 |
Delhi Belly, says the Urban Dictionary, is “diarrhoea or dysentery contracted from eating local dishes in the Indian capital”. By extension, it is liquidity (not the Subbarao variety) coming from Campylobacter or E. Coli.
The Delhi Jelly, says a MediaVidea Blog, “is a fast-growing, co-working movement that started in New York. One of the co-founders — Amit Gupta — is a successful serial entrepreneur. The Jelly Meet idea basically involves arranging a place where people can work; no rents. Just bring your laptop or netbook. Ideal for freelancers, bloggers, developers etc.”
Don’t mix your jellies with bellies. More important: don’t come to a jelly with a belly. At the conventional workplace, people don’t mind if you talk about your intestines and internals; your kid’s chicken pox saga needs a daily update. But at a jelly, you are supposed to talk work.
The Delhi version of the global Jelly happens every Wednesday at the Cafe Oz in Khan Market. It used to; venues change the moment a new volunteer can stomach it.
A recent jelly in Delhi raised a couple of important — though seemingly trivial — questions. First, does a telecommuter have to work from a specific place? There is a certain amount of envy for a woman who works out of home even if the obverse side is her cantankerous mom-in-law. But what if the telecommuter in Bogmallo Beach in Goa gets the job? More accurately, he has been a regular employee for a couple of years, proved his worth, and now wants a transfer back to his home in Goa.
How about the travelling telecommuter? Can you travel in, say, India — transport and the Internet willing — picking up assignments at village cybercafés, finishing them overnight at the tourism ministry’s B&Bs, and sending them back the same way. Mobile phones allow you to stay in touch with head office and exchange data the same way.
In principle, such work should work. It doesn’t because telecommuting is expected to deliver certain advantages to the organisation which disappear if you are so itinerant. A recent study from the Downers Grove (Illinois)-based Computing Technology Industry Association says that 25 per cent of the employees polled believe it improves employee health. This is a direct benefit to them. Other benefits — greater productivity, reduced costs, and improved recruitment and retention — are spinoffs for the company.
Does a holidaying executive gain on the health parameter? Others have overall doubts. Eleanor Latimer makes a point in Harvard Business School Working Knowledge that “As part of a small team building a new company, the time we spend together is the most valuable.” And Alan Carswell points out “One main characteristic of tacit knowledge transfer is that it’s unplanned. In the virtual world, you don’t just ‘run into someone’. At least not yet.”
FYILiving, which looks at the subject from the employee point of view, is very positive. It quotes a Wisconsin study: “Spend all day in your PJs, crank the music and check Facebook as often as you want. Apparently working from home is really as awesome as it sounds, for both you and your employer. A recent study found that workers who telecommuted to work were both more productive and less stressed than their office-bound co-workers.” What about the view from India? “Telecom doesn’t work,” says Rediff.com. Adds a leading morning paper, “Telecommuting ruins your work-life balance.” And many are cheering Yahoo! Inc, which has just decided to ban all telecommunicating jobs.
This brings us to the second trivial question: is a telecommuter entitled to casual leave? Does casual leave mean that he shows up at the office that (casual leave) day? A telecommuter will tell you house does not mean home. The stick-in-the-mud HR manager will say that a year spent at home means there are no house rules for leave. And your union — if it exists — takes it very casually too.
STAYING HEALTHY AT HOME
The unrealised imperatives for the telecommuter
Have you the right furniture?
Having the correct furniture is incredibly important. If your desk is the wrong height, your chair improperly supportive or your monitor incorrectly adjusted, you could end up giving yourself a whole host of health problems.
Are you eating well?
At home more than at work it can be tempting to eat unhealthily. After all, all your food is easily accessible and for the most part only a relatively short distance away from your workstation.
Are you moving around?
While it may be tempting to just stay seated and get on with work all day, it’s important to allow yourself comfort breaks and to get up and move every now and again. Working from home can make you sedentary as you cut out the commute to and from the office, during which many people walk for at least part of their journey.
Are you taking regular breaks?
With any job that involves staring at a computer screen for long periods of time, it’s important to take regular breaks in order to rest your eyes.
