Why you should not work from home in smaller cities?
In this post, I will share the issues while working from home in smaller Indian cities.
Yes, you read correctly. I am a big advocate of remote work and worked from home for 5 years. I have been working from a personal office (outside my home) for almost 1.5 years. I have realised working from a personal office is better than working from home, especially in smaller cities. In this post, I will share the reasons why it is hard to work from home in smaller Indian cities. The situation can differ for people based on their family, home size and local community. An alternative is to set up a personal office outside the home. I will go into detail in the later part of this post.
Home environment is not ideal Work environment
A lot goes on every time in Indian homes. In the morning, chaos occurs while making breakfast, lunch and cleaning till the afternoon. People come without notice and gossip can go on for hours as they are free. But you are not. You are working from home. It is hard to explain to people that you are working. Home is generally considered a place to relax. You have to make extra efforts not to get distracted and find a small place to work. It gets more challenging if you have a smaller home. As you are easily approachable your family can also drag you into things they are discussing.
Who is at fault here? No one. The home environment is traditionally like this and you can not change it. If you try to change the home environment for your work, it is not good for other family members who are not working. For some hours you can work from home. But working full-time (7-8 hours) from home is not ideal. You will be able to work if you put in extra effort. It is better to explore other options rather than fighting hard to work from home.
Society outlook
The local community in smaller Indian cities is very different from the Tier 1 cities. In big cities, no one cares what you do, or how you do it. In smaller cities, the local community wants to know everything about you. A random uncle who you know barely can ask you
You will get irritated trying to explain to people that you work from home. After COVID-19, some people got to know about working from home. But still, people can not believe that you can earn while being at home. Their idea about work is to go outside the home and do work that is visible to others. There is very little awareness about the knowledge work. As time passes, you will get used to it. And will not care much.
What's the solution?
The solution is simple. Pack your laptop bag and go outside home for work. If your family runs a business, try to get a space there. If not, rent out a smaller shop and create your own working environment. It will not cost much. Rents in smaller cities are very low and you do not need to rent out a place in a busy market. Creating a personal office will solve the above issues of working from home.
It will also help you to socialise with people. You will have a routine to get ready for work and have fixed working hours. While working at home people face issues like working long hrs and spending most of the time at home. Some people can not be called at home. But you can now call them at your personal office.
With this change, you can make positive changes in your life. I have done this personally and feel happy about this change. This post is for people who have decided to work remotely from their hometown. I hope you like this post. You can subscribe to this site to receive more posts in your inbox in future.