After Tina Ahuja quit her job at IBM, she has been taking up flexible assignments in marketing and human resources for the last six years. She loves this as it gives her more time with her children. At the same time, she gets a sense of achievement from not having to give up on her skill sets. In addition, it serves as a source of income.
There has been interest in working flexible hours, not just due to one’s personal situation, but also as a professional choice. Rahul Bhargava, Founder and CEO of PerformEdge Consulting, a boutique management consulting firm, says he switched to flexible work as it let him have total control over personal and professional time.
So if you want to make a career working flexible hours, where are the opportunities?
Anilesh Seth, co-founder of KROW (a start-up that matches flexible job seekers and employers), cites examples of an engineering consulting organisation needing a counsellor for two afternoons a week and a non-profit concern requiring a part-time finance head - for the variety of jobs that are available for flexi-workers.
Typically, areas such as IT, analytics, Website development, digital marketing, etc. lends well to flexi-work formats. Also business development, marketing, recruitment, accounting, para legal, training, career consulting and content creation are also suited for flexible work.
While in the past, those who wanted flexi-jobs had to solely depend on their network to find such jobs, there are specialised portals/online marketplaces available today. You can look into online job boards such as ‘Fleximom’, ‘KROW’ and ‘Flexing It’ for jobs which are open to flexi-time professionals.
A win-win situation
Rahul KrishnaRao of Yell Fore Consulting, a consulting and advisory firm based in Bangalore has been employing flexi-time employees for the last two years. According to him, the advantages over full-time employees include, “finding someone with the skills that you need, for the time period that you need and getting more done in a shorter duration”.
Chandrika Paricha, Founder of ‘Flexing It’, brings in the salary angle. She says that employees need not lower their salary expectations because they are looking for flexibility. One may in fact, earn a higher pay per hour as companies don’t have to pay other costs such as overheads and benefits such as reimbursement of medical expenses and bonus.
Issues to consider
Sairee Chahal, Founder of ‘Fleximoms’, cautions that while flexible work implies an openness to schedule work, it can run into reverse flexible, implying never ending stream of work or very little productivity. While working on flexi-hours, one needs to have discipline and the drive to meet schedules. At the same time, unlike a full-time job, there is no regular pay check and limited scope for interactions with colleagues. Organisations may also not consider you for professional development opportunities.
Riju Dixit, an ITES professional with 14 years of experience and working flexible hours to care for her child, points out that there is a tendency to be viewed as one who is not serious about a career. One has to deal with those who believe that work can only be achieved within the conformist '9-5' desk job as well.
Succeeding in a flexi-job
For those who want to pursue a flexi-time job, some essentials are required to make it work. For starters, you need a quiet dedicated corner with a good computer, webcam, speakers, broadband connection and back up network connection with a data card. You also need to have household help and set expectations at home regarding work.
Additionally, having an alternative source of income to take care of essential requirements and the willingness to wait it out during lean periods will help ease financial stress.