Work From Home Experience

Well this week onwards, I would be working from home. And this time it is for a fairly long period of time. Right now I am still getting used to the idea that I would be going to office very infrequently. Though I have worked from home earlier this time it is of slightly permanent nature so I have to ensure that it works. 

I do know that most of the people, especially working ladies are jealous of me and would like to work from home. It almost sounds like nirvana to my gender and of course it is not without advantages. You don't have any travel time, you can work in your night clothes or track pant if it works for you, you can supervise home, kids if that is what you want. However hard it is to believe the fact is that it is not without problems.

A big challenge in working from home is to ensure that the productivity does not get affected. The structure of most of the Indian households is such that the morning time is spent instructing maid, driver, gardener, dhobi and anybody else who decides to pay you a visit. And that is the time I work best. So this is a clear problem for me.

The option is to just pack your bag and go to a coffee shop and start working from there. Second option is to change my working style. What I generally do is to do a little more on the previous day so that even if the morning time is not utilized according to plan, the productivity is not affected. I would definitely be going to coffee shops sometimes definitely. More over my meetings and engagements continue like before so in spite of working from home I would be meeting people regularly and not working on an island.

Honestly, though I do miss office and might visit it more frequently than what I negotiated with my boss. I do miss the chit chat with colleagues, impromptu lunch-out plans etc. Also sometimes it is just plain more convenient. Yesterday the adapter of my laptop stopped working. I had my daughter’s laptop to work on so it was fine but what if we didn’t have a spare laptop at home I would have wasted the entire day. This is unlikely to happen in office since the IT team is there to help you. But I had to go to office to drop my laptop for the IT team to check and then procure a new adapter.

I have also realized that it is best to have some sort of a routine otherwise one is unlikely to make it work. So most of the days I get up early like I used to and instead of sitting on sofa to work I have found myself a permanent place, which is like my office. And sometimes I just go into a zone/trance to focus on work.

Another big issue is that your family and friends feel that since you are working from home you are always available for everything. One needs to learn to insist on full time to work. Once I actually asked a neighbour to visit us in the evening since I was working on something and was expecting a con call shortly. A clear demarcation of time to work is important if you want to make this work. 

Let’s see how it goes…