Career crossroads: The dilemma of a transfer

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: Imagine that your career is humming along smoothly. Imagine that you’ve also finally figured out how to balance the kids, the home, the maid, the in-laws. Now imagine that they call you in one morning and say the one sentence you’ve always dreaded: You are going to be transferred.

Decision-making trauma: Should you choose your career or your family? Should you opt out, slow down, refuse? Or should you take the plunge and let your family suffer whatever consequences there may be? Of all the twists in a serious career woman’s life, a transfer is one of the most traumatic because it inevitably rocks the boat. Many women do, in fact, opt out at this point. Others have navigated their boats, but the waters have been far from smooth.

One such lady is Neela Satyanarayana, Principal Secretary, Home Department, Government of Maharashtra. Neela, after passing the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) exams, has seen several transfers to places such as Nagpur, Thane and Panvel in a career spanning over 30 years. Her first posting as a newly wed, was to Nagpur, away from her husband who was then working in Gujarat. Neela reminisces: “When I got my first posting, I had to live all alone in this big bungalow. This gave me confidence and a new insight into life, but I also had to live with the emotional loneliness.” To pass her time when she was not working, she taught her dhobi’s little son, who also kept her company.

Neela says she was well looked after by her superiors in the civil services and does not recall much problems at her place of work. But, “transfers do take a toll and there is lot of mental trauma, especially when a person is transferred for no rhyme or reason,” she says.

The trauma and the guilt involved when the children are involved is far greater than the stress at work, she says. But, Neela was lucky — her mother-in-law was kind enough to take Neela’s infant daughter to Bangalore when she was up for another transfer.