The life of a remote-working staff is peaceful and beautiful, but does it affect his productivity?
“You are lucky,” my friends and relatives often look at me with a bit of envy.
“Which other journalist on this earth would get such a decent “work-from-home” job, with all his/her immediate family members being with him/her all the time?” they wonder.
Most of the time, I smile at this “compliment” (because I only know hard it is to work from the confines of home).
Of course, I am lucky in a sense that I don’t have to navigate my way through the busy Bangalore streets to the office in fossil-fuel-guzzling public transport breathing highly-polluted air on a daily basis. Nor do I need to eat outside food, which contains alarming levels of preservatives and added flavours. Work-wise, there is no unnecessary pressure on my head. And I do have decent amount of time to spend with kids, as well as to read my favourite newspapers/magazines/books.
Yes, the life is peaceful and beautiful, but do I consider myself lucky?
My entry into media
I took up journalism as a career option back in 2004 after my graduation in Maths. What attracted me to the media industry was nothing but the glamour the field enjoyed and the exposure it offered. So during my Post Graduation programme in Journalism and Mass Communication, I worked hard to improve my language and communication skills.
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Right after the course, I took up an internship with a leading news daily in Kerala. I had a great beginning, as I stunned its chief reporter on the very first day with a good article about two techies, who developed a solution to check internet misuse by children and students. This was back in 2006.
I was aggressive at news conferences and press meets. I threw uncomfortable questions at people, drawing their wrath. I didn’t quite show basic etiquette when I conversed with politicians and bureaucrats at press clubs, and didn’t bother about the consequences (I was later told by a friend in the newspaper that fellow journalists were unhappy with my aggressive behaviour).
After a tumultuous three-month internship, I was hoping to join the paper as a full-time reporter, but — believe it or not — I couldn’t pass what it called a “numerology” test, a superstition custom. Turns out that irrespective of his performance as an intern, the candidate needs to pass this test in order to get the job.
A few weeks later, I migrated to Bangalore to work at a couple of companies before moving to VCCircle.
Entry into startup writing
My tech writing career started in June 2012 with VCCircle, a tech startup and business news portal based out of Delhi (it is currently owned by media conglomerate The News Corp). I worked from home, as it didn’t have an office in Bangalore. I didn’t have previous tech writing experience, except a less-than-two years’ experience writing about enterprise IT in Bangalore.
The initial days at VCCircle were really challenging because I had no clue about the Indian tech startup ecosystem. Other than flipping through the daily tech news appearing in the mainstream, I didn’t really track the startup ecosystem. My knowledge of venture funding was also limited; I didn’t even know the difference between VC funding and seed funding, then.
This reflected in our daily huddle, as well. A naive journalist, I fumbled in the edit meetings. I used get blasted by the Editor-in-Chief almost every day. When all my other senior editors gave me sleepless nights, only my Executive Editor stood by me. He was very supportive right from the beginning and gave me tips on how to discover, approach and write about startups. He soothed me when the boss gave me a mouthful. Many a time, I considered quitting the job, but the Executive Editor prevented me from doing it, and advised me that:
Quitting is not an option in life.
As months passed, I became a decent writer, churning out good news stories, features, scoops, and exclusive reports. I was slowly mastering the art of startup writing. As I grew, my network also grew. In the process, I also earned a few frenemies and had run-ins with several startups founders over my news stories. Some even cut ties with me. The VCCircle stint taught me a great lesson that:
Putting extreme pressure on employees is counterproductive.
In between, I got married, and soon became a father.
After a chequered two-and-half-year stint at VCCircle, I moved out to join e27. Headquartered in Singapore, e27 did not have an office in India. I was once again confined to the four walls of my home.
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However, the job was peaceful. I got the freedom to experiment. The freedom to share my views and idea. This got the best out of me. I churned out good number of quality stories, analyses, reports, research-based stories, profiles of startups and entrepreneurs. And it is this flexibility and freedom that still keeps me in this job. This was another learning that:
Freedom and flexibility boost your productivity
I live with my family — parents, wife, and two kids. My friends keep asking me: “Isn’t it hard to work in an environment where my two hyperactive kids keep bugging me all the time for anything and everything?” Some of them have also wondered how I manage to focus on work when the kids weep, scream, and squawk in the background.
Yeah, it is difficult but I am enjoying it to the fullest.
My day at e27 starts at around 5:00 AM. After the morning prayers, I take the previous day’s newspaper and quickly flip through the pages of my favourite daily. After making sure my kids don’t wake up, I sneak out of home and drive to the football ground, which is almost 8-9 Km away.
The game starts at around 6:30 am. After an hour’s highly tiring game, I go to take a quick dip in the public pond in our locality.
My official works start at 8:00 IST and this is when my kids wake up. Since wife is doing a Bachelor Course in Teaching and Education, the responsibility to help our two “naughties” with their morning chores is my job. I escort them to the water tap, brush their teeth, and help them in toilet, and at times, feed them breakfast. While the elder has already started school, the younger stays at home.
In between, I start my work. I quickly run through the official e-mails. If there are any important press releases, I quickly rehash and publish them. After making sure the site gets updated with fresh content, I take up my phone and begin to call my contacts in the startup industry (these days, I do emailing, instead).
And then I start working on my news features. After spending two-three hours on news features, I run to the kitchen to quickly grab some meals. By this time, the younger one would already have seized my chair and laptop. He wants his favourite music/cartoon to be played on the laptop or mobile phone. I would try all possible tricks to remove him from the chair, but no manoeuvrings will work with him. After a brief “fight”, I snatch away the chair and my “work tools” back from him.
At around noon, the kid once again comes back to pester me. He wants me to play with him on the front-yard. I spend a few minutes with him and then go back to work again. His presence makes me animated.
Having your kids around you keeps you energetic and refreshed.
My work ends at 5 pm IST. After this, I spend some time with my kids (by this time, my elder kid would have returned from school). I then go to read books/newspapers/magazine for a couple of hours. Then I spend some time watching TV and at around 11, I go to bed.
Being a father-writer is a cool experience, but one has to possess the skills to balance personal and professional life, especially is he is someone who works from own home all the time.
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