IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v68y2025i2d10.1007_s41027-024-00550-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reworking ‘Flexibility’: Work-From-Home Experiences of First-Generation Graduates Employed in the Indian Information Technology Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Anuza Subramaniam

    (Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras)

  • Kalpana Karunakaran

    (Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated national lockdowns led to the widespread implementation of Work-from-Home (WFH) in India’s information technology (IT) sector. Since the end of the pandemic, many companies have adopted hybrid models of work that combine WFH as well as the office. In the light of these developments, this paper explores the gendered dimensions of a ‘flexible’ strategy such as WFH for women and men workers during the pandemic and its changing contours with the passage of time. By focussing on first-generation graduates, the paper shows how IT employees’ homes were re-constituted as workplaces in familial settings marked by the absence of social and economic privilege. Drawing on scholarship on flexible labour in globalised workspaces, this paper discusses how pre-existing work flexibility was both intensified and recalibrated in the WFH regime with both employees and managers seeking to mould workplace flexibility to meet their specific and conflicting needs. Keywords: Information Technology (IT), work-from-home (WFH), flexible work, gender, India

Suggested Citation

  • Anuza Subramaniam & Kalpana Karunakaran, 2025. "Reworking ‘Flexibility’: Work-From-Home Experiences of First-Generation Graduates Employed in the Indian Information Technology Sector," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 68(2), pages 665-679, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:68:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s41027-024-00550-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-024-00550-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-024-00550-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-024-00550-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information Technology (IT); Work-from-home (WFH); Flexible work; Gender; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F66 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Labor
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:68:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s41027-024-00550-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.