[am1m]

Some of the teams at the company I work for decided to work from the office last week, since we hadn't met in a long time and since some of us hadn't met at all. So thought it would be good to come back home for a week (I've been working remote for most of the past 2.5 years) Spent a few days working from the office. Haven't spent more than a day working from an office since March 2020!

First day was very nice, got to meet with a lot of people, was good to put actual faces to names. Lots of conversations. Chai, snacks, lunch. Not much work got done. But still, all in the name of creating deeper bonds to make the future interactions richer. Since this is an easy commute for me (metro station!), began to think that perhaps my views on remote work need to shift again. This is not so bad. Time to come back.

Second day, fewer people. Third day, I actually unlocked the office because no one was around. Then about 3 people got there. Surprisingly not many from those who used to pine for the time when "we'd all be back together in the office again" From different conversations got to know people don't intend to return on a regular basis. Most want to work from home, quite a few are heading back to their home base outside Bangalore. Good thing this is a leased space.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by Samurai

There is no point discussing roles where WFH is not suited, like manufacturing or sales. Let's stick to jobs/roles where WFH can work.

Actually, there is to some extent. I know many companies where they expect (and HR tracks and publishes these reports) the people in sales profile to be either at client's place or at office.

In contrast I also know of many companies where the culture has been that the boss doesn't adhere to such stupid policies and generally keeps in touch with the subordinate daily without necessitating office visits.

Ofcourse, it is in the interest of the sales-folk to visit office and make people collaborate & prioritize his task, and/or cajole/threaten people to work towards his goals in timely manner and that is always served best in-person at office!

[V.Narayan]

TCS calls employees back to office, completely removes work from home option - India Today

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology...957-2023-01-13

In Short
• TCS ends remote work for its employees.
• Last year it sent an official mail citing at least 3 days from the office.
• TCS wants its employees to experience office culture and learn and share their experience with their co-workers.

I would have thought that a hybrid model would be the most efficient way forward for employer and employee given that the pandemic showed it can be done albeit with many inefficiencies on security & hiring integrity and given that the young IT employees, rich for choice, demand it. At least in the IT companies I'm associated with we went with a hybrid scheme as a permanent solution. While they are not as large as TCS the employee count is well in 5 figures.

I suspect a full return to office will not find favour on Team BHP

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

TCS calls employees back to office, completely removes work from home option - India Today

That is a very misleading article headline. If you read the article fully, all they have done is make a statement that 100 percent work from home is removed. It just means nobody can work from home 100 pc of time. They are still going ahead with hybrid. There won't be any 100pc remote role.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

That is a very misleading article headline.

Either way, the trend from the bigger IT companies is unmistakable, almost all of them are calling/have called people back to the office in some form or the other.

The TCSs, despite whatever claims they made in the press during the pandemic about 25% remote model by 2025 (I think that was the claim during the pandemic), can always go back to whatever works for them, they don't really have to depend on individual employees, however talented, to make their business model work. They will always have enough applicants.

What has changed is several smaller companies have realized gains in terms of office expense savings, wider talent pool access, luring talented people away from bigger companies with remote work benefits, and more of those kinds of roles exist.

So for those who want to take advantage of those opportunities, certainly a lot more of those exist in Indian IT today. (Obviously not equivalent to the mass-hiring levels of the Infy/TCS/Wipro kind, but a lot more than there were pre-pandemic.)

[Samurai]

Large MNCs that rely on highly skilled and experienced employees are going in the other direction. They are moving entire departments out of office, into 100% virtual. Many such employees are moving to Goa or such exotic locations. Co-working space companies are busy acquiring office space tier-2 and tier-3 towns for helping hybrid models for folks who prefer closer to their home towns.

The difference between large service companies and others are only going to get starker.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Large MNCs that rely on highly skilled and experienced employees are going in the other direction. They are moving entire departments out of office, into 100% virtual.

Interesting. My understanding of the larger firms (wrt staff #) are actually moving back to office mode, while the work remote options are kept flexible for smaller teams in such firms with specific/niche responsibilities; and on a case to case (for the decision for that team/function) basis.

Care to share which large MNCs?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Care to share which large MNCs?

No, that would pinpoint the source of the info. But I can tell they are departments like advertising and advisory. Otherwise those employees will quit and join elsewhere.

[GJ01]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

TCS calls employees back to office, completely removes work from home option - India Today

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology...957-2023-01-13

I suspect a full return to office will not find favour on Team BHP

Clickbait Journalism, thats what I can say.

Few days back, around Christmas, there were articles stating TCS has given 20 % rise across the board and so on - someone had the rum cake early that day. As someone who has first-hand knowledge and involvement in this initiative, I can categorically say this is all false.

Few Senior roles / designations have been 'advised' to come to office daily, while stating 3 days a week would be tracked. 100% WFH for anyone would be an exception (for a particular period of time) and need to get many approvals. Conversely, it is be practically impossible to get 100 % workforce to office 5 days a week, logistics wise. In the long term we may have a hybrid mode - we can only guess how it will settle. There are many moving parts in the whole ecosystem - the absurd / insane salary hikes are getting moderated, I also guess that many companies that blindly recruited will 'shed' some workforce as part of their annual appraisals. Companies are also focussing on reducing Contract fee spends - and it is being driven strongly in India, the so called on-site will follow, once employee mobility improves.

As a net result of all this, I guess majority of activities like Business As usual (BAU), keep the lights on (KLO) support activities, will move back to office. There is strength in numbers, synergies to be had with teams colocated - which has conventionally not been tested / proved to be effective in a distributed environment. Just my opinion, you will have yours and I will respect if you have a different PoV.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by GJ01

Just my opinion, you will have yours and I will respect if you have a different PoV.

My point of view I put forth in that post number of 14th January and that is - that a hybrid model would be the most efficient way forward for employer and employee given that the pandemic showed it can be done albeit with many inefficiencies on security & hiring integrity and given that the young IT employees, rich for choice, demand it. At least in the IT companies I'm associated with we went with a hybrid scheme as a permanent solution. While they are not as large as TCS the employee counts are well in 5 figures. Of course for many other industries WFH is not a viable alternative.

[Turbohead]

I've read two books recently: Atomic Habits by James Clear and Deep Work by Cal Newport which are absolutely relevant for the knowledge worker especially in the world of IT.

I know it may deviate from the topic in hand slightly but it's still relevant to a large extent. Here are a few queries to our fellow members considering both the books promote a routine, dedicated spot for work etc:
1) For those working in Hybrid mode, is alternating between two types of routine (i.e routine in office and another at home) easy or is it more easier to stick to complete WFO/ WFH schedule?
2) Are you able to alternate and work in both types of environments efficiently?
3) If you've moved from hybrid to complete WFO, are you more efficient in office or hybrid work mode?
4) Between WFO, WFH and hybrid, can you tell which one is best for productivity?

I've only been doing WFH so far and I've been called to the office with hybrid policy. Would like to hear from you on what I can expect.

For the sake of keeping the discussion related to productivity, let's consider time taken for commute seperately.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

1) For those working in Hybrid mode, is alternating between two types of routine (i.e routine in office and another at home) easy or is it more easier to stick to complete WFO/ WFH schedule?

It was hard for me to get used to working from home initially, during the first lockdown. But now, I see no difference.

Originally Posted by Turbohead

2) Are you able to alternate and work in both types of environments efficiently?

Yes, for the role that I am in, now I can.

Originally Posted by Turbohead

4) Between WFO, WFH and hybrid, can you tell which one is best for productivity?

Honestly, it depends on the individual, the office policies, and the type of work. Some people just want to get away from home and work better in the office. Some people like me are lucky to have a quiet environment at home so can work well at home. And if the company itself doesn't understand how to enable remote work efficiently, that is, some employees will be at work all the time while one or two will be remote, obviously the ones remote will find themselves isolated, missing out, and less efficient.

Originally Posted by Turbohead

I've only been doing WFH so far and I've been called to the office with hybrid policy. Would like to hear from you on what I can expect.

There are great things about working from an office. We are (most of us) essentially social beings and there is certainly something about collective creative energy. The good thing about IT roles is, to a large extent, you can replicate a fair bit of that through good policies and technology, for quite a few job roles. Not replace it certainly, but enough so that the balance is tilted to the net gain, when offset against the truly awful and time wasting commute that is the case in most of our cities.

Originally Posted by Turbohead

For the sake of keeping the discussion related to productivity, let's consider time taken for commute seperately.

But that is a huge factor, right? Not just a total waste of time, a commute to a place like the ORR in Bangalore (where a lot of IT companies are located) is a physical and mental drain and very stressful, not to mention the harm from pollution and the need to always structure your life around getting to and from work.

Honestly, if there was already a Metro system in place, I'd be all for working from an office as well. But the fact remains that the commute is a huge factor in tilting the balance.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

...
For the sake of keeping the discussion related to productivity, let's consider time taken for commute seperately.

Quality of commute is a HUGE factor affecting productivity. One hour in choc-a-bloc urban traffic and one hour down a sparse-traffic expressway are entirely different things.

I can't imagine anyone spends 1-2 hours in urban Indian traffic first thing on a workday, enters their office space and flips a switch to 'max productivity mode'.

A bad commute takes a toll, physically and mentally, and it absolutely impacts our productivity, professionally and personally.

When I used to commute 5 days a week, I made it a point to reach a little earlier than needed to get the commute out of my system and get in the zone, esp. if the first order of business was an important meeting/activity that needed me to focus 100%.

Same on the return commute, I often found myself sitting in the car for a while after parking it, getting the commute out of my system before I walked into my home to my spouse.

Where commutes are necessary, a lot needs to be done to make them less torturous.

[Turbohead]

Thanks for the response! That's some fine insight!

Originally Posted by am1m

But that is a huge factor, right?

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Quality of commute is a HUGE factor affecting productivity. One hour in choc-a-bloc urban traffic and one hour down a sparse-traffic expressway are entirely different things.

Yes, commute is a major part of the equation but I'm not bothered about it since I have an option of taking a cab, which I will because it makes no sense to crawl during rush hour although I'm not sure if I will be able to utilise the time to take a nap.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Turbohead

1) For those working in Hybrid mode, is alternating between two types of routine (i.e routine in office and another at home) easy or is it more easier to stick to complete WFO/ WFH schedule?

Easy to alternate. Some weeks I spend upto 3 days in office; other weeks it's 1 or 2 days. I prefer to go to office on days when I have more calls on the calendar.

2) Are you able to alternate and work in both types of environments efficiently?

Yes easily. Actually the alternation helps too.

3) If you've moved from hybrid to complete WFO, are you more efficient in office or hybrid work mode?

Office any day. Too many distractions at home. The extra time helps but I perform much better in an office setup.

4) Between WFO, WFH and hybrid, can you tell which one is best for productivity?

This hybrid approach. But it helps if there's a pattern to follow (for e.g. I prefer to go office on Mondays - helps align after the weekend) and also when the hybrid plans align among fellow colleagues who could be relevant for the work tasks.