Anjali: Managing her work and personal life with finesse

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer decided to revoke the work-from-home policy last month. Her decision provoked a lot of outrage all over the world. CEO of the internet portal Best Buy, Hubert Joly, took a similar decision, but the criticism this time was much lesser. This is primarily because all hoped that Mayer, a female CEO, who was hired when she was 37 and five months pregnant at that time would bring in some cool business ideas to balance work and life out of work. On the contrary, Marissa emphasized that work from home ruins the team’s productivity. Debarati Mukherjee, spoke to five women IT-specialists and documented their reactions.

Sananda: “A geographical location should not be a standard to measure one’s productivity.”

Anjali, Communications Specialist, Idyllic Software

“Women are just not employees or housewives. We have to balance both worlds with finesse. At one end, we have responsibilities at work, on the other hand there are parents, children, in-laws and relatives. If one is living in a nuclear family, then managing things becomes all the more different. For example, if there is a faulty gadget and I need to mend it, then I need to take a day off. But if I had the possibility of working from home then I could have managed

Malika: “We are adults who understand ‘work from home’.”

both better. I could attend office meetings by phone and also get my gadgets repaired at home.”

Sananda Mazumder, Associate Consultant, Cognizant Technology Solutions

“I have seen many of my married colleagues working from home. This really did not hamper our team’s productivity. Instead, when they were working from office locations they were worried about their babies. They were geographically present at work, but their minds weren’t there. That did affect production to a certain extent. Now, when they are working from home, they make sure that work and family are taken care simultaneously. I personally feel if I can manage work and at the same time balance my family needs, then the geographic location should not be a standard for measuring one’s productivity.”

Malika Gupta, Assistant Manager, NASSCOM Foundation

Rupali: save energy, electricty and internet costs by working from home.

“Don’t tell me everyone is super-efficient during the eight-hour-long drudgery in office day after day. They tell you to “think out of the box” while restricting you to your tiny little cubicle at work!  Of course there should be restrictions. To me, this remains a carrot-and-stick policy, as far as human resource policies are concerned. We are adults who understand “WorK” from home and how it is different from a day off.”

Rupali Gophane, Consultant, IBM

Reshmi: “I strongly advocate the work from home policy.”

“I believe when we are working from home, our productivity soars. We regularly lose a few hours while travelling to work and when we reach, we are half tired. But when I work from home, my travel time is saved and my energy levels are high, so my productivity is not affected. When I work from home, I am online by 9 and finish my work by 6 in the evening. The remaining hours are for my family. Moreover, when I work from home, I am not distracted to go out for a tea break or chat with a colleague. Above all it saves a lot of office resources- from electricity to internet connectivity and office space. I think working from home will be the face of all IT companies soon, despite Marissa Mayer’s criticism.”

Reshmi Mallick, Associate, Price Waterhouse Coopers

“I strongly advocate the work from home policy. It helps you to balance your work and personal life at ease.  I am an expecting mother and if I had the opportunity to work from home I would easily be able to work and rest. Furthermore, once my babies are delivered, I could nurse them and also keep working at the same time from the privacy of my house. Women want to shine in their careers but we are also the creators of the new generation. We just can’t leave one for the other.”

Author: Debarati Mukherjee

Editor: Manasi Gopalakrishnan