Seen the latest Myntra video? Here is a real life story.

Simran from the SHEROES community shares her response after seeing the Myntra ad. Simran was a SHEROES B Plan initiative entry at SHEROES Summit 2013

When I saw the new Myntra video which shares what a pregnant working woman might go through due to her manager's attitude it brought back my own experience on that front into sharp focus. I was perhaps one of the lucky few  with a woman manager who was entirely the opposite of what is shown in the video, during my pregnancy. 

I remember I had just shifted to Bangalore and I found out I was pregnant. Due to some early stage complications I was advised bed rest and I immediately called up Nina to resign, assuming that the company really cannot have an employee working from home for 3-4 months. Her response shocked me - she said there was absolutely no reason to resign due to such happy news and I could work from home. Throughout my pregnancy due to multiple complications I had to work from home - each time I spoke to Nina about it, she would tell me that while I was already a great performer, pregnancy had brought out such superlative quality of work that it was amazing ! She continued to give me some very important projects even in my 7th month - It truly made me feel valued. She shared that I was moving in a larger role when I returned from maternity leave. 

Sadly though due to organizational changes when I joined back, she was moving out of the firm. A male manager had joined and frankly, he was at his awful best when it came to understanding what managing a little baby entails ( and strangely he's a father of grown up kids!). In a series of random statements, one statement from him about whether I "sleep" during working hours if I am working from home was what kind of propelled me to start off on my own with Ovenderful ! The comments and such statements reflected lack of depth in understanding performance or potential in an employee. It also felt fairly humiliating to be picked on due to one being a new mother, despite demonstrated high performance earlier. You might also hear that since you work from home you are not working in a full time role irrespective of the amount of work ! 

And I know its easier to look back and say this now that I am happy to have been treated that way because it gave me the impetus I needed to start my own venture. The positives in life will help us start something like my interest in baking helped me start Ovenderful as a blog initially. But the not-so-positives will sustain it in my view - the so called negatives will lay the foundation for what we build. 
 

So I decided to leave the role and make that shift - but what would I shift to? To baking which most people thought was a weekend hobby, a source to raise funds, a voluntary vocational skills class? Yes all these 3 things, but one more - a business venture. I knew that if I find my niche within a specific area in baking and work towards the right partners as well as get some mentorship, I could scale up Ovenderful. And I started working on making Ovenderful a brand which was an extension of my identity, embodying what I believed in and defining its niche space as a signature e-bakery for healthy, organic and even vegan baking. I chose partners like Amazon's Junglee Local Store, homemadeonline, My Little Moppet which could give me a platform without diluting my brand. I applied for the virtual business mentorship program with the Cherie Blair Foundation, because I had a clear intent to work on this. And I formed a Facebook group called Ovenderful Mom Bakers Community to share what I know of healthy baking as well as have other bakers explore and experiment in that space. 

Thats what made the shift complete - the fact that I didnt just circumvent around the idea for a long time. I did think and worry, and I still do, as I always will. But that does not change the fact that Ovenderful was formed by a person who isnt trained to be a baker, does not have any certified skills to run one's own business except a decade old MBA, does not have investments to fund it to another level and has to struggle to find time slots to bake in when her 2 canine girls and a 3 year old toddler are asleep ! So clearly - a shift is far easier to make than we think it is, we just need to put our hearts and minds to it. 

By Simran Oberoi

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SHEROES
SHEROES - lives and stories of women we are and we want to be. Connecting the dots. Moving the needle. Also world's largest community of women, based out of India. Meet us at www.sheroes.in @SHEROESIndia facebook.com/SHEROESIndia

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