement and employee retention during the covid-19 pandemic. J. Adv.
Res. Dyn. Control Syst. 12(7 Special Issue).
45. Nguyen, H.N., Tran, M.D.: The effect of perceived organizational support on employee engage-
ment during the COVID-19 pandemic: an empirical study in Vietnam. J. Asian Fin. Econ. Bus.
8(6), 415–426 (2021)
46. De-la-Calle-Durán, M.C., Rodríguez-Sánchez, J.L.: Employee engagement and wellbeing in
times of COVID-19: a proposal of the 5Cs model. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18(10),
5470 (2021)
20 1 Introduction
47. Elizur, D., Shye, S.: Quality of work life and its relation to quality of life. Appl. Psychol. 39(3),
275–291 (1990)
48. Smith, D., Choudhury, P., Chen, G., & Agarwal, R. (2021). Weathering the COVID storm: thes
effect of employee engagement on firm performance during the COVID pandemic. Available
at SSRN 3841779.
Chapter 2
Data Analysis and Mathematical
Modeling for COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract Data analysis is nothing more than the ability to collect and organize data
and translate into meaningful information. Data analysis is a simple form of skill,
referring to the use of logical and analytical reasoning to evaluate collected data.
Data analysis and mathematical modeling help us to formulate ideas and identify
underlying assumptions. The following chapter gives an overview about the need of
data analysis and mathematical modeling to understand the impact of the pandemic.
2.1 Introduction
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 21
G. R. Shinde et al., Quality of Work-Life During Pandemic, Studies in Big Data 100,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7523-2_2
22 2 Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling for COVID-19 Pandemic
Statistical models come in a variety of categories, and a skilled data analyst should
be familiar with all of them. Data analysts need to determine not only the best fit
model to answer the topic at hand but also the best suitable model to the data to deal
with each circumstance [2]. Mathematical modeling can be utilized for a variety of
purposes. The state of knowledge about a system, as well as how well the modeling
is done, determines how successfully any given purpose is attained. The following
are some examples of the types of goals that can be pursued:
1. Developing scientific understanding—by quantitatively expressing present
system knowledge;
2. Test the effect of changes in a system;
3. Aid decision making ((i) tactical decisions by managers, (ii) strategic decisions
by planners).
In this study, collected data from different sectors (e.g., education, real estate,
agriculture, etc.) is analyzed to understand the impact of the pandemic. Data anal-
ysis and mathematical modeling help us to formulate ideas and identify underlying
assumptions.
Data analysis is nothing but the ability to collect as well as to organize the data and
also translate it into meaningful information. Data analysis is the skill in the simple
form which refers to using logical and analytical reasoning in order to evaluate
the collected data. In the organization when they have to collect data, at that time
they monitor its competitors’ performance, sales figures and buying trends, etc., by
using more strength and effort to be more economical. So many times, no one can
understand the customer’s behavior as well as competitor’s performance without
any skills to analyze all the data. That is the reason that data analysis is necessary
for making well-informed and efficient decisions. Also, data analysis helps many
organizations to define their positions in the market relative to competitors and that
helps us to avoid risks as well as it increases opportunities that must be grabbed in
order to grow. The main use of data analysis is for the company to come up with
new products and services that provide greater satisfaction to them and that allows
us to gauge the satisfaction level of the customers and come up with new products.
Hence, data analysis is important for the success of businesses [3].
Mathematics is the only one language of science and technology. These days
mathematics and mathematical modeling (MM) have been in limelight due to its
wide applications to resolve technical as well as non-technical. We can express any
situation or real-world problems into mathematical models or equations by using
the thousands of known mathematical results, theorems, symbols. Mathematical
modeling helps to study an effect of change of a variable or parameter from the set
of equations. Analogically, mathematical modeling is an art of winning war without
2.2 Need of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling 23
actually fighting. MM is the technique to see, study and understand which is invisible
to non-mathematical people.
During pandemic, mathematical modeling is used to find growth rate, recovery
rate, mortality rate, etc. Moreover, MM is used for the prediction of the growth rate,
necessity of the desired infrastructure, economical change and many more.
To study and understand how the world works and how to make it better, we need
mathematical modeling. With the proper study, MM helps to save lives, assists to
make better policies and decision making. Additionally, MM can also be used to
understand the universe and the conditions needed to sustain life.
In MM, we translate our beliefs into the language of mathematics.
• Mathematics is a very precise language. This helps us to formulate ideas and
identify underlying assumptions.
• Mathematics is a concise language, with well-defined rules for operations.
• All the results that mathematicians have proved over hundreds of years are known
to us.
• Computers can be used to perform numerical calculations.
Consider the following problems:
• Find the height of a mountain or tower (without climbing it!).
• Find the width of a river or lake (without crossing it).
• How to find the mass of the Earth (without using a balance).
• How to find the temperature of the Sun at its center of surface.
• Find the volume of blood inside the body of a person (without bleeding him to
death).
• Predict the population of the world in the year 2050.
• Predict the total amount of insurance claims a health company has to pay in the
year 2025.
• To measure severity of the pandemic [2].
All such types of problems have been solving through mathematical modeling
only.
Depending upon the nature of the real-world problem, there are following tools for
mathematical modeling.
• Mathematical models can be classified according to the subject matter of the
models. That is, mathematical modeling in health science, economics, computer
engineering, physics, etc.
• MM according to used mathematical technique.
• Mathematical model according to purpose, that is, MM for prediction, optimiza-
tion, description…
24 2 Data Analysis and Mathematical Modeling for COVID-19 Pandemic
Rough set theory is a mathematical tool which deals with imperfect knowledge.
The problems associated with imperfect knowledge have been resolved for a long
time by philosophers, logicians and mathematicians. There are many mathematical
theories which are useful for handling vagueness or imperfect knowledge. Z. Pawlak
defined an innovative approach of rough set theory to study, understand and interpret
imperfect information.
By using topological operations, interior and exterior approximations, and
boundary, the concept of rough set is defined. For the better understanding of the
rough set theory, need to learn relations first [4].
A relation on set H is any subset of H × H; i.e., Cartesian product of H with H.
A relation R on set H is said to be reflexive if hRh is in H for all h in H. R is said to
be symmetric if hRk is in H implies kRh is also in H for all h, k in H. For any h, k, p
are in H, and hRk, kRp then hRp, such relation R is called transitive relation on H.
A relation R on set H which is reflexive, symmetric and transitive is called an
equivalence relation.
Let H = {set of all straight lines in a plane} and R = {hRk/a straight line h is
parallel to k}.
This relation R is reflexive, symmetric and transitive. Thus, R is an equivalence
relation on H.
Let L = {hRk/a straight line h is perpendicular to k} is a relation on H. The relation
R is symmetric but not reflexive, not transitive. Hence, R is not an equivalence relation.
2.4 Pragmatic Approach for Mathematical Modeling 25
Let U be the universal set and H be a non-empty finite set of an attributes. There-
fore, S = (U, H) is an information system. Let P ⊆ H and h is in H. An Indiscernibility
relation is defined as Inds (P) = {(u, v)/ h(u) = h(v), for all h in H }.
A set of objects which are certainly in Y is called a R-lower approximation of Y
with respect to R. A Relation R* (Y ) is called the R-lower approximation of set Y
with respect to R if
R∗ (Y ) = {y/R(y) ⊆ Y }.
Upper
Set Lower ApproximaƟon
ApproximaƟon
Lower
ApproximaƟon
R (y)
R (y)
R (y)
The readers are advised to understand rough set theory in detailed please refer
[3].
2.4 Pragmatic Approach for Mathematical Modeling 27
2.5 Summary
Data analysis is the skill in the simple form which refers to using logical and analytical
reasoning in order to evaluate the collected data. Data analysis is necessary for making
well-informed and efficient decisions. Also, data analysis helps many organizations
to define their positions in the market relative to competitors. The main use of data
analysis is for the company to come up with new products and services that provide
greater satisfaction to them. Hence, data analysis is important for the success of
businesses. Mathematics is a very precise language, and this helps us to formulate
ideas and identify underlying assumptions. We can express any situation or real-
world problems into mathematical models or equations by using the thousands of
known mathematical results, theorems, symbols. Mathematical modeling helps to
study an effect of change of a variable or parameter from the set of equations. In
this chapter, the need of data analysis and mathematical modeling is presented.
Various tools used for mathematical modeling are also discussed in this chapter.
Data analysis and mathematical modeling help us to formulate ideas and identify
underlying assumptions.
References
Abstract The real estate sector helps to create high profits in the country’s national
income, thereby strengthening the economy. The pandemic not only affected the
workforce, but also affected the stakeholders of the real estate sector, namely raw
material suppliers, builders, building owners, people who participated in promotional
activities, etc. Therefore, feelings, expressions, attitudes of real estate professionals
are very important factors in work-life. The quality of life for real estate professionals
has been hampered. This chapter is an attempt to understand the influence of COVID-
19 on quality of work-life in real estate sector using data analysis and mathematical
modeling.
3.1 Introduction
Real estate sector is one of the booming sectors in the country. It helps to create
high margin of country’s national income and thus makes the economy strong. This
industry has been widely recognized across the globe. It has three segments, namely
residential real estate, commercial real estate and industrial real estate. Residential
includes housing, commercial includes office spaces, retails, shopping malls, hospi-
tals and industrial includes factories, plants, warehouses, etc. [1]. The growth of this
sector is related to the growth of the business environment. It is estimated that by
2025, the real estate sector will also account for 13% of the country’s GDP. Research
shows that India’s real estate industry will increase to a compound annual growth rate
of 19.5% in 2028. The real estate market is expected to grow to Rs. 65,000 crores
by 2040 [2]. Under the construction industry, real estate sector is not exceptional
to get impacted of the COVID-19 pandemic. The labor market, business liquidity,
delivery of project, supply of raw-materials, other key cost components, etc., faced
a harmful effect due to the worst effect of pandemic. In the area of completion of
projects, scheduling and financing this sector has met many more complexities; i.e.,
labors were not available, and material was not accessible. Due to non-availability
of sufficient numbers of staffs and skilled laborers the planned work could not run
smoothly [3]. Lockdown is implemented by various states in India to slow down
infection rate of COVID-19. Though infection rate is slow down due to lockdown,
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 29
G. R. Shinde et al., Quality of Work-Life During Pandemic, Studies in Big Data 100,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7523-2_3
30 3 Influence of COVID-19 on Quality of Work-Life…
however, it made difficulties for real estate sector; as this sector is labor intensive,
large numbers of skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled workers are involved in this field
[4]. Stay home strategy was applied every state; hence, many labors migrated toward
their hometown; this made unavailability of workers for construction, transport, etc.
The international borders were also sealed that made the lack of material required
for constructions. The government offices were closed that also made impact as the
legal permission documents were delayed. Overall, there was unavailability of the
raw material, human resources, legal permissions and many more. This pandemic
impacted not only on labors but to all stakeholders of the real estate sector, i.e., raw
material suppliers, architectures, construction owners, people involved in promo-
tional activities, etc. Therefore, the feeling, expression, attitudes, expectations of the
real estate professionals toward the work-life are very prime factor. Apart from that
the quality life of real estate professionals has been hampered. It is already established
that human resources are the lifeline of any business organization. These assets need
to be taken care of by the employers all the time not only the crisis period. In spite of
having physical, technological and financial resources, the need of human resources
is highly impacted on the organizational efficiency. By motivating and providing job
satisfaction to them, real estate sector can achieve its objectives in terms of image,
recognition and revenue generation [5–7]. The quality of work-life is very striking
part of real estate professionals at this pandemic time. This gives a positive attitude
to the working class. It helps to increase productivity and improves the standard of
living [8]. The quality of work-life is related to employees’ performance, and it has
a direct relation with organizational performance.
What is the status of quality of work-life of these employees in these pandemic
situations, what difficulties and consequences they face in their professional life and
what can be the consequences of it, to find out these phenomena, we mainly focused
and collected the data from different firms under real estate sector.
The key contributions presented in the scope of this chapter are listed as follows:
1. The preparation of a questionnaire for employees in real estate sectors for
recording their ongoing experiences during this COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Preparation of the dataset based the responses collected from the survey initiated
for employees in the real estate sectors.
3. Design a mathematical model to draw statistical inferences.
4. Machine learning-based analysis and visualization to draw useful inferences
and normative interpretations from the dataset.
Section 3.2 reports literature survey of this study. The description of data and
dataset is discussed in Sect. 3.3, and statistical description of the dataset is presented
in Sect. 3.4. Mathematical modeling is presented in Sect. 3.5. Under Sect. 3.6, data
analysis and visualization is reported. Section 3.7 is the summary of the overall study.
3.2 Literature Survey 31
The social distancing and lockdown made it difficult for real estate sector, and various
constructors have faced economical loss. Few constructors may have availability of
labors but not having access to raw material, few are having raw material but facing
lack of human resources, and in all cases, the construction work has been stopped
for long period. The researchers have started looking to understand the impact of
pandemic on real estate and trying to find the mitigation techniques that can improve
the situation. Tanrıvermiş presented the impact of this pandemic of the real estate
sector in Turkey [9]. The study presented the impact on GDP and housing prices.
The analysis shows that there will be significant change in the way of investments,
and people are interested in where they will get fixed returns for their investment,
i.e., fixed deposits, gold, foreign exchange, etc. Uchehara et al. [10] presented the
impact of COVID-19 and risk management for the same. In this study, the mitigation
techniques for tenant and house owners are given, and in pandemic, there was huge
effect on rent of houses. Various rules were applied in the favor of tenants in the period
of lockdown. However, there should be rules for negotiation in such situations where
both parties can come down on some agreement. Giudice et al. [11] presented the
impact of pandemic on real estate sector of Italy. The study presents that the demand
of housing price as well as requirements will change significantly, the home isolation,
social distancing and work from home strategies have focused on need of more space
in home. This will impact of housing demands and prices. Milcheva [12] presented
the impact of pandemic on USA and Asia. Study shows that the real estate sector
impacted varied in USA and Asia. In initial few months of pandemic, US real estate
impacted hugely than Asia, and less negative impact is observed in Asian countries.
There is also difference in fields where impact has been observed, and the retail
and hotel were impacted more in USA, and in Asia, offices were impacted. Marona
and Tomal [13] have presented the impact of pandemic on house brokers. Social
distancing made broker’s to shift digital platform than from their traditional way of
working. The study shows that there is significant change in requirements of landlord
and tenants, and it is also observed that tenants are asking high-end facilities with
low rent. In recent time, a lot of work has been carried out to understand the impact of
this pandemic on the real estate sector and economy [14–19]. In this pandemic time,
the quality of work-life of employees has become one of the significant issues. Singh
et al. [20] focused in their study on discovering the physical and mental exhaustion
and difficulties faced by the employees during pandemic. They made solution for it
by providing the phenomenon of work-life integration rather than work-life balance.
The employees who accepted these changes and made familiar themselves with the
digitalization were capable to meet all the demands in relation to home, family, time,
work, mental–physical health and responsibilities. The concept working from home
has been generated in this pandemic time, and it has penetrated the professional and
personal spaces a lot of the employees. The working time becomes longer. More
usage of digital platforms makes the work-life harder. Deshpande et al. [21] made
the study on work-life integration.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
She faced sharp about, “Florence! Want me!” She looked at him in
grim pity at his simplicity. “No, Bishop, Florence don’t want me! No
more than I want her! We’re misfits, Florence and me,—worse luck
for Dan, and for me, and for the baby, too, now!”
The blue eyes a-twinkle, “And worse luck for Florence, too,” he
persisted. “She sent you the picture. Wasn’t it perhaps to say that
she wants to show you the baby himself?”
“It’s like you to think that, Bishop, but it’s not like Florence to mean
that. I understand Florence! I can still see her face plain, that last
morning!”
“You have not seen her face since there was a baby. Perhaps she
understands you, too, now. Perhaps she understands, now, what it
costs, to give up an only child to anyone.”
“That’s it, of course, that’s what finished me up, her getting Dan,
the way she has. I guess I seem pretty mean to you, but Dan was all
I had.”
“I think I understand,” the Bishop said quietly.
Arrested by his tone she turned, “Was he good, your daughter’s
husband? Did you get on with him?”
“No one is good enough for an only child. Yes, he was good. He—
he has been remarried for a long time, you know.” He spoke with
long pauses, remembering, “Yes, I got on with him. I should have lost
my daughter if I hadn’t. We had one happy year, together. Getting on
is hard. But not getting on is harder.”
She did not speak, turned from him again toward the window,
intent, musing.
“Isn’t it,” he pleaded, “harder?”
“You didn’t have to,” she spoke chokily, “get on with Florence!
Maybe you could, though, you, Bishop. But I couldn’t! You couldn’t
maybe understand how I can’t forgive her for all that she’s taken
from me,—a man couldn’t maybe understand, even you. It’s the
mother working in me. They used to laugh at me over home, and say
I mothered all the village. Yet now I can’t get at Dan, nor at the baby.
I haven’t anyone to mother, and it seems as if it makes me sort of,”
she struck away a tear with an awkward gesture, “sort of smothery!”
His eyes bent on her in sharp intentness, “There is someone for
you to mother!” he said.
“Who?”
“Florence!”
“Florence!” her voice hissed.
“Yes!”
Her trembling lips turned hard, “I guess I’d have to forgive her
first!”
“Couldn’t you?” he questioned, while the blue eyes grew softly a-
shine. “Couldn’t you, to-day? Couldn’t you, for instance, go out to
them to spend Christmas, to-day?” His plan, long suppressed, came
hurrying forth. “It’s so near, and so easy! Only thirty miles to that
baby! The train leaves at ten, you have time. There’s another train
back at seven-two. And you needn’t mind about me. I shall be out all
day, first a visit I must make, then the service, and afterward I dine
with Mrs. Hollister. You are quite free, you see, to go!”
“I’m free enough, yes,” she admitted, “but I haven’t the will to go,
that’s all.”
“To the baby?”
“To Florence! It would mean making up with Florence!”
Lips and eyes showed a quick pleading smile as he said, “Isn’t that
perhaps what Christmas and babies are for, for making up?”
She was silent, her breast in its tightly hooked black rose and fell.
“But people!” she broke forth at length. “Everybody knowing! The
village knows I was turned out, and that there’s not been a word
between us for three years. I can’t go crawling back now, just
because there’s a baby come,—everybody looking on, everybody
knowing!”
“It isn’t everybody’s baby. It’s yours, and hers,” then gravely, “I was
not thinking of other people. I was just thinking how much she needs
her mother, that girl!”
“Florence!” she said, and there were many thoughts in her tone,
slow, incredulous.
The Bishop’s eyes grew remote and bright, seeing Florence. He
spoke a little dreamily, “She needs you now, and she knows she
needs you! She may have been hard once, being young and without
a mother. She may have been cruel. It is different now. She does not
feel so secure now. They are so afraid for their babies, don’t you
remember, always, these little new mothers. There are so many
dangers lying in wait for the little men before they’ve got their armor
on. There must be advice to give, and care to give—oh, Florence
knows how much he needs his grandmother! Go and see. Can’t
you? Couldn’t you? I—I’m in such a hurry to have you go!”
“If I could only hold him once, Dan’s baby!”
“Florence’s baby, too,” he corrected gently.
The brief light swept from her face. Her plump comfortable hands
were knotted, and her round face drawn into dignity by pain. Her
words were grave and final, “The way to that baby is only through
Florence, so I can never go. I can never have him.”
Involuntarily the Bishop’s hand went to his temple in a gesture of
pain, then instantly was forced down. He hesitated, then at length,
“‘Never’ is such a long word,” he said. “Sometimes God says it for
us, but don’t—don’t let us ever say it for ourselves! You know,” a
passing tremor ran along his lips, “He didn’t let me have the
grandchild I hoped for, but don’t—don’t lose having yours. It seems
as if I couldn’t let you go on losing,—that. I am in such a hurry
somehow to-day. Can’t you go out there to-day, now? Take the baby
the Christmas present his mother most wants for him, take him his
grandmother!”
She turned on him, intense, “Bishop, do you know what it’s like to
make up with a person who’s done you wrong? Do you know what it
feels like to forgive? A person who’d hurt you? Where you care
most?”
A moment he groped in past experience for the answer, then in a
rush of realization it came upon him. He rose a little unsteadily, that
he, too, might stand to face her, as she stood by the curtained
recess of the window, where the searchlight of the Christmas sun fell
relentless on the drawn intensity of her plump face. The Bishop’s
lean, corded hands rested on the two ebony knobs of the chair back.
He did not notice, nor did she, that he swayed slightly with a passing
dizziness.
“Yes,” he answered slowly, thinking of one he soon must see to-
day, “I know how it feels. Yes, I have had to learn, how to forgive—
where I cared most!”
“How did you make yourself do it? How?”
He would have evaded if he could. “I only know the old way,” he
said humbly, for the Bishop was shy in speaking of some things, as
one is shy in speaking about any friend in his presence.
“Tell me how!”
“I only know one way,” he repeated simply. “We all get at the truth
from different angles, so there may be many ways to learn to forgive,
but I can only tell you about the way that I have tried.” The Bishop
was so old that often, as now, his eyes showed the reflection of the
harbor-lights in view. As always in his sermons, he had now lost, in
his very consciousness of their needs, the presence of his audience
in the overwhelming Presence of which he forced himself to speak,
“The way I have found is to try always to see through His eyes. I
think He is always very near us, trying always to lift us to the level of
His eyes, so that we can look forth from that point of view. I think He
is always trying and trying to say things to us to excuse—the people
who have hurt us. If only we could clear our ears to hear Him! If only
we could stand at the level of His outlook into souls! Then we should
see so much that’s pitiable and excusable, so many handicaps and
mistakes, so much to make us sorry for them that we couldn’t help
forgiving. He always saw enough in every soul to make Him patient,
and if we don’t see enough to make us patient, too, we have to trust
His vision and insight, and forgive because He does.
“Yet it is hardest,” the Bishop’s face showed a passing shadow, as
he looked inward upon past struggles and forward to that next
interview of his Christmas Day, “to forgive those who hurt Him, His
work. Yet he forgave even that, upon His cross. When we remember
that, I do not know how I—how we—dare not to forgive.” He paused,
while his fingers on the black knobs tightened, then the shadow of
his face was struck away by the quick sunshine of reassurance. He
looked toward Mrs. Graham, “You see,” he said, “it seems to me that
if God in all His eternity has no time to be stern, then perhaps we—
who have such a little while! have no time for anything but loving.
Don’t you,” he pleaded, “don’t you think so, too?”
The ruddiness had paled from her cheeks. She was looking at him
with wide, intense eyes.
“That’s your way, Bishop. But it’s what I couldn’t—ever climb up to,
—I guess.” She had to fight to speak, against her choking breath,
“I’m one of those you’ll have to forgive, I’m afraid, for not doing what
you want. I wish I could, on your account. But it don’t seem as if I
could make up with Florence. But I can’t bear that you should look
like that, Bishop,—disappointed! Don’t, please don’t, mind! It’s just
that I’m a mother who’s lost her boy, and wants him back and can’t
get him, him and his baby!”
“And yet,” he answered, “they are all there, all ready for you,
waiting, wanting you, all there! It is, it is, too bad!”
“Florence!” she whispered.
“Needing and wanting you most of all. Seeing, by the way her little
one needs her, how much she needs a mother. Perhaps mothering is
your way of forgiving. Couldn’t you try it? Florence has never had a
chance, has she, to learn many things, if she has been a motherless
girl? Perhaps she did hate you once. I don’t believe she hates
anyone now. It’s very hard to hate when there’s a baby in the house.
She sent the picture. She needs you. She knows she needs you, for
she knows now what a child can miss who has no mother. Let us
think of all she has missed, and not be too hard on her, you and I,
any more.”
She was silent, one hand tense upon the curtain cord.
“It’s such a good day to go,” he urged, “such a good day to do the
unexpected, Christmas! Everyone expects the unexpected, on
Christmas.”
A comical smile worked on her set face, “You do, anyway, Bishop!”
she said with a catch in the throat.
“I think I did allow myself to expect this,” he answered, “this
making-up. Perhaps I expected it because I wanted it so, for I’ve
been in such a hurry somehow, about that baby. Why, he’ll be
growing up, while we’re still talking. You have three-quarters of an
hour,” he glanced at the clock in quick remembrance of the visit to
Dr. Newbold before church-time, “and you’ll go?”
He waited.
She was silent still, until she burst out, “I can’t! I’d say ‘yes’ if I
could, when you beg me so. But I can’t say it, and I’ve got to be
honest with you. I can’t say it!”
Her face, working with sobs she forced down, was too painful to
look at, yet it gave no hope.
“I am very sorry,” he said quietly and turning went into the great
study adjoining, which faced, like the dining-room, on the veranda
and river. Suddenly very tired, he sank into his desk chair, pressing
the tips of his fingers to his temples, which had such a painful way of
throbbing every little while this morning.
“I did want it very much,” he acknowledged to himself, “very
much.” He sat thinking, for some moments, then remembering, rose
and went into the hall to put on his overcoat, whispering, “But it
happened to Him like this always—always!”
About to go out into the street, he turned back. The dining-room
door was shut. He opened it. Mrs. Graham was still standing in the
window recess, her forehead pressed to the cooling pane. There
was no one to see her face. Common-place, coarse, ugly with tears,
lights were trembling across it. “If she needs me,” she was
whispering, “if she needs me,—” for a holy thing was being born.
In the doorway, wearing his old cape overcoat, his face like a
wistful child’s beneath his silver hair, the Bishop waited.
“You will go?”
She did not hear, nor know. She did not move until she started at a
sound, the heavy closing of the outer door.
PART II
The river was a splendor of Christmas sunshine. A flurry of snow
had lightly powdered the brown sod beneath the double rows of
elms. Few people were abroad. Sometimes a little group of children,
eyes and feet a-dance, and cheeks nipped red, went tripping past
the Bishop. Older folk passed with hearty, careless greeting, for the
stooping figure in the cape overcoat was as familiar and unnoted as
the river itself with all its mystery of light. The Bishop had known
Westbury so long and so well that he felt that the homes by which he
was passing, all bright with holly, were his homes, that he might have
stopped anywhere to share the Christmasing. His slowly pacing feet,
however, were bent on the old way toward St. John’s Rectory. In the
old days the Bishop had always called at the Rectory to greet Barty
Judd and his household before church-time, and he still kept to the
habit, even though it was so different now at the Rectory.
A flock of sparrows came swooping down through the wintry
silence with much chatter, and at the same time there came
scudding across the street a little Italian newsboy as shrill and brown
as the birds. The Bishop bought a paper, and made the youngster’s
smile flash as he paused for a few words in his own tongue.
Presently, as he went on, the newspaper dropped from the Bishop’s
fingers, as he fell to thinking of that alien colony down below there,
where the river curved, Westbury’s strangers. They had come so
recently, the factories had sprung up so quickly, that the workers
were still the strangers. It is true that the Bishop was well known to
those teeming streets as the old man who spoke Italian and who
loved babies, but he felt that he had done nothing for these others,
really. Eighty years! How barren of accomplishment they looked
beneath the searchlight of Christmas! But perhaps there was still
time! His step quickened.
As the Bishop passed beneath the shadow of St. John’s church,
the chimes clanged forth the ten o’clock hour. He glanced toward the
door, thinking how calm and gentle and familiar everything was
within. After all, his headache had melted away and nothing was to
prevent his presence by the altar on this morning. The quiet of the
chancel was restful to his fancy, lying beyond the visit immediately
before him.
As he turned up the Rectory steps, tugging slightly on the handrail,
the door was flung open, and a tall boy came hurrying out. His thin,
fine face was set and black, but a smile played across its frown when
he saw the Bishop.
“Good morning, Harry,” said the visitor, “and good Christmas.”
“There’ll be no good Christmas here,” answered the low taut voice,
“unless you’ve brought it, Bishop!”
“No trouble here to-day, I hope?”
“Trouble every day, now!” Then remembering dignity, Harry shut
his lips, adding more calmly, “Father is not well this morning, Bishop.
I am just going out to tell Mr. Edgerton that he does not feel able to
be at church.”
“I am very sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too,—sorry for mother and Lois! I am glad you’ve come.
It will do them good to see you.”
“And may I see your father, too?”
“I think so, if you wish it. I shouldn’t wish it!” Harry murmured
darkly, as he turned about to unlock the door he had slammed,
calling in a low note of warning to his mother, and then leaving the
Bishop with her in the drawing-room. The shades had been pulled
down, the holly wreaths looked dull. A little mouse of a girl came out
of a shadowy corner, and the mother’s arm went about the child’s
shoulders as the two greeted the Bishop. They both had thin dark
faces and intense brown eyes. The girl’s hair was dusky and the
mother’s silver, above a forehead worn but unwrinkled. The girl’s
dress was white and the mother’s clinging gray, and both wore
sprays of blood-red holly.
“Christmas joy to you both,” smiled the Bishop.
“And happy Christmas to you, too, Bishop,” said the mother, while
Lois took his hat and cane. He tugged helplessly at his overcoat so
that they each sprang to pull at a sleeve.
“Thank you. There! Don’t let yourself be eighty, Lois. It’s a sad
thing to be older than your overcoat.” Then, seating himself, he
continued, “Harry tells me his father is not well to-day. I am very
sorry. I have been worried lately about him.”
“We have all been worried. It is hard to understand. I suppose,”
Mrs. Newbold smiled wanly, “it is just another case of ministerial
nerves, but he suffers very much at times. I wish I could shield him
from all worry, but I cannot always anticipate what is going to disturb
him. We try, the children and I, but I fear we are very stupid. This
morning, for instance—” she broke off, “this morning he felt quite
unequal to the Christmas service, yet he is worried at not being
there.”
“Edgerton and I will manage the service. Dr. Newbold may be
quite at ease about that. I hope—”
A summoning bell from above rang sharply.
Mrs. Newbold started, “Oh, Katie is at church,” she exclaimed.
“Run, Lois! No, I’ll go myself!” With fingers upon the portière,
however, she paused.
The Bishop rose, an odd little flicker in his eyes. “Suppose I go,”
he said, moving toward the hall.
The wife looked at him, fighting for a tremulous smile. “There is
nothing the matter really, of course. I shouldn’t let you go up. I know I
ought to go. But—” she drew quick breath, concluding, “he’s in the
study, Bishop.”
Once again as earlier in the day, the Bishop paused before a
closed door. An instant he stood there, hesitant, with bowed head,
deeply thoughtful, then he knocked with firm hand.
“Come in, of course,” a voice thundered. “Why else should I ring
except for you to come in!”
The Bishop was standing quietly in the doorway. At sight of him,
the bulky form flung upon the couch sprang up.
“I—I—beg your pardon. I thought it was the maid, or my wife.”
“It is merely your bishop.”
The Bishop’s quiet length sank into a deep chair. His long slim
hands rested calmly upon the leather arms.
Dr. Newbold sat bolt upright upon the couch, darting furtive
glances at the Bishop from eyes too blue for his reddened face. His
right hand, strong and square, clutched a cushion tensely. The
nervous twitching of his lips redeemed from heaviness a face clean-
shaven but always bearing the blue-black shadow of a heavy growth
of beard. There was a pleasant sweep of brow beneath jet hair.
“I am sorry you find me so upset this morning, Bishop. They
perhaps told you downstairs—” then he paused, remembering what
they might well have told the Bishop downstairs!
“Harry told me you were ill. I met him going out.”
“I judged that he had gone out. Harry’s sole comment on his
father’s headaches is slamming the front door!”
“The youngsters know so little about headaches,” answered the
Bishop; “that is the trouble, then, this morning, headache?”
“The headache is constant, back here, incessant. But this morning
the trouble is,—a case of everything, as the doctor says.”
“What does the doctor say? We must find some way of setting
straight this case of everything.”
“What they all say—nerves, rest, less work, less worry, fewer
diocesan committees, fewer dinner parties—in Westbury where
dining is a cult, and as venerable and as sacred as the church
steeple! I might as well toss over one as the other! Suppose I did
turn heretic, and refuse Mrs. Hollister’s invitation for Thursday! Could
I preach beneath her withering glances next Sunday?
“Or suppose I gave up my bridge with my Senior Warden. The
Church needs more card-playing clergy, he says quite frankly. And
I’m inclined to think, Bishop, that it does. A little more humoring of
men of our good warden’s type, and perhaps Dr. Judd’s experiences
would be less often repeated. Doctors and dinners be what they will
—” mockery and worry both played about the heavy flexible lips, “I
have the unfortunate close of that rectorate ever before me.”
“You forget!” said the Bishop’s voice, low and keen. There was a
tiny fleck of red upon his cheek bones. Dr. Judd’s forced resignation
had been a matter of disagreement between the congregation of St.
John’s and the Bishop. There was perhaps no connection between
the action of the vestry and the fact that Dr. Newbold, immediately
called to the parish, had been for years a friend of the Senior
Warden, and a prominent co-worker with him in diocesan affairs; the
wires of diocesan politics sometimes presented a strange network
for feet like the Bishop’s.
The Bishop was silent a moment, for the Rector’s hand, lying
square upon the cushion, had recalled to him the days when he had
sometimes involuntarily closed his eyes against the sight of his
young secretary’s finger nails. It was an exquisitely kept hand
nowadays, yet one that looked unhealthily inactive rather than sleek.
“Well,” mused the Bishop, at last, “if one can’t cut out any of these
social obligations, how about the committees?”
Pity for the quick start and the flush of hurt pride, made him add
instantly, “Not that the committees can spare you. The church needs
you, and we should only be sparing you for a little while to save you
for bigger service afterwards.”
“I should regret,” replied Dr. Newbold firmly, while glancing down in
some embarrassment, “withdrawing from any service to the diocese,
—just now.”
“Why just now?”
The Rector lifted his lids for a quick glance, then dropped his eyes
again to his uneasy foot, “The affairs of the diocese, as well as those
of the church at large, are passing through a critical period.”
“Sufficient to justify the loss of your health?”
“I feel that the diocese needs me, Bishop.”
“It needs us all.”
“Particularly now,” repeated the Rector.
A curious subtlety crossed the cameo clearness of the Bishop’s
face, “But do you not feel that perhaps the need for your activity
might be even greater later on?”
“You mean—,” Newbold faltered, for simple folk like the Bishop
were hard to fathom sometimes, even after twenty years of study.
The Bishop’s smile showed, disarming, “I mean simply, lad—if I
may call you that sometimes, on Christmas, say,—that the diocese
can’t afford to have you break down. It needs, and will need you, too
much for that. Therefore,—let the diocese take care of itself a little
while.”
“It’s been doing that too long,” the other broke forth, with the
brutality of overwrought nerves.
A shadow passed over the Bishop’s clear, gray face. Quick words
caught with odd puckering upon his lips. He leaned his silver head
against the high, dark chairback, long silent.
“Is it really so bad as that, Newbold?” he asked at last. “What is it
that is wrong?”
“Our finances, for one thing. The treasurer’s last report—”
“There must be finances, I suppose.”
The other smiled his cynical, twitching smile, “If there’s to be a
church at all there must be finances.” He spoke with the irritation
belonging to many a former discussion.
The Bishop’s inscrutable gaze rested long upon the Rector. “You
are thinking, and rightly, that I am saved much because I have good
laborers in the field to count the sheaves and the shekels? Believe
me, Newbold, I know the value of your work to the diocese and I am
sorry for the weariness of it.”
The other’s face cleared in still uneasy relief. “I do not feel that I
can withdraw from any office in the diocese, in the church, however
small my service.”
“It is not small. You are the most prominent man in the diocese.
The most active. The most influential.”
The other flushed with pleasure, yet regarded his guest
enigmatically. “Those are cheering words, Bishop, for a day like this,
of discouragement and—of pain.” His hand went to the throbbing
disc at the back of his neck, as he added abruptly, “If what you say is
true, Bishop, I am perhaps paying the price.”
“I am afraid,” answered the Bishop gently, “that you are.”
“One doesn’t expect the strings to snap at forty-five!” Newbold said
querulously. “I could have swung a sledge once! I could still! Yet—it
makes me wonder—I have wondered lately—what is the secret of
your vitality, Bishop.”
The flicker of a smile on the Bishop’s lips, “Yet I had thought,
Newbold, that you did not think so highly of my vitality—that you
thought it an ebbing flood, a year or two ago.”
The other flushed to the brow.
“It was for your own sake, Bishop, to save you the wear and tear
of constant travel, constant work, that I urged upon the convention
the election of a coadjutor.”
“I wish you had done it not merely for my sake, but for the sake of
the diocese and of the church.”
“It was for that, too,” Newbold murmured.
“It was at any rate not for my own sake that I refused to have an
assistant,” the Bishop went on. “If I could have trusted the choice of
my clergy! It is easy and natural, to choose the most popular, the
most prominent. A bishop’s diocese is dearer than perhaps any one
of his clergy can understand. It is my little piece of God’s world, it is
my Westbury in large.
“And my ways are the old ways. My assistant’s might have been
the new.” He paused a moment chin on hand, then looked up
quickly, “What are the new ways?” he asked. “For I suppose my
successor will introduce them.”
Newbold warmed instantly, moistening his twitching lips, “The
ways first of all of economical administration. The church must show
itself a good business if we want business men to respect it.”
“Do we?”
“Do we not?” Nervous lightnings leaped to Newbold’s eyes.
“These are not days of sentimental idealism, of faiths that float in air.
To-day a man wants to see his money’s worth in the church as well
as out of it. The church,” he brought a tense fist down upon the
cushion, “has become a business proposition!”
The Bishop’s face was intent on Newbold, yet inward and remote.
Then the blue eyes smiled, “Oh, but not in Westbury!” he pleaded.
“We are not money-mad in Westbury!”
“Because you have so much money! Have always had! Yet the
purse-strings are the heart-strings in Westbury as elsewhere.
Instance my vestry and the Southside Mission. Closed, three weeks
ago. Westbury is wealthy but not wasteful. The mission was
unsuccessful, therefore to be eliminated from the items of our
expenditure. The need of St. John’s, economical organization, is
merely an example of the needs of the diocese, and of the church at
large.”
“I think I was not, was I, officially told of the action of the church, in
closing the mission?”
The Rector stirred uneasily, then looked up with boyish directness,
“I was remiss, Bishop, and I acknowledge it. But I knew the matter
would need full explanation for you, and to be frank, I’ve postponed a
good many things of late, simply because I felt paralysed before
them. I’m all out of sorts, not myself at all. I can’t tell what’s the
matter with me.”
The Bishop, noting the sudden hysterical flabbiness of the whole
face, recalled the man to firm thought.
“The mission is permanently closed, then? That seems to me sad
news for Christmas morning.”
“Believe me, Bishop, I understand your feeling about it. I, too,
regret the closing of the mission. I’ve positively enjoyed my work
down there.”
“I should think that you might have found the mission work almost
restful after the other sort.”
“It was restful. Strangely! They speak out down there, act out, too.
The Southside caused me no night-long guessing, like my neighbors
here. Yet I had no time for the mission, and lately no money either,
for the work has become unpopular, quite naturally.”
“Naturally?”
“I mean the factories and the foreigners have obscured the native
population for whom the mission was organized. Social conditions
were different a few years ago. It was perfectly possible then for
prominent members of St. John’s to work at the mission and yet
preserve all the decencies of class distinction. The church would
hardly expect a man of my Senior Warden’s type to organize clubs
and classes for his own factory hands!”
“Yet might not Christianity expect it?”
“In these days, Bishop, I fear, Christianity and the church are two
totally different propositions!”
“You have not lost your power of frankness, Newbold!”
A sudden shadow dropped over Newbold’s face. “Have I not?” he
questioned himself darkly, then louder, “With you, Bishop, it is always
curiously hard not to say what one thinks. Yet I don’t wish you to
misunderstand me. I seem to want to be understood this morning.
And you’re the only person in the universe, I believe, who’d take the
trouble. It’s not, then, that I don’t myself believe the principles of the
Christian religion.”
A smile, infinitely sad and subtle, passed over the Bishop’s lips.
“Since you are a minister of the Gospel,” he said gently, “one might
hope that you believe it.”
“I have come to believe a good bit of it.”
“To believe enough, lad?”
The Christmas bells had begun again. The voices of the
churchgoers sounded on the clear air, but the Christmas visitor sat
unheeding.
The Rector’s voice was rasped with the tension of self-defense.
“Unfortunately for his health and happiness, a minister of the Gospel
has much more to think about than what he believes. He has to think
what his own congregation is going to allow him to say and to do; he
has to think what the church at large is going to allow him to say and
to do. He has to think of the success of his own parish, and of the
church, and of himself. All three must please the public or fail. Now
my policy—”
“Yes,” the Bishop commented quietly, “your policy? A man of
growing influence, like yours, would naturally have outlined for
himself his creed and his conduct.”
“My conduct, assuredly, yes. It has been my endeavor ever since I
entered the priesthood, and will always be my aim, to establish
respect for the church, and its clergy, in the community, and in the
world at large.”
“And by what methods?”
“The same that prevail in other organizations, sound business
system, and the establishment of social dignity. We can’t expect our
young men to be attracted to the ministry unless we can show them
something in it worth getting,—they naturally want to get out of it
reputation, success, social recognition, as in other professions.”
“You have found those things yourself,” the Bishop’s tone was half
comment, half question.
“Yes,” answered Newbold, straightening, “I believe I can say that I
have found those things. I started at least without them, as you must
well remember—I was a raw enough youngster when I first came to
you in Westbury—it is humorous to recall—” he laughed a sharp
nervous laugh, then grew instantly grave, “I didn’t have much in
those days, but I did have health.”
“Yes,” the Bishop answered, “you did have,” he paused oddly
—“health!”
“I suppose, if the term had not been so much abused that I might
truthfully call myself a self-made man. The church has done much
for me. I am grateful,—with reservations! That is why I feel that in
spite of these diabolic nerves of mine I must go on, must serve the
church, the diocese, in its need.”
“Yet you feel,” asked the Bishop wistfully, “that you cannot serve
the Southside Mission?”
Sharp sagacity instantly controlled Newbold’s garrulous nerves,
“That was a principle of simple common sense, such as might well
be applied to other die-away mission chapels in many a parish.”
Very low the other voice, and far away, “Yet the poor are to have
the Gospel preached to them.”
“The parent church is open to them,” Newbold answered almost
with petulance, “here as elsewhere.”
“You mean,” the tone was strange, “that it would be your policy to
close other missions, in other churches, throughout the diocese?”
“It would be my policy,” replied Newbold, setting his heavy jaw, “to
cut off all waste until we get our diocesan treasury out of debt. The
church’s one foundation,” he added with that daring cynicism that
delighted St. John’s in his sermons, “is at present sound finance.”
It was a buffet across the Bishop’s face, making Newbold instantly
protest, “It is not the mere money. It is the deep unpopularity of such
missions as the Southside with such congregations as St. John’s.
Am I to go against my vestry and retain my position? Am I to be a Dr.
Judd?”
“You are afraid?”
“Afraid! Impossible! For a man of my make-up,” he smiled in
honest amusement, wetting his lips, “I merely have the sense not to
become voluntarily unpopular. What can a man do in the face of
unpopularity? His hands are tied. He is helpless.”
The room and the man before him sank like a picture curtained
from the Bishop’s sight. With wide strange eyes he saw another
picture. He was unconscious of his words, “His hands were tied, in
the face of unpopularity! Yet He preached the Gospel to the poor,—
and to the rich, to the poor rich!”
There was a long uncomfortable silence, during which the Bishop
rested his head against the chair-back, waxen eyelids closed.
Newbold studied the silent, sculptured face so long that at last for
pure uneasiness he faltered, “I own, Bishop, that I’m no idealist.”
The Bishop opened far, clear eyes, “What are you?”
There was a long pause, then still in that far, clear voice, speaking
quite to himself the Bishop said, “Yet you will be—”
The room, embrowned, closed against the Christmas sun, dusky
with many books, held the two men, who faced each other as once
in a lifetime men may.
The Bishop completed his own sentence, “You will be—my
successor!”
It was quite silent now, for the bells had ceased and the chat of
church-goers. The chancel of St. John’s was only a stone’s throw
from the chair where the Bishop sat, yet it was far from him, the
chancel with its peace. But he could still get to church, although late,
in time for the communion. One more Christmas sacrament was
before him, if only he could hold his brain clear and his body taut,
through one short hour more, against the sudden blurring pain in his
head.
The silence of the study still quivered with the Bishop’s last words,
“My successor!”
Newbold sat facing the fact never before so clearly stated by
anyone, not even by himself, but clear to him now as the goal of his
clumsy, forceful youth, of his anxious, successful ministry, a goal
almost near enough now to touch, perhaps. He could not take his
eyes from the Bishop’s face, transparent as porcelain, now turned
into a mask, impenetrable.
“I would not be your choice, Bishop?”
The straight line of the Bishop’s lips formed a quiet, “No!”
“And likely enough, I may be nobody else’s choice either—in spite
of—services rendered!” Then querulous before that intent, gray face
that gave no sign, “It’s small odds what happens, with this head of
mine! Yet I have served and would gladly serve—”
“God?” the Bishop lifted level eyes.
Newbold’s thick lips formed for a quick reply, worked oddly, then
were oddly dumb a moment before they twisted into a cynic curve
from the large teeth. “Harry spoke to me with some frankness this
morning. He had just left me when you came, Bishop, a different
visitor, it seemed to me. A curious Christmas, verily, if you, too, like
all the rest, think strange things of me!”
“Strange things! Are they not true?”
A rush of anger had swept the color to the Bishop’s cheeks and
shot lightnings to his eyes. The years had fallen from his face like a
veil snatched aside. Yet with a torrent of words upon his tongue, the
Bishop, looking at Newbold, turned silent. There are some men to
whom the sight of one who cringes before a blow deserved is
humiliating to their own inmost manhood. The sight of Newbold
seated there, from his bowed, brute head, with its too-blue, watching
eyes, to his big foot that never ceased to tap the rug raspingly, had
caused the Bishop a recoil for which he hated himself. Yet his anger
was just, just! The Christ Himself had cried out against the hypocrite,
against commercialism in spiritual places. The Bishop, of fine frail
fiber as he was himself, remembered the charm for him of the
youthful Newbold’s provincial crudity and heartiness,—but now, the
Bishop thought bitterly, if one wished to make a minister of the
gospel, one had better take a gentleman to start with!
He had trusted Newbold at the first, as he might have trusted a
son; he had forced himself to trust him afterwards, until this very day.
Yet the Bishop now acknowledged that he had known well enough