In one year, Priyanka Bhosle Silswal has lost two jobs. The 35-year-old was working with one of the leading hotel group chains in Pune, as a learning and development professional. When the hotel reopened in August 2020 after the Coronavirus-induced lockdown was lifted, she was one of the first in the team to be called back to work. “We had to train the staff to ready for a post-Covid-19 world in the office,” says Bhosle, mother to two-year-old Hridvi. For someone who shared a good working relationship with her boss, also parent to a young child, she didn’t expect the cracks to appear. “First, I was told that I would have to report to work 15 days in a month, at a 50 per cent salary cut. My husband also worked for the same firm, so we suggested that he work for half the month, and I for the other. This would ensure our child wasn’t left alone when help wasn’t available during the lockdown.” 

But the company didn’t agree. Bhosle had little choice but to leave her child with her parents in Mumbai. She cried all day because she chose her job over her baby. When she realised the plan was infeasible and found herself torn between her personal and professional commitments, she chose to quit and move to Mumbai. In January this year, she landed a position with a US-based commercial real estate company. “They said they created the job title for me!” she says, adding that the excitement was short lived. The firm insisted that Bhosle come to office at the peak of the second wave. When her husband had to be quarantined during a suspected COVID infection, she realised it was best she did too in the interest of the safety of her colleagues. “They asked me to lead a virtual meeting the next day, which was later rescheduled as per my availability. For the next three days, I was quarantined at home;  they got upset that I didn’t turn up to work.  A day before I was to resume work, I received an email saying my position had been dissolved.”