A tale of two cities
Gone are the days when employees got transferred from one city to another for work. Increasing globalisation and the thriving MNC culture has given rise to a new trend of working from two places. These new-age workers smoothly juggle between two cities and find just enough time to fly down and spend weekends with their families.
Case in point: 25-year-old Narain Sundaram, a soft skills trainer with a prominent MNC. He works three days a week in Pune and spends the rest of the week, which includes the weekend, in Mumbai, where he resides with his family.
He explains, “Instead of moving to Pune for the training sessions for our new team there, my company has given me the option of dual working, through which I can handle training from both places and be with my parents as well.”
And it’s not only men, but women these days, who are now shuttling between cities. Neetu Sethia, a Chennai-based account manager with UST Global, describes the process, “It’s great that my company has given me the opportunity to work from two places, so that I don’t have to relocate completely. I work in Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram with different teams. Thanks to teleconferencing and mobile computing, I don’t have to be in Trivandrum all the time and can easily balance work at both cities.”
Ruchika Khanna, the managing partner of an advertising agency based in Bengaluru, says that she is in Chennai half the week for work. The biggest advantage of this work model is that it is a great option for those who want to expand their businesses.
She points out, “Without having a physical office here, I’m in Chennai half the week, meeting my clients and making presentations, then I go back to Bengaluru and make all arrangements.”
HR managers say that this module is usually put into practice for managing teams, marketing or training purposes. Rahul Singh, HR manager of Jindal Group clarifies, “This sort of arrangement is usually done for people working in the senior level positions to their secure work pool. Most companies are utilising their employees effectively by making them handle the operations of two cities. This work model saves the cost of hiring another senior and it also saves the cost of their training.”
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