Its been about 6 months that I have been spending good time working from home. It gives me time to spend at home and saves me a few hours 2 catch on sleep. Our clients are mostly in the US (PST, CST, EST) and UK (GMT) timezones and being a small startup, we cannot afford to dictate working hours to the clients. This means that we have to be available for a few hours at least in each timezone. India is in GMT +5.5 hrs and PennyWise work timings are from 5:30 Hrs GMT (11 :00 hrs IST) to 14:30 Hrs GMT (20:00 Hrs IST). That way we work most of the UK time and area available to serve their requests the same day. This also covers good amount of PST, CST and EST timezones.
We have calls late/early Indian hrs with existing clients for Project Status updates or New clients for prospective projects. In the initial 2 yrs of starting the company, we used to spend insomniac nights at office and sleep there whenever there are deliveries to be made or early morning (Indian Time) calls with clients. Next day we used to getup and rush home, get ready and be back immediately. It used to be a rush hour then. There were times when we had to sit idle for a few hrs as the call was at 3 AM and we just had to idle the time. Whenever we had to deploy the project on client's computer for UAT and we had to spend hours just to upload the project files while we just need to watch whats happenning.
After the initial 2 yrs, we got Internet at home and we could then talk with clients from home and do some work. But still whenever there was a call another person or whenever there was a critical delivery, we still had to be in office. 6 Months back we had setup the system to log into office network from home and this has been a great deal of time saver. If there is a call, i can now take it from home. If it involves another person, I can get it conferenced. I have access to all office resources/files/project info/code and can update client about the same without having to go to office. I could get some discipline in my life in terms of having food at time, getting some rest in between calls, spending some time with the family. If there is any crisis, my computer is hardly few feet away and it would just take me at most 5 minutes to connect to office network and address the scenario. No need to dress, no need to pick up the bike and go to office. I can now sit at home and do the remote deployment while talking with my brothers or watching TV.
Above all, it feels great to be at home, a sheer bliss indeed. I am enjoying being at home for the entire weekend (after years I guess) and working from home. I still go to office during weekends. But thats when there are interviews to be taken or important meetings to be attended.
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Your blog made me think about how technology really makes our life easier, simpler and better. I remember the day when I spent half-a-day just to book a train ticket!
But I think about the -ves of technology too. Many times, I have wanted to spend a peaceful away from cellphones, net, TV etc. Why dont you write about it sometime?
Thanks for the topic Satheesh. Will definitely write on it sometime.
I agree that there are negatives of technology as well. I have experienced that many a time. Last week, after about 2 weeks (which is quite a lot for me) I was watching a movie and I got a client call. I had to come out and spend 45 mins to resolve that. When I came back to theatre, I saw that I missed the crucial part of the movie.
I can only say Everything comes with a price. Same is the case with technology.
[Poch Quote "Sheer bliss indeed" [/Poch Unquote]
I do agree ra Poch! It is a bliss that I vie for in vain. I envy you then! I have always heard how hard you guys have been working for quite sometime now. You definitely deserve this "Bliss" and much more! Good luck!!!
Thanks for the wishes Abhilash :-) BTW do u have any experience of working from home?
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