The Journey of Flexible Working condition over the years

“Sneha, I left office 90 mins early to not miss my train from Bangalore without informing my manager. He had gone for a break so I couldn’t inform him. And I had to leave the office immediately because I was in a hurry to catch a train,” my sister confessed to me anxiously. She was afraid of being punished for leaving early. This was back in early 2018 when she worked in a reputed IT firm, and she had come to meet me in Chennai, where I was undergoing my training. Those were the days when most organizations followed a strict 9 hour working hour policy.

But back then, I would always wonder how inconvenient it would be if an employee has some personal commitment that they must fulfill without compromising their work? In mid-2018, while conversing with one of my school friends, I learned that she was working in an Indian Conglomerate giant which asked their employees to work for minimum 42hrs a week. They can be flexible with their timings if any emergency or other commitments like doctor appointments, taking their child to school, etc. I was amazed by the flexibility which this company provided. I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of the company with its flexibility option.

When I joined my account at TCS, I was more surprised that my account followed –‘Work for 9 hours as per your convenience’ policy. This meant an employee can start their work at 9am and leave at 6 or even start at 12 and go at 9. This arrangement is helpful, especially for people living in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, etc. It is difficult to reach on time due to the infamous traffic. With this policy, employees don’t have to be guilty of external factors like traffic or weather. But even back then, my colleague and I would often discuss the future of work. We used to discuss what if organizations start offering more wfh opportunities for roles that can be done remotely without hampering productivity? We discussed what if we have to complete some errands which last for not more than 2-3hrs maybe during the daytime, but because it lies in the middle of the day, we have to take a day off. What if organizations work something around this because employees don’t have to take an entire day off. We used to discuss how to travel to different places without compromising on work – i.e., by working remotely at other locations? But then this seemed like a distant dream in the early 2019s or late 2018s.

Then came the shift in my life when I joined my dream job at Adobe (mid May 2021) post my MBA because now my work would be done remotely and not at the office premises. I had worked remotely during my internship, but that was a short stint of 7 weeks. But when working as a full-time employee, there would be challenges while working remotely like infrastructural challenges, connectivity issues, background distractions. Adobe makes sure to ease the infrastructural challenges by offering WFH funds to assist the employee in setting up a workstation at home. Still, I was also concerned if it will pan out smoothly or not. Recently while working, I had to accompany my mother to buy grocery items. And because of lockdown, the grocery shopping couldn’t be done post my working hours as we have all shops shut owing to L3 Lockdown regulation. I quickly informed one of my teammates that I shall be away for a couple of hours due to the grocery shopping, which couldn’t be delayed. I was more than welcome to take time off. I returned within 2 hours and resumed my work. And that’s when I realized the kind of flexibility my company is offering. Gone are the times when just because something urgent comes up – maybe for a couple of hours, we had to take an entire day off. I realized the value of flexibility when I was confident that working at my convenience is welcomed and encouraged.?I realized how fortunate I am to be working in a company like Adobe.

And that is when I also realized how far organizations have come in terms of work flexibility. If it all I could time travel back to 2018, I would go back in those discussions over the coffee with my colleague to tell our older self that what we were discussing will actually be a reality in a couple of years.