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