5 surprising reasons why folks at Freshworks love the night shift
Your day has just started. You scroll through Instagram and see that someone has baked banana bread. Again. You notice your laundry bag overflowing with pajamas of different colors. You put the thought away and log in to your team meeting. You turn on the video for your Zoom call. Right then, your pet decides to make an entry and sit right on your keypad. Your team hollers while you chase her away. Amidst various distractions, the meeting goes on. Soon, you get busy with your tasks for the day. Somewhere in between, you take a break to figure out your meal while wondering when you are going to finish washing the dishes that have been lying around from the previous day. You shelve that thought and get back to work.
If some of these scenes sound familiar, then welcome to the work-from-home club.
A few of our employees at Freshworks, who have been working remotely in the night shift for the past few months have let me in on their WFH lives to understand what it is like to work at night and what keeps them driven.
Here are some surprising reasons why folks love working in the night shift:
The US market
A lot of us feel the innate need to love our jobs. Our employees love the work they do because they enjoy the market they work for. You can learn so much about the culture and perceptions of people from the customer base that you interact with. It helps you understand how they look at us and any feedback that we receive from them helps with our personal growth.
Syed Ahmed (pictured in the cover image), Regional Sales Manager (US-East), shares his views on working with the US market.
Higher productivity
Some of our employees pride themselves in being night owls. They have a surge of energy to get all their tasks done during the night.
An added advantage is that since we’ve all moved to WFH there is no commute to and from work. This way, a lot of our employees find it easy to maintain healthy sleep cycles.
“There is no travel time involved when we work from home. So naturally, people are happier and more productive. They log in early to get work done and they get to sleep immediately after their shift is done, hence enabling us to maintain a healthy lifestyle,” said Vikgnesh Sampath, Lead Product Consultant of the US Presales team.
Work-life balance
Having shifted our work into the confines of our personal space in the ‘New Normal’, there are a lot of blurry lines when it comes to working and non-working hours. When you love what you do, any additional time that you give to the activity doesn’t feel like too much of a burden. In fact, it leads to a sense of accomplishment. This attitude is what keeps most of our employees up and running. It helps them maintain a healthy work-life integration.
“I enjoy working in the night shift because it gives me enough time to run my errands and spend quality time with my family during the day and focus on my career at night,” said Ashmina Akbar, who works in our US Inside Sales team.
“I have worked in the night shift for 10 years. I find that working in the night shift helps me have a balanced life because during the day I get to perform my duties as a mother and homemaker, while during the night I get the time and space to work and grow in a professional environment. I am also glad to have a supportive husband who helps me take care of my kids while I’m asleep in the mornings to ensure that I have a healthy sleep cycle,” said Bhavani Chandrababu, who also works in the US Inside Sales team.
Happy work environment
One of our culture codes ensures that all our employees are provided with a happy work environment. We believe that the work we do makes us happy as we play to our strengths.
“I have been shaped by mentors like G [Girish Mathrubootham, Founder & CEO-Freshworks] to do what I love and, naturally, things automatically work out. I’m happier. I focus on having career-related conversations with the team to ensure they’re happy with where they are and whether it’s leading them on to where they aim to be. I let my team do what they wish to so that they remain satisfied with their work,” said Yashvanth Rajendran, Regional Sales Manager (US-West).
“There are two things that can be attributed to a happy work environment. One is that you never have to face the Monday blues or the feeling of why we need to log in today. This can be achieved by taking up challenging projects time and again. Secondly, I think if we have people around us who inspire you through a simple conversation, then you certainly are working in a happy work environment,” said Madhavan Veeraraghavan, US Presales Manager.
Growth and support
Freshworks is not just a place of work—it is like a second home for a lot of our employees. When you’re in Freshworks, you always have someone looking out for you. Your team helps you stay motivated and is there for you when you face problems. The managers take an extra step to ensure that all is in place for the smooth functioning of the team as well as the wellbeing of the members.
“The work from home regime has increased the number of stand-up meetings that used to take place. The entire team meets daily and we set up daily or weekly targets and agendas and try to get them done. We track our progress through a checklist. The two-way communication we follow ensures the smooth functioning of the team as a whole,” said Rajagopal Sadagopan, Manager- Channel Sales (LATAM).
Before the pandemic when our offices were open, employees in the night shift were provided with cab services, healthy food, in-office gym services, and a games arena to ensure that our employees are safe, healthy, and can have some fun alongside work. The WFH set-up has led to several other ways to have fun or let our hair down. For instance, a lot of our teams engage in game nights on Fridays where they strictly stick to off-work topics. Instead, they hold Pictionary tournaments and Mafia nights. The US Presales team had even introduced their family members to the team members to promote a sense of belonging and bonding among Freshworkers and their families.
“I chose to apply for a job at Freshworks because it is known for the culture of keeping their employees happy. A lot of initiatives have been taken to help people adapt to work from home in terms of setting up furniture and remote workspaces at home. This is a testimony to employees being placed first, followed by customers and shareholders, when it comes to Freshworks,” said Madanagopal Mahendra, Manager (US-East) who joined Freshworks last year.
We are definitely looking forward to going back to the office as soon as it’s safe to do so. The walks around the SP Infocity building (where a majority of Freshworks employees work), the coffee and lunch breaks in the cafeteria, the table tennis tournaments, the foosball games, sitting on our desks with our team members around us—these are some of the experiences that all of us definitely miss in a WFH world. But the essence of Freshworks is the supportive, empathetic, and happy work environment that we carry with us irrespective of the physical workplace. The night shift comes with its own set of challenges but if there’s something we’re confident about, it is that you will be taken care of at Freshworks. You can find what you love here and be Wow-ed. Just like we pledge to vow our customers.
