Answer 1

Our work lives and home lives have been blended into one monotonous work-life smoothie because
of the pandemic. Pandemic has forced us to adopt the new way of working. It is not quite possible to
escape office when we work from home. Pandemic has turned our bedrooms to offices and dinning
tables to cluttered desks. Our work life balance is not anymore balanced at all. It has brought us many
challenges. It’s not just the health but also the way of living, learning and working has been affected
from this pandemic. Thus, policies should be created in which an average human can maintain a
work-life balance.
There are definitely pros in working from home. Employees who work remotely can avoid the daily
commute and maintain a flexible schedule which can benefit their mental health, save them the
commutation time to have a better sleep and more time with their family. However, with pros comes
cons too. Due to working from home, daily interactions with the colleagues become a concern, it
becomes difficult for an employee to draw a line between their work life and personal life, breaks in
between work becomes short and they end up working for longer hours than they used to work while
in office.
Amaan is facing this same issue. Being a single parent and son to an ailing mother, he cannot give his
time to his family due to longer shifts and taking calls at odd hours, usually after midnight with the
overseas client. Due to this Amaan has decided to write a letter to the management regarding this.

To,
Mr. Warren Pichai
Senior Manager
ABC Pvt Ltd
12/34 HP Road
Kolkata-698778

29th October, 2021

Subject: WORKING HOURS

Dear Sir,
I, Amaan A, a team leader in your organization, am going through a numerous issue while working
from home. Due to this pandemic, we have to accept the situation and work accordingly. I express my
gratitude to our IT department for helping us in working remotely and conveniently without stopping
the operations. However, the new way of working has brought us some challenges in maintaining our
work life and personal life balance.
I am facing a lot of trouble with this way of working since a year and a half. Being a team leader gives
me a lot of responsibilities which includes communicating with my teammates on regular basis,
coordinating with my team members with the higher management. Most of my time is spent on
conducting meetings with the team and also with the overseas clients at a very odd hour.
This is causing a little difficulty for me. Being a single parent, I am facing issues in giving time to my
child. Apart from that, my mother is not doing well since a few years. I need to give her time too.
I receive calls at odd times from my team members regarding work. I devote my entire time and
energy in our normal operating hours. I am very much grateful to accept the responsibility of my
position and hereby willing to do my work with full involvement of my time, energy and expertise.
This had led me to writing this letter to bring this to management’s notice and ask them to enforce the
previous working hours, which was 9am till 7pm. This way, not just me but my teammates will also
get ample rest since they stay out in the field the entire day, spend time with their family when they
come home rather than attending meetings and even, I will be able to give time to my child and my
ailing mother.
Although, in case of emergency or during the meeting with our international clients, I will work
overtime but regularity in working after our operating hours is being a little difficult for me and my
team as well.
Hereby, I request you to look into this matter and I will be highly obliged if you pay heed to my
request.

Thanks, and Regards,

Amaan A
ABC Pvt Ltd
Team Leader
Answer 2
Good etiquette is of the key element in effective business communication. It is essential to
maintain standards of etiquette while communicating at a workplace. It not only shows
respect for your audience but also beholds a more successful environment at the workplace.
Maintain proper etiquettes is not just about behaving politely with colleagues but lot more
than that. Before writing a business letter or an email, one needs to make sure that one needs
to understand the purpose of the letter and stick to the topic of the letter, he must not
disrespect the person he is communicating with, minimize negative emotional reactions,
foster a positive relation, avoid the use of jargons and adapt a bias-free language in order to
maintain standards of etiquettes in business writings. The write-ups should be easily
understandable, shall not include jargons, avoiding grammatical mistakes, make sure that the
message is not misaddressed, shall not indicate any negativity towards anybody and shall be
respectful to whom does the business writing indicates.
Maintaining the communication etiquettes helps is avoiding any kind of miscommunication,
encourages internal engagement, improves the culture and the morale of the organization,
prevents any kind of confusion and frustration and helps the organization maintain a positive
relation not only internally but even externally.
a. We regret to inform you that since you did not register before the due date, you are
not permitted to attend the conference.
b. All the employees may come along with their partners to Golden Jubilee Celebration
of the organization.
c. The senior accountant and the manager will be attending the conference from our
company.
d. It is not difficult for a sales representative to convince his/her clients.
e. John is most eligible candidate for the post, despite of his walking disability.
f. Kindly note that we won’t be able to provide you with refund for returning the
damaged goods.
g. Kindly rectify you mails you have drafted as it may have some errors in it.
h. We will complete the project before the deadline if we recruit more workforce.

Business etiquette is one of the important aspects that many people tend to neglect in their
professional life. People make many errors when meeting a new person or while in a meeting
if they are not aware of the etiquettes. The error might look minor or seem innocent, but that
small error can be easily misinterpreted as an offensive to the person listening. In every
business, people expect each other to maintain decency and behave in a certain way. A slight
variation of traditions and customs should be respected. However, there are common
expectations too that everyone should follow. For example, smiling as it is treated as a
friendly behaviour universally. On contrary, frowning while interacting is treated as rude and
impolite. Etiquettes helps us in understanding what is considered to be socially acceptable
behaviour, what manners are expected at a workplace and are conventional or while
communicating with different rank and age. Not just at the workplace but, it also teaches on
how to communicate with the group of people in the society.
Different sets of etiquettes are being followed in different cultures, some may be same and
some may be totally opposite. In short, communication etiquettes in a business
communication helps everyone to learn a behavior that is socially and culturally acceptable
and respectable.
Answer 3 (A)

There are several mistakes in the above content. There are multiple etiquettes that should be
followed while writing a content. A several mistakes in the content are quite observant.
Inappropriate language has been used in a several lines too. These types of contents give a very
bad kind of impression towards the target audience and are not used in making an advertisement
attractive and effective. Not just the language but there are mistakes also which would portray
a bad impression on the consumers.

In this content, it is quite evident that the earlier content writer has made a few grammatical
errors too that may obstruct the quality of the content the organization is try to give to its target
audience. Apart from that, there are a few lines in which it is seen that the tone of the content
sounded a bit arrogant and commanding which is not at all suitable while writing a content. In
that case, consumer would take the message in a wrong way and the message which the
organization is trying to send to its consumer will be misinterpreted.

Thus, the few elements that were supposedly inappropriate in the content are:

• Gender Biasness

• Bragging and preaching

• Tone of the language was commanding and dominating.

• There were a few grammatical errors.

• The content was not properly drafted.

• The sentences are not arranged properly.

While writing an article or a content, content writers should keep a few things in mind. The
writer should not just unnecessarily make the paragraph lengthy. He should keep it as short as
possible. Customers tend to not read large content. Correct grammar and language should be
used. A minor grammatical error can give a total wrong meaning to the content. The content
should be real. The content should not include phrases or words that would force the consumers
to think that the organization is bragging and preaching about themselves. The language should
be completely bias-free. Any type of biasness, such as gender bias, racial bias, age bias and
disability bias should be avoided at any cost. It should sound polite and requesting, and not
commanding. The content should be directing to the general audience and not just a few class
or people. There should be a catchy introduction to the content. If the introduction does not
grab the customer’s attention, they are less likely to read the entire content. Lastly, the content
should be drafted properly.

Answer 3 (B)

India has a full of jaw-dropping undiscovered places which will fascinate you. With us, you
can have an unforgettable experience of exploring such places. To treat our customers as
kings, we ensure that all our customers are provided with top class service. We provide our
premium customers with an additional benefit of having 24*7 availability of staff in case of
any requirement. You will fall in love with the treks and camps that we are providing if you
love trekking and camping. Mountain and Dunes cares about women and children as well.
You can even cook your own food if you wish to, as we provide you with attached kitchen
with every accommodation. We make sure you enjoy your vacation and feel like you are at
home at the same time. This offer is completely worth its cost. You will not feel the
inconvenience of travelling with backpackers as we only serve to clients who come with
families. We will provide you with the best service as you deserve the best.

The number of mistakes which the earlier content writer made were:
• Giving attention to the only higher/premium class customers.
• Trying to be gender biased. Even women can love trekking and camping. It was
unnecessary to be gender specific at all.
• Bragging and preaching to much about the company. This might give a wrong
impression on the customer.
• Sounding a little commanding. Previous writer wrote the content as if he was ordering
the customers to accept the offer rather than having a requesting and appealing tone.
• Talking negative about the company. It is unnecessary to talk negative about the
company which the content writer did by exclaiming the trip to be very expensive.
This could spoil the goodwill of the company.
• A spelling error is seen in the last line. Instead of ‘our’, the writer made a spelling
error by writing ‘out’.

A numerous error done by the old content writer would have spoiled the image of the
company if it would have been published. The company should ensure proofreading
before getting the content go live. If a content writer corrects the following errors, he
could assure sending a strong message to the customers. Every content writer should,
therefore learn the communication etiquettes first before making a content for the firm. It
could cost the firm a lot.