Potential of Telecommuting in India

chillibreeze writer — Parvathy Mohan

Future of work in India

To forecast the future, it is essential to first delve into the past and then consider the present. Hence, this article will progress through an overview of the past, take a quick look at the present, and conclude with a discussion of the future.

Past: There was a time when work in India essentially meant going to an office each day and working for a specified number of hours. The hallmarks of a good job in those days can be summarized by the three Ps:

1. Payment based on the grade of work – All employees in a particular grade were paid equal salaries. There were no or minimum incentives for better work.

2. Promotions based on seniority – All promotions were based on seniority. Talent or higher productivity played no or minimal role in the promotion of an employee.

3. Pensions provided on retirement – The concept of working hard during youth, retiring gracefully at a certain age, and living peacefully in old age on pensions was the norm of the day.
The major features of this work scenario were total lack of competition and workplace stress, more time for family and friends, and therefore, lesser number of blood pressure and heart attack patients. But due to the hugeness of the base of educated youth and the scarcity of such jobs, unemployment became a serious problem to be reckoned with.

With the rise of private companies in India, this definition of work changed. Private companies offered much better pay scales, but for correspondingly more hours of work. Promotions became dependent on talent and how hard you worked.

Most companies preferred the metros to set up bases because of better transportation facilities, better infrastructure support, and all in all better visibility. This resulted in increased transportation costs, pollution, overcrowding in big cities (remember the films showing families living back-to-back in dingy old flats of Mumbai), reduced time with family and friends, stress, and an increase in the rates of divorces, suicides, and health problems.

Present: The IT boom of the late 1990s and the early 2000s truly upset the apple cart. The shock waves that originated from this boom penetrated every nook and cranny of the Indian work fabric, creating a revolution in the way we define employment, and changing our work culture (perhaps, forever).

The information explosion that was the key result of the advent of the Internet affected everything from the work culture of multinationals to the daily timetable of a lay farmer in a remote village in India. This infiltration was so complete and absolute that with or without the economic recession, there is no going back. The major features of the work culture introduced by the IT boom include the following:

More pay for more work.
More pay for better work.
The younger you are, the better you work.
Embrace change: Jump companies and opportunities.
Talent pays, hard work pays, but seniority does not pay.

Future: The greatest benefit to India from the IT boom was the incursion of the PC and the Internet into the work strata. They were the answers to employer's prayers on how to increase productivity and reduce idle time (e.g., time lost during holidays and while travelling).

The number of PC users worldwide is expected to reach 1.3 billion by 2010 (i.e., double the number of users today). In India itself, there will be 80 million new PC users by 2010 (analysis by Forrester Research). Thus, we may safely assume that the future of work in India will revolve around PCs or laptops and definitely not around physical offices.

Doing work for a company or firm from a place away from office using PCs or laptops via the Internet is termed as telecommuting. (The broader term is teleworking.) Telecommuting washed to India in the wave of the IT boom. At the onset, multinationals made use of this facility to make sure their employees were available online 24 × 7. It helped time-critical jobs like technical support (where you ask someone a thousand miles away how to troubleshoot your PC).

Telecommuting has been successfully used by outsourcing companies, call centers, and medical transcription companies ever since its inception.

Outside the IT circle, freelancers were the first to discover the potentials of telecommuting. No longer bound by the dictates of time and distance, they found an unprecedented international market for their work and talent. Nowadays, every third person is a freelancer of something or the other, thanks to the Net.

Arguments to support telecommuting as the future of work in India include:

1. ‘Work is something you do, not something you travel to’: Save the travel expense and time.
2. Time and distance matters no longer: Work for anyone anywhere whenever you want to.
3. For the elderly: Talent is the only thing that matters. There is no retirement age.
4. For women: It offers excellent opportunities to Indian women who are unable to pursue careers outside their homes.
5. For the disabled: Physical disabilities do not deter you from realizing your potential.
6. For the employer: No need to set up huge offices having the latest facilities. All employees are happily working from home, even during holidays.
7. Paves the way for a cleaner, healthier India: No need to travel to work, i.e., lesser pollution, more fresh air, better health for everyone.
8. Stay anywhere and work for anyone on the planet: Curbs the sky-rocketing property prices and overcrowding in and around the IT hubs of India.
9. Live fuller lives: Find time for everything you ever wanted to do.
10. Do your ‘homework’ and get paid for it: Work at home (WAH), acquire experience, and expand your career arena.

Major obstacles in switching to telecommuting are the following:

1. The greatest argument against this style of work is that it causes individuals to shrink to their own space. Gone is the camaraderie of the workplace where you can sit around a cup of coffee and chat.
2. Until you build an employer or an employee base, there is always the chance of people not appearing to be who they are on the Net.
3. There is the chance for the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ syndrome.
4. Management and training of telecommuting employees need to be thought out carefully.
5. Sophisticated technology required for telecommuting work of delicate nature such as those related to space research or defense is still to be developed.
It must be understood that telecommuting as a way of work involves changes in the outlook and mentality of the workers. The concept that a lucrative job means wearing a tie and driving an expensive car must change.

After all, telecommuting is here to stay. This article is written by someone from God knows where, will be reviewed by people around India (or world?), and the comments will be sent back. The future is here already!

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.

More on Chillibreeze.com

Other popular articles on Chillibreeze

Things to consider when moving to Dubai
Truly aromatic therapy!
Stonehenge: Salisbury's Ancient Mystery
‘Why social spending is not the government’s best remedy
Life in a Boarding School

Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...

—About our writer:

Parvathy,

An Information Technology engineer with a passion for everything except engineering. Loves to read, write, talk, travel, and daydream. Newfound hobbies include cooking and making castles out of cardboard. Favorite mantra: O wind, when winter comes, can spring be far behind?

>> Read more articles written by Chillibreeze writers:

More resources for Writers on Chillibreeze.com

Chillibreeze offers Indian writers the opportunity to work on customer projects. We are also India’s biggest writer network and a one-stop shop for Indian writers and editors. The writers’ section on Chillibreeze offers freelance writers and editors a variety of tools to advance their careers. Resources for writers include:

Assessment of your writing, editing and proofreading skills

Writing courses

Expert Feedback on your article

An opportunity to promote yourself on our website

Top websites for Indian writers

Tips and resources for Indian freelancers

Book Publishing services

And more………………..

Explore our writers’ section using the links on our left-hand side menu. IMPORTANT! Don’t forget to