Quazi

Having started his career with ThoughtWorks in 2012, Quazi has played a bunch of roles - business analyst, project manager, and now the staffing lead for ThoughtWorks India. Today Quazi works out of his home in Nagpur, a city where ThoughtWorks has no office presence. He started working from home in 2018, to care for his then ailing father. His routine involved regular hospital visits and caregiving at home; he also had a little daughter to attend to, and another kid on the way.

To balance work and life, Quazi set up his home office space and had his daughter accompany him on calls until she would fall asleep on his lap. An up-to-date calendar with personal and work timings marked out and the liberal use of Zoom, WhatsApp, Telegram and Hangouts chat, helped him transition effectively to remote work. 

Over the last couple of years, Quazi has fine-tuned his remote work practices. As a panelist on several interviews, he’s explored ways to conduct them effectively while being remote. One of his favourite ideation tools is the Zoom whiteboard, which when coupled with an iPad, yields splendid results.  

As a leader, Quazi often has to work with people in other time zones; meetings at odd hours are an occupational hazard. To compensate for this, Quazi keeps his weekends “non-working”. Every now and then, he plays cricket as a stress buster and he sets aside at least 30 minutes a day to just read.

To make up for his physical absence, Quazi visits offices across India occasionally and he makes it a point to meet as many people as he can during these visits.  Regardless of where you work from, Quazi’s top tip is to stay organised and to communicate early and often.