Can I please be allowed Flexi-hours?

18 years back, when my daughter was born, I went around exploring options of Flexi-hours. It must be no surprise to many of you that I was not entertained in spite of my corporate work experience and excellent (in my opinion) academic qualifications.

To be fair, though, this is what led me to my destiny of joining the education sector as I was encouraged to start teaching at hours of my choice. Not everyone can be as lucky. No wonder then that headlines of the day often spell out the meagre percentages of women who are CEOs or that in spite of scoring high in board examinations, girls lag behind in careers.

Amongst the many positive changes I am counting out of the ongoing pandemic (and strongly urge all to do) top 10 in my list definitely includes more 'equivalent' WFH options for the women who want to stay at home but not be restricted to home management.

'Equivalent' being the key here. This should be taken as compromise or come without perks. It should be defined just as a regular job and acknowledged by simple concept of productivity and 'woman' hours put in.

WFH models have evolved like never before. Many organizations are even planning to opt for it in the new normal. Others should also consider offering this. They may well be surprised by the talent, skills, intellectual capability, passion, honesty, commitment (I can go on...) women can add to the workforce with just a little change in thought process.