This is my first blog post at Rice Communications in my 1.25 yrs with the company. If our Rice Roll moderator allows it, I thought I’d start a series with stories about my ‘unique’ employment situation. You see I’m the only consultant in my firm who works out of home… and my home’s in a different country… a 5 hr plane ride away from SG to be specific.

For business and other reasons that I don’t think I should get into, I have been working out of New Delhi, India for quite some time. Now the work-from-home deal is not so unique in itself with everything happening online these days. What makes my situation a little different is that I’m not exactly a part-time consultant. This is a full-time gig where I liaise closely with the SG office, have a few bosses and a team (all based in SG) that I work with on a daily basis and have a fixed set of clients. My work day starts at 9 AM and ends anytime after 6 PM when I’m done for the day. Yet, I’ve never met some of my co-workers – people that I speak to and work with on a daily basis.

I’m a full-time employee but I only get to meet members of the team on company off-sites… or when boss lady comes down to Delhi to give me a promotion

It would’ve probably been okay if my firm had a work-from-home culture and that’s what everyone was doing. But to be the only one not going in to work and seeing the people I work with everyday; to be the only one not being able to go to the next table or next room to say my piece about everyday issues; to be the only one to participate in team meetings via a speakerphone; to be the only one introduced to new hires and new clients via Skype or email not only instils a new respect for technology but also brings with it a new set of both perks and challenges.

The perks are pretty obvious. I get to work in my PJs. I don’t have to spend hours on a train or in a cab everyday just to get to work and get home from work. I have mom around to make me some yummy meals in the middle of my work day. I can blast any kind of music I want and don’t have to bother with the early morning and end-of-day small talk with people. I have a lot more options when it comes to how I spend my 15 minute breaks during the day that I’m not going to elaborate on because this IS a company blog. I also have ready access to three sixth floor balconies and a rooftop to contemplate jumping off of when nothing’s going right… or you know… just to get some air.

Plus living in Delhi has its perks. I don’t have to blow my entire salary on international phone calls to friends and family. AND we actually have seasons here! When it rains after the scorching summer you can’t help but dance around and winter has always been my favourite season. And did I mention the food? Well it deserves another mention. It’s absolutely wonderful to not be restricted to chicken n rice when I end up at a food court. Indian style is how I like it.

But as with everything else in life, it’s not all hunky dory. When I first started to work this way, both my team and I had to make several adjustments and it took a lot of getting used to. It was a challenge to prove to every member of the team that I’m actually putting in as much effort as I can and not just lazing around all day gorging on home-made cookies. There was a time I couldn’t get to the first meal of my day before 5 PM. The time difference isn’t too much but when you log on to work 2.5 hrs after everyone else, you automatically get thrown right into the middle of things. By the time you wrap up the pending items, you have fresh deadlines for the day and when you’re new you definitely don’t want to piss anyone off by telling them “listen, I just caught up with this so I’m gonna go grab a bite and then help you with the rest.” It becomes especially difficult when you’ve never even met your boss.

Initially, it was a challenge to get help from team members. I’ve discovered that nagging people in person is much more effective than nagging them on a chat window. You spend so much time trying to type the perfect message to remind them to send you something from the server without coming off as rude or impatient and then it turns out they are away from their desk or just not checking messages. It gets tough to get their attention and be taken seriously.

This one time, my boss wanted something very urgently and she pinged me on Skype. Little did she know that I was on a pee break. By the time I got back, let’s just say the chat window was a sight to see. Lots of angry emoticons. I quickly explained myself and helped with whatever I could. We both got a good laugh out of that though and strangely enough it went a long way in driving home the reality of the situation and helped us better understand where we’re at.

Another strange thing for the first couple of months was that whenever I would get a phone call, someone in the office would pick that exact same time to ping me on Skype about something super urgent. I’ve read a lot about people claiming to be good at multi-tasking but if you have a journalist on the phone and a panicked co-worker on Skype, you WILL lose some hair in the process.

Over time, I’ve become more confident and learned to deal with everything. My methods may not always have the desired results or go down too well with my team but they help me get by and that’s really all I need. I’ve got lots more little tips and stories to tell but I think I’ve exceeded the word limit for this blog entry already. I’ll be back with more in a few weeks