Struggles of virtual life

Today I had an important meeting at 12 o'clock. I was checking the time. It was 11:30 in the morning and my house help Shanta had not come yet. I want pacing around worrying. I had specifically two concerns. First concern was that if my meeting starts I won't be able to leave it. If she arrives after the meeting starts I won't be able to let her in and my entire housework would be incomplete. My second concern was that if she comes before the meeting I knew she will not be able to complete her work till my meeting starts. It will look very weird seeing me on the camera and she dusting the floor in the background. I wanted to avoid both scenarios at any cost.

I checked the time again. It was 11:35. The doorbell rang, I knew it was Shanta. I let her in and told her to sweep the floors immediately. She follows my orders and starts sweeping swiftly. It is now 11:57 but her work is yet to be completed. But at least now she will not be in the background.

At 11:58 I joined the meeting. There were two three participants apart from me. The meeting had started and Shanta had gone to the kitchen to finish cleaning the pots. I was glad because now there will be no disturbance and my meeting would go on smoothly.

It was 12:30, the discussions were going very well. We were following the urgent dam and it look like we will finish the meeting in next 15 minutes. I was asked to provide updates on the project I was working on. I had everything ready with me. I had kept the slide date and the status report handy so that whenever I am asked I would be able to present it. I was ready and I shared my screen. I unmuted and started explaining the progress and the status of the project. It was going as I had expected - smoothly and professionally. I was about to start with the most important part of the status report, that exact moment Shanta returned to my bedroom. She asked me, "didi where is the soap bar?". I got flustered because of that. I had told her not to come to the bedroom specifically. She not only return to the bedroom but she spoke while I was explaining the most crucial part of my meeting. My entire professionalism went down the drain because of her act. With my hand I signal her to go back inside. I tried to maintain my composer and continue with the status. I explain everything but I knew my voice was not as firm as it was in the beginning. My face was telling the whole story about my emotions. Because a colleague texted me on the messenger "are you okay?" Just one uncontrollable scenario and I felt my whole reputation was destroyed. Thankfully nobody said anything during the meeting. But I knew Shanta's voice did not go a noticed. After the meeting got over I texted the product manager explaining the situation. The product manager said that they understood and this is the household scenario for everyone.

Definitely what happened today took a hit on me. After my work got over I scolded Shanta. I have told her several times that when I am working she is not supposed to enter the room where I am. She still does that time to time. This time I had decided that this repetitive act requires punishment. I told her that I am cutting today's pay from her salary this month. I told her this has to stop. I knew this was harsh but it was necessary. I keep thinking about her financial condition and how much she requires money to take care of her family. I do not see that she is reciprocating this mindset. Though unintentionally, she is sabotaging my career. Her mistakes good cost me my job.

We currently are living Virtually and unless we set some rules our life is going to be very tough.