Let’s talk about work-life balance.

Those of you who have families that live close by and can count on for help with chores, errands, and the occasional baby-sitting – you are lucky. As someone who emigrated to the US, my family resides in India. We’ve made the trip back to India on many occasions, but we raised our kids juggling middle-of-the-day school pickups, soccer practices, and doctor appointments. This makes you quickly realize the importance of work-life balance.

As a life-long marketer, I consider myself lucky to be in a career that affords me the flexibility to remotely work from anywhere – not just from Bombay, Portland, or Boston which I’ve called home. Though not permanently, I’ve worked or at least checked-in when needed, from practically every corner of the world. From a coffee table in Costa Rica to a hotel lobby in Ljubljana, work has traveled with me. It has empowered me to enjoy time with family and friends and to create long-lasting memories.

Covid-19 changed work as we know it. It was the perfect catalyst to digital transformation. Except for a few companies that were deemed essential most suddenly found their entire workforce having to go remote overnight. For most organizations, the timeline to support remote and hybrid work went from years to months. Most companies found themselves unprepared for this tectonic shift and struggling to adapt.Although “hybrid work” and “remote work” were non-existent in our vocabulary until about 2 years ago, I’ve lived it for the past two decades.

As I write this, I am working from Bombay (now Mumbai), India but this experience feels slightly different and a bit more close-to-home. Or should I say close-to-work? I work for NWN, an award-winning Cloud Communications Service Provider (CCSP), whose mission is to transform the employee experience whether on-site, remote, or hybrid – wherever life happens.

Living this mantra, I have been working from Bombay these past 2 weeks. I get to sit across the table from my family, whom I had not seen for a year, and reminisce over breakfast and lunch. Because of the difference in Time Zone (IST is GMT+5.5hrs), I get to conveniently split my workday. I work in the morning while my colleagues have turned in for the day. An afternoon break gives me the opportunity to recharge for the evening just in time to wish my colleagues “good morning” back home in Boston and getting ready for face-to-face meetings.

The flexibility of remote work affords me to balance the things in life that are deeply personal and valuable to me while getting work done. Given that I work from home even while I’m in Boston, it’s almost like I never left. Bombay has been my workplace for the past 2 weeks and I’ve loved every bit of it! Equipped with the right set of devices, visual collaboration tools, advanced technology, and required security protocols I barely notice that I am ten thousand miles away from my “work-from-home” office back in Boston.

I know it would be Utopian for me to think everyone can and would be able do this, but for those who wish, NWN can show you how!

Until my next work-from-anywhere adventure…