Infrastructure makes WFH effective, feels CEO | Economic Times

Bharath Sastry, CEO of Vistaprint India, on how he has constructed a mini-office space in a ‘quiet corner’ of his Mumbai house.Nook in time“I work in a relatively quiet corner of the house, what used to be the study room before. I consider the desk to be my minioffice at the moment. It was purchased from Indonesia and features a slide-down top. The great thing about this is that I can shut it after working hours.“I can comfortably work with my laptop and also place most of my gadgets on it. It has smaller drawers for accessories like my charger, notepads, etc. These days, you don’t need a lot of physical stuff like diaries or folders, so it’s convenient to do this.”Sweet spot“When work from home started in March this year, I got my office chair home as it provides support for my back. It’s important to maintain a comfortable sitting position, similar to how it is at the office. Those cushioned seats that we have at home are not good when you’re working for a long stretch of time, so it made sense to use my office chair at home.”Bare infrastructure“One doesn’t need many things to have a good ‘work- from-home’ experience. The infrastructure has to make you as productive as you are in the office. For me, it’s having my laptop and a comfortable place to sit. However, I have purchased a few more items, such as noise-cancelling headphones that help me concentrate during conference calls and lets me listen to music at times.”Work and play“Apart from working, my space also includes some basic exercise equipment that I use in the late afternoons: A bench and a compact set of dumbbells, which sometimes complement the floor exercises that I do. I spend about four to five hours at my home-office. My family also freely visits this space, which makes it enjoyable. It’s the best of both worlds: The effectiveness of an office and the joys of a home.”75288175