SUNDAY HINDUSTAN TIMES, MUMBAI AUGUST 26, th2012 ink! … · work at home too.” VEENA POONACHA...

Aarefa Johari■ aarefa.johari@hindustantimes.com

Before her son was born, latenights and long shifts were anormal part of Mitali Kalyan-pur’s sub-editing job with anewspaper in Mumbai. Aftermotherhood, the 29-year-old

had to seriously rethink her career.Journalism, she decided, would be too

demanding to return to, given thedemands of her husband’s hectic job. Sowhen her son turned 14 months old, sheleft him in the care of her in-laws andstartedanewjobinpublicrelations. “Butthe long commute and eight-hour shiftsin a restrictive office space still did notgive me enough time with my two-year-old,” says Kalyanpur. Eventually, she set-tled for a pay-cut and began workingfrom home as a freelance content writer.

Kalyanpur’s story reflects the com-promises that thousands of urban Indianwomen have to make, either as profes-sionalsormothers,asourcorporateworkculture grows more demanding.

Onthesurface,moreeducatedwomenseemtobesteppingouttopursuecareers,but in the past few years, several stud-ies on work-life balance have revealed a

disturbing reality:Women occupy fewpositions in the mid-and upper-levels ofcorporatehierarchies;during recruitment,they are constantlyasked about theirplans to marry orhave children; givena choice betweenqualified men andwomen, most compa-nies would hire men.

At the base of theproblem is a socialbackwardness thatpersists in the Indianfamilystructure.Menare pinned to the roleof breadwinners and

women — the ‘natural caregivers’ — areexpected to look after the home.

While prejudices about gender rolescould take years to change in a societyas complex as ours, workplaces can doa lot more to create a healthy work-lifebalanceforwomenandmen,sayexperts.

“Most Indian companies are waybehind global benchmarks in changingtheirmindsetsforcreatingwomen-friend-lypolicies,”saysPoonamBarua, founder-chairman of the New Delhi-based Forumfor Women in Leadership, which sur-veyed companies across India last yearon their policies for women employees.This year, the forum has benchmarkedmore than 50 companies on this axis andpublished a handbook of best practicesfor mothers returning to the workforce.New Delhi-based Fleximoms has alsobeen actively sensitising organisationsabouttheimportanceofretainingwomenemployees. “Workplaces must realisethat happier families lead to more pro-ductiveemployees,”saysAnitaVasudeva,co-founder of Fleximoms. “Women bringvalue to the company. They also do thecare-givingthatenablesmentostepout.”

RENUKA SETHUNATH, NEW DELHIHUMAN RESOURCE HEAD, IMPERIAL HOLDING

Renuka Sethunath always wanted tohave a successful career, and aftermarrying seven years ago, running

a nuclear home in Mumbai was not toodemanding on her time. Life changedcompletely when her son was born.

“As an HR manager, I had to take thesame 60-day maternity leave that I hadapplied to others. But that much timewas not enough for me to recover,” saysSethunath, 30, who eventually opted fora pay cut and took 20 more days of leave.SOLUTIONS: Despite having a hands-on husband, the absence of in-laws madeparenting difficult while juggling work.To reduce daily travel time, the couplerented a flat closer to her office and hiredaday-timemaid.Today,ayearaftermov-ing to a new job in New Delhi, where herhusband runs a business, Sethunath isnearly always working two jobs. Beforeleaving for her nine-hour shift, she han-dles breakfast, lunch tiffins and dressingherfive-year-oldforschool,andtrieshard

to get home in time to feed her son din-ner. Her husband helps when he’s nottravelling. “My son has learnt that onweekdays, we belong to the office.”

As an HR head, Sethunath believesemployee performance and business areaffected when a person takes more than60 days of leave. “Women can alwaysplan leaves smartly or compromise ontheir salary,” she says, admitting that hercompany does not have too many mar-ried female employees. “Companies, too,could have crèches for young children.”

“Sixty days of maternityleave is not enough”

MINDWORKS GLOBALMEDIA SERVICES, NOIDA

Six years ago, when Nitin Srivastavaand his two colleagues foundedMindworks Global Media Services

in Noida, they realised that insisting onfixed working hours in office would workagainst their company’s interests.Mindworks offers editorial services tonewspapers and magazines abroad, andneeded to hire employees skilled in jour-nalism, designing and editing. “It’s noteasy to find such specialists, so we wereconscious about retaining our employ-ees, even those who had to relocate toother cities,” says Srivastava, chief exec-utive officer of Mindworks. They decid-ed to offer flexible work opportunities,and the first employee to benefit fromthis was Mindworks’ former HR head,who needed time to raise her newbornchild. They extended the policy to otherdepartments, and found it worked well.SOLUTIONS:Today,15%ofMindworks’staffworks partlyorentirely from home,co-ordinating through Skype or videoconferences. Five of these employeeswere hired through Fleximoms, a NewDelhi-based forum that sensitisescompanies about the needs of mothers.

Srivastava believes more companiesshould leverage technology to offerflexible work opportunities. “We need toquestion our assumptions about howwork can be done and managed.”

ANEESHA, MUMBAIMARKETING MANAGER AT A HEALTHCARE COMPANY

In the eight years of work before herdaughter was born, frequent travelabroad was a staple feature of

Aneesha’s job in a multinational health-care company. After getting marriedseven years ago, she tried not to worklate and on weekends, with some suc-cess. Now, as a mother of an energeticfour-year-old, she plans to stick to thecompany chiefly because she has foundthat it is woman-friendly.

“In the last four months of pregnancyand for a year after motherhood, I optedout of travelling assignments. I alsoworked from home whenever I need-ed to, and the company was veryaccommodating,” says Aneesha, 34,who added six weeks of accumulatedleave to her three-month paid leave.(The company now offers six monthsof paid maternity leave.)SOLUTIONS:Aneesha’s return to workwas a gradual weaning process for herdaughter. “For the first few weeks, I

worked fewer hours. Later, when I hadto start travelling, I began with shortday trips before slowly moving to longerones,” says Aneesha, who now travelsfor at least 10 days a month. “Beforeour daughter started school, my hus-band did the morning shift at home,and I did the evening shift.”

Now, Aneesha drops her child to theschool bus before heading to work.After school, her daughter spends theday at her grandparents’ place, andAneesha picks her up in the evenings.“I try to get done with work as earlyas possible,” she says. “Some of myother colleagues without kids havenow reached higher positions, butit was my choice to take a bit of acareer slowdown.”

For now, Aneesha is very happy withthe flexibility her company offers. “Eventhen, I’ve experienced some momentsof guilt, for instance, when my daugh-ter called me dadi by mistake.”

“My daughter calledme dadi by mistake”

RASHIDA ADENWALA, HYDERABADFOUNDER PARTNER, R&A ASSOCIATES, COMPANY SECRETARIES

Twodecadesago,RashidaAdenwalawas among the first female com-pany secretaries to start an inde-

pendent practice in Hyderabad. She bat-tled scepticism and low payments toestablish her own flourishing company,but her career began at a small desk inher marital home, with a baby on her lap.

“My field is demanding, with no fixedhours, so independent practice fromhome gave me the flexibility to run thehouse,” says Adenwala, 48. After a shortstint as an employee in an Oman-basedfirm—whereherhusbandbrieflyworkedin the early 1990s — Adenwala returnedtoHyderabadtorestartherprivateprac-tice. But before she could, she had to facea difficult pregnancy and was at homefor a year. When her daughter was threemonths old, Adenwala hired a traineeand finally started her company.SOLUTIONS: “Initially, I’d visit clientswhen the baby was asleep,” saysAdenwala, who, a year into the business,

began working from a rented two-deskspaceinabusinesscentrenearherhome.“My daughter was always my priority. Iworked only when she was in school ornapping,” Today, Adenwala has a largerofficeandoftentravelstheworldforwork.But her lunchtime is reserved for herdaughter, now 17, who eats with her inoffice after school.

“I often ensure that my client compa-nies allow flexibility to women. As longas work is done well and on time, whyshould there be a problem?”

“I started a companywith a baby on my lap”

“Today,many companiesoffer flexitime and opportunities towork from home, but then use theseas excuses to keep women out ofpromotions and new jobs. If work-places introduced crèches for children,it would lower the stress on workingparents and increase their productivity.Also, our notion of motherhood as‘natural’ needs to change. It is a socialconstruct and mothers should not beforced into a narrow niche. Similarly,why should men have to miss out onchild-rearing? Let’s encourage them towork at home too.”

VEENA POONACHAdirector, SNDT University’s ResearchCentre for Women’s Studies in Mumbai

■ Renuka Sethunath with her son■ Adenwala eats lunch with her

daughter in her office.

■ Srivastava during a video chat withan employee SUNIL GHOSH/HT

Last month, legalresources firm Rainmakerreleased a report on thechallenges women in thelegal profession faced inDelhi, Bangalore andMumbai.

The study revealed thatmore than half the wom-en surveyed are afraid thata maternity break wouldhurt their career.

They cited the lack of flex-ible work hours, of daycare and the pressure tostart a family as thebiggest barriers to the top.

SURVEY OF LAWYERS

expertspeak

WHAT WOMEN DO: Mothers talk about how building careers while raising children requires constant juggling

WHAT COMPANIES CAN DO

“Flexibility worksfor everyone”

BALANCING ACT Working mothers occupy very few senior positions in Indian corporate hierarchies because social stereotypes about gender roles andpolicies in the workplace put them at a huge disadvantage, as yet another survey of women lawyers, released on July 31, suggests

TUG OFWARTHEBIGSTORY

| 09S U N DAY H I N D U STA N T I M E S , M U M BA IA U G U ST 2 6 , 2 0 1 2

think! HITTINGREFRESH

TALKTOUS

> MUMBAI LOCALP11

Do you find it difficult to balance yourwork life and family pressures? Whatshould work places and society do tobring change for women and men?htweekend@hindustantimes.com