How to get away with working from

 8th August 2013    PR Guru 

Today I am working from home. This is good for many reasons. I don’t have to commute, I don’t have to see anyone and I don’t have to get dressed. Right now I am wearing a (rather tattered) dressing gown but to get me into a more professional mood, I will be changing later – into some shorts so that I can wade through all the water in the garden( In case you didn’t know already, it’s pouring in Delhi and Mumbai) .

And don’t think this means I will be lazing around, as I may even do some rescuing of drowning plants.

In the old days, working from home actually meant being stuck in your house in case the boss rang, but mobile devices mean you can go anywhere, though I suggest staying away from the Gurgaon malls if you can.

The only problem with being at home is that no one in the office believes you are doing any work. But as we all know, what takes ten hours in the office, takes two at home, so it’s not that you aren‘t performing, it’s just that you have more time to enjoy yourself. Though your fun is bound to upset those stuck in the office, so here are my tips for appearing to be working hard in your PR jobs while sipping cocktails and watching MASH reruns on TV (or is that just me?).

1. Call in the office. Doesn’t matter that you don’t need to, it shows that you can’t stop thinking about work. The more you call, the better. Keep the phone by the bed so you can ring the minute you wake up (which should be two hours later than usual if you’re a commuter).

2. Send lots of emails, and not just in the first hour of the day, spread them out. And make sure that they don’t have “sent by BlackBerry device/iPhone” written at the bottom as this is a dead giveaway.

3. The secret is in preparation. Write some press releases while you are in the office, but don’t send them until you are at home, so it looks like you wrote them there.

4. Keep Tweeting. But don’t say things like “am just off to the gym”. Keep them professional and link to lots of “interesting” articles you can find. Maybe this is not the time to retweet this column though.

5. Be wary of background noise. If the boss calls and there is loud pop music blaring, she might realise that you are at Time Out or Landmark. And if you are not supposed to be travelling, but are actually on a metro to meet a friend, don’t answer! Even if the metro has stopped, there is bound to be an announcement that will give you away.