Sad to say, I'm on my way,

Won't be back for many a day.

My heart is down, my head is turning around,

I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town

Harry Belafonte, Jamaica Farewell

A sailor, it is said, has a wife in every port. This, of course, was in the era of sailing ships when it could take weeks to go from Maine to Mexico. In today's workplace, where flexible working is becoming a way of life, there is a definite parallel that can be drawn.

When you talk of flexi-workers and flexi-jobs what comes to mind first is people working from home. Although employers may not agree, this is great for individuals. According to a survey conducted on the occasion of Valentine's Day by Flexi-jobs.com, there are several advantages to working from home. It improves relationships, especially with significant others and family ( see box).

It also improves health and happiness. According to the survey, "Happier, healthier people typically result in happier, more productive employees, so ultimately it benefits the workplace and employers' bottomlines as well." To look at just a few metrics, 99 per cent reported that a flexible job would make them a happier person in general; 91 per cent thought a flexible job would help them take better care of themselves; 90 per cent believed it would decrease their levels of stress; and 61 per cent thought it would increase the frequency they exercised.

American norms don't apply to India, but it is worthwhile looking at the factors that contribute to unhappy relationships (and possible divorce). William H. Doherty, marriage scholar and therapist, lists the following reasons (at time of marriage): young age; less education; less income; premarital cohabitation; premarital childbearing; no religious affiliation; parent's divorce; and insecurity.

But there is another sort of flexi-working on which the jury is still out. Look at the IT field, though you can get examples from all sectors. Your company is setting up a new unit in China and you are being sent there to head the show. This is no place for Indian women or children; would you consult a doctor to whom you can't explain your ailments. A simple cold could become pneumonia in translation.

So you leave the family in India and prepare yourself for abstention for six months or more. Or you can have a girl in every port; nothing more than platonic, of course.

It's in information technology (IT) that these extended partings really happen. TCS chief N. Chandrasekaran says that he spends 20 days of the month abroad. At one time his wife used to accompany him; now she mostly stays at home. Does distance make the heart grow fonder - or go wander?

IT has cases of young executives who are sent abroad for a year, say. They pay a flying visit back home, get into an arranged marriage and fly back to wherever they are living now all on their own. The incentive for the spouse is that he or she will get to join their partner a few months down the line.

Data from individual IT companies shows that transfers have not been increasing in recent times; visa problems are held responsible for that. But there is a new cost to a transfer and companies are tightening their belts in the slowdown. In the US, which studies and extrapolates several other economy-wide parameters, a new theory has emerged. This is the Stuck Generation.

"Sometime in the past 30 years, someone has hit the brakes and Americans - particularly young Americans - have become risk-averse and sedentary," says an essay in The New York Times. "Generation Y has become Generation Why Bother."

"Corporate transfers are being increasingly resisted unless the company finds a new job for the spouse, schools for the kids and even domestics," says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. "One form of flexi-jobs is thriving; the other form is being reserved for very senior personnel. Even in India, to borrow from Tom Peters, this generation has simultaneous, stuck-unstuck properties."

ROOM ROMP
How flexible jobs improve relationships

84 per cent thought that having a job with work flexibility would help them be a more attentive spouse/partner/significant other
89 per cent said it would create more time to spend with family or friends
48 per cent said it would definitely benefit their romantic relationship
29 per cent were hopeful it would benefit their romantic relationship (they were not sure it would)
49 per cent thought it would increase time available for dates
42 per cent said it would improve their sex life
30 per cent were optimistic it would improve their sex life (they were not sure it would)

Source: Flexijobs survey