Work from home in 10

“ Yahoo Employees Can’t Work From Home Anymore”

When I read this tweet last week, was taken aback and yes not to miss thanked my stars for not being in Yahoo at least ;)

So the topic has been hot for a while now and it being very close to my heart and needless to say invariably my favorite pick I thought to pen down my thoughts as well. Again without taking any sides I quote, Sairee Chahal, Founder Fleximoms, ‘work from home is one of the many formats of work flex’ and honestly require lot of ‘MATURITY’ from both employees as well as employers. Only when both are in sync with the model will it work otherwise without arguments its failure is inevitable.

I have personally been practicing it for couple of months now but again my employer plugHR has been successfully doing it for many years. Still recall meeting Prashant Bhaskar, Founder plugHR saying he started on his own enterprise for wanted more flexibility and now loves the providing the same to others. Here both parties have a very clear picture of what’s happening around on the other side, the reason is ‘CONNECT’. We make sure the all work flex professional are connected on all possible ways. So my day starts with a ‘Sabse Bolo’ call meeting @ 9:15 am with all status update on the day and if I really need to speak to somebody I am rest assured that they are just a call/watsapp/BBM/gtalk away. Trust me sometimes these apps are more effective than face to face follow ups…try it to believe it!!

‘SOCIAL MEDIA’ definitely has been a boon for such set ups, it not just keeps me informed about latest happening but also is a good way for a team connect. I know my virtual colleagues as much as I knew mine with last employer. Also meeting physically once in a week helps a lot in rapport building, taking over gotomeeting or Skype with webcams on trust me works wonders. Why not... you can always show off your latest wardrobe addition!!

Having a ‘SCHEDULE’ and work space like the one you have in office would always help you focus on the job. Pursuing personal chores while at work should be avoided, though you can have breaks. Working from home need lot of ‘SELF DISCIPLINE’ and is mostly suited for people who are self motivated and for jobs which requires more concentrations.

Another approach which really helps is being PROACTIVE. In a physical office I could have explained about not meeting deadlines much more easily but when operating from home one has to very sure before giving up. Here only results a visible not efforts and to make it more transparent it’s the individual who has to be vocal enough to share concerns rather than waiting for the ugly turn.

A very important aspect of work from home is that many think it’s only boon for working moms, but in the changing dynamics men too prefer it. For now just it saves on ‘TRAVEL TIME’ but also ‘COST’ both for employee and employer. This work format also provide employers to target a potential latent talent which are otherwise females on sabbatical and for organizations which can’t afford to have a full fledged in-house crèche facility , this work as wonders.

But yes one size can’t fit to all!!

However in profiles where team work/brainstorming/product development is required one might to operate face to face then virtually .Again expecting fresher’s /junior members to be productive in this model can be a challenge. So as much as it can be a benefit of one, many might just be demotivated enough to give up.

Infact, many individuals find it difficult to operate remotely and are more comfortable in physical set up with people around. I remember we hired somebody recently and she quit because found it boring, working all by herself. We can’t blame anybody here, for humans are social and that’s the secret, why social networking is so useful in connecting virtual beings. Any achievements or failure which we would have shared with our team member otherwise are now shared with a larger audience. Trust me many people envy me for being on Face book and Twitter the whole day J

So guys to be honest this works for me, because I want it to work for me. At the end of the day I am ‘ACCOUNTABLE’ to perform and by virtue of my experience can be productive without much surveillance. If you are ready for such high ‘COMMITMENT’, you are in….

 

what's in the place??

When I told my friend that I work with Plughr, a work flex organization which gives me an option to work from home and I am on a lookout  for a baby sitter, she first couldn’t  relate to it and very candidly said , “why do you need to do that when you are anyways are at home?”

Now lets not blame her  for this ,mostly you would find people joking around as WFH to be work for home than work from home and worse is that most of the times  its true. A great work flex model, if not practiced properly  fails to keep upto the real intention. Work from home can be a dream job for people like me who want to cut down on travelling to save it for more quality time with family and better output,  for you can’t beat the work engagement and concentration without collegues .Infact  when I got one , could only thank my brightest star for the that.But its not an easy ride and to make it happen the way it should ,one has to consciously put efforts to streamline the work. Office working always has its own advantage over virtual , where most of the intangible things like taking a break, amount of efforts, actual working hours put, need no explanation for its mostly visible .But the moment you are out of the visibility arena your work has to speak for you and further you have to make your self more vocal. Though technology has helped a lot in this front still there are areas which are not as transparent and that’s where the challenge lies.

Moreover work from home is just a change of place and not the schedule.Will you entertain your neighbor if you were in office then why should you when working from home? If you need groceries do it after office hours and not in your lunch break. Making a personal call should be limited to only urgent ones. Strong reporting and regular meeting is a wonderful way to let you manager know about your progress. At Plughr we have morning rhythm (con call) where we discuss our daily routine and that also keeps us on our toes for as an individual we are answerable towards our self defined milestones.Also regular webinars and weekly official visits helps building rapport with team member and collegues. Interesting all throughout working for technology companies before plugHR , I never got an opportunity to be so tech savvy as I am now. Credit goes to Go-to-meeting and  sykpe for never letting me feel that working from home can be boring .I also have found people complaining about no time limits to work, but that’s true for office jobs  as well.Why blame 'work from home' for that? Mostly the culprit is the time management, again a very crucial aspect for working remotely.Setting up a schedule and most importantly following it that way can be a great help too.

Another very important aspect is the acceptability of the model with employers and clients. I remember initially my client wasn’t comfortable enough with the work from home model and it took us some time to make him believe that it works. To sum up its very easy to falter in this model and most of the times its because we don’t practice the basic rules properly but the beauty is to follow it the right way and enjoy the benefits attached to it.