As Most WFH Over COVID-19, We Made ‘Work From Farm’ Our New Normal

As stricter measures over COVID-19 were enforced, we made our CEO’s ancestral home our very own home-cum-office.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Instaclean, a startup from Bengaluru in Karnataka has moved from working from home to a village, Thevaram in Tamil Nadu.

(Photo Courtesy: Instaclean)

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj
Producer: Smitha TK

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While IT companies are pushing their employees to work from home amid the coronavirus outbreak, we realised it was not working out very well.

We are a startup based in Bengaluru, Karnataka and we couldn’t let our productivity get impacted. InstaClean is an eco-friendly app that helps email users reduce their carbon footprint and also encourages users to plant trees in order to give back to nature.

So our boss thought of a novel idea – let us work from a farm!

And so we moved more than 450kms away from the city to Thevaram in Tamil Nadu.

It was around 2 March when we all made our CEO’s ancestral home, our very own home-cum-office. A group of 7-10 of us have been working outside on the farms, cooking farm-grown produce and coping with living away from family.

Productivity Peaked 6%

Working from farm is totally worth it. Our productivity has drastically improved by 6%.

“Usually our daily installs was 7,000-8,000 users by day, but after shifting here, we have got installs upto 12,000-14,000 per day. After coming here, we got more creative and have free time to think and come up with more ideas.”

Andrea Fernandez, HR of Instaclean

The productivity has drastically improved by 6%.

And being together as a team, working together and living together, we are able to brainstorm even more and get even deeper into what the problem is and fix it.

Post Work, It Is All Play

After 4 pm, we pack up and engage in other activities. We follow the rule of 7-8-9. 7 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 9 hours of personal activities. The working hours have been changed from 10 am to 7pm to 8 am to 4pm. And in the evening, we indulge in outdoor activities such as trekking and swimming.

We follow the rule of 7-8-9. 7 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 9 hours of personal activities.

However, they do miss staying away from their families. But thanks to video calling, they are constantly in touch with them.

My colleague Prantik Mondal, who is an app developer from Kolkata, absolutely relishes the food we get here. Our families are also glad we eat homemade food.

The working hours have been changed from 10am to 7pm to 8am to 4pm. And in the evening, we indulge in outdoor activities such as trekking and swimming.