Bangalore Sweatbox

Bangalore techies get paid to stay at home

Deepa Balakrishnan / CNN-IBN

Published on Sat, Dec 01, 2007 at 00:56 in Nation section

BANGALORE: Wedged between the wardrobe and the family photos, is Satish Sundar's workstation. This 40-year-old became a medical language specialist at one of the country's oldest BPOs two years ago.

But Sundar soon realised that he was fatigued every day -- not by the work, but by the traveling. So last year, he joined 398 other people in his company to become a smart techie, and work from the comfort of his home.

"The traffic going down to office used to be too congested, especially during the monsoon. Then it takes some time for you to unwind also. You start getting tense and so it may, somewhere down the line affect your work," says Sundar.

The four hours Sundar spent on Bangalore's roads are now spent in watching his daughters learn to dance.

Many techies like him are now treating work as a takeaway, realising that outsourced work can be outsourced to home too, sometimes even in remote towns.

Vice-President Human Resources, Spheris, Surya V Ciryam says, "There's an increasing trend among men. It used to be around one to two per cent and has now gone up to around 30 per cent in the last year and we are seeing more requests from men today, than women."

Talent Engagement Vice-President, Wipro, Joseph John says, "It's a pain for employees who are traveling more than one hour to work and two hours to reach home. It's definitely an issue."

Employers save costs too, by reusing the same seats. Companies like Infosys have also opened a city branch to reduce time spent commuting, to ensure that employees don't quit because of traffic trauma.

Bangalore's made the world flat and now it's redefined distance. Thanks to traffic, distance is now measured not in terms of kilometres but the time taken, so it's better to just get off that office cab and stay at home.

#    posted by Mark Pritchard @ 11:21 AM