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Mondeep Dutta is a full-time employee in a well-known IT company in Bangalore. It's a weekday, and he is sitting in the comfort of his beanbag and typing away on the laptop.
No, it's not his day off. He's working from home (WFH) - an option increasingly being offered by companies to their employees to better manage their work-life balance. Gone are the days when WFH meant you are excused on medical grounds or for some emergency, or, if you are a woman, on maternity leave. WFH is now an accepted norm in many companies, especially in the IT sector, which believe that this promotes a good work-life balance and actually enhances productivity.
Dutta, for instance, says that working from home helps him focus better on his projects to meet deadlines, minus the distraction of any other work that may come his way but is not as urgent. It also means saving precious hours commuting in the maddening traffic every day.
"The WFH option works when it is not necessary to be physically present for a job. Now, while I work on servers and need to be present at the work site, today I had to complete automating something; so I just needed the applications on my laptop. Hence I could stay at home and do it," Dutta said.
A critical point taken into account by a number of companies is that most working people complain of not having enough time to spend with their families. The WFH option offers them the opportunity to gain that much-needed work-life balance, and motivates them to put in their best effort at work in return.
"I was working full time in Gurgaon for a software company before getting married and shifting base to Agra. It was a sticky situation because I did not want to let go of my job, but had to move. So my office offered me the work-from-home option," said Rupanshi Sharma, a software consultant.
"It's been eight months now, and I clock in eight hours of work every day, logging in at 9 a.m. just like a full time employee. I also coordinate with my team online, or over the phone. I couldn't have asked for a better work-life balance," she added.
While employees are obviously happy, employers feel that in these times of high attrition rates, such an option helps in retention. Along with a good pay package and growth opportunity, employees these days are increasingly looking at work culture of a place before deciding on a job.
