Article: Soumyasree Chakraborty (née Mukherjee)

Work-From-Home as a Career Option

Imagine being employed sans the trouble of commuting to workplace. Imagine office
work sans piles of paper. Sounds interesting? Well then, welcome to the growing network
of work-from-home professionals.
Work-from-home, once a not-so-fashionable concept, has become a realistic choice for
many who want to save time and spend more of it with their families.
Says Madhumita Das (name changed on request), mother of a five year old boy, "There
are many (me included) who gave up their career for some reason or the other. With
work from home opportunities, they can use their skills and earn even from their home.
My husband is out of town very often due to his profession. There's nobody to take care
of my son here. Working from home seems to be tailor-made for people like me."
Soaring fuel prices, increase in pollution and unpredictable traffic made the concept of
working from home gather pace as more and more people are reconsidering commuting
to work place. Advancement in technology has made it a practical and achievable reality.
Says Satrajit Sanyal, Lecturer, NCLD, NSHM Knowledge Campus, Kolkata, "When one gets
to work from home, it is at one's own convenience and leisure. For the truly independent
and cause-dedicated, no situational scenario could be more Utopian."
Today when everybody is talking of "going green", virtual office seems to be a natural
choice. Shares Dr. Nishi Viswanathan, Chief Content Officer, Chillibreeze Solutions Pvt Ltd,
a content and design service provider that employs Indian writers, "When employees of a
company work in virtual space, doing away with the need to commute to office or use
paper, they set an example for the community and encourage energy conservation. For
example, most Chillibreeze employees and writers telecommute and work in the virtual
space from their own homes, eliminating the need for fuel to commute to the workplace,
almost all the work at Chillibreeze is done electronically thereby eliminating the use of
paper. While the writers' network is part of the virtual office, the small team of non-
virtual employees works from Shillong, Meghalaya in North East India, one of the most
environmentally pristine places on earth, in a 'green' office."
However, working from home is not a cake-walk, of course! It takes a phenomenal
amount of self-discipline to start work when you know you don't have to be at the office
by 8 a.m. Continues Nishi, "When Chillibreeze was initially launched, we told our first
employee that she could work from home and come to the office whenever she wanted
to but she eventually never came to the office to work. And she did not accomplish much

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from home either so our first attempt was a big failure. But things have changed since
then, and today, at any given point in time, we have more than 150 writers working on
different projects, all from home."
Establishing a schedule for both work and break helps to organise matters. Setting up
defined goals and deadlines ensures productivity. A functional designated workspace can
keep distractions to a minimum. Above all, you should be self-motivated and disciplined
to handle the freedom as you have to work without direct supervision. Many people will
assume that because you work at home you would be available at beck-n-call to tend to
their needs. Flexibility is a bonus that can be availed when necessary, but never be
abused. So you have to learn where to draw the line.
Opines Madhumita, "A whole bunch of stuff can be done sitting at home, like, academics,
proof-reading, writing biographies, doing market research, translations etc. But there are
very few companies with unquestionable credibility in such areas. And it's tough to
understand which site is genuine by browsing the net alone. So do your research work
well before committing to work for a particular company."
Points out Saikat Basu, writer, web developer and MBA in marketing, "It is a lonely job.
Sometimes, I do miss the hustle-bustle and the interactions of a regular day job. Emotions
are emoticons. But I guess, we win some and lose some."
So you see it is easier to dream of having a job that can be done in your pajamas, but to
carry it out well, you need loads of grit and determination.
Author Introduction:
Soumyasree started writing very young patroned by Voices, the school
supplement of The Statesman, Kolkata. Since then she has freelanced
exhaustively for the Kolkata editions of The Statesman, The Telegraph,
The Asian Age, The Hindustan Times and The Times of India; the Pune
edition of The Times of India; and of course for Palki. She's also
associated with Chillibreeze, a content and design service provider.
Working for children as volunteer for the Youth Wing of CRY and
Mentaid has been her passion.
Contact: soumyasree1982@gmail.com

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