[V.Narayan]

Some degree of Work-From-Home (WFH) has certainly settled into the collective human psyche and that cannot now be undone. There are some advantages to having some Work-From-Home some of the time. But it is first not applicable to all forms of employment or organizations. In those organizations where it is applicable it could be for some of the time or for certain days of the week or for some sub-set all the time. Small outfits, purely service delivery organizations, or organizations where people already know each other Work-From-Home can work and will become more and more the norm.

But Work-From-Home does not suit every kind of employee. What about a family of 6 living in one room? What about a young women living with a troublesome husband and nagging in-laws? What about folks who do not have the desired connectivity or the privacy to do zoom calls. I can think of a dozen more such situations where it is not whether the employee desires but whether an employee can.

In two technology companies I am associated with we have decided to reduce real estate by 15% to 30% and have identified the kind of employee or departments that will have Work-From-Home some of the time. Even those departments need some quota of Work-From-Office to maintain and build team spirit and the ever important human linkages. And the IT security risk has increased manifold as IT trouble makers figure out that way too many of your employees are at physically remote locations and start redoubling their hacking efforts to find a chink in the security armour to break in through. Similarly in an industrial company I am closely associated with there simply cannot be any Work-From-Home due to the laws of physics.

And then of course there is the whole gamut of etiquette and {will soon come} laws around Work-From-Home. Respecting boundaries and working hours does not come easy to most Indians and an employee Working-From-Home is more vulnerable to an immature supervisor. Be sure laws on this will come.

But yes the IT sector {which predominates on Team BHP}, the small service sector {where situations can be customized for each employee}, are amenable to Work-From-Home and this trend will settle in there for the greater good of all {except the real estate folks}.

[locusjag]

Let it be WFA (Work from anywhere, emphasis on anywhere) permanently. If this is allowed by our employers across the board, you'll shortly see people like me building a home on a cliff in rural Badagabettu in Manipal or somewhere near Udupi I'll work from there for the rest of my life, with the natural ambience of a village, the vivid nightlife of a city (with all its pubs), the best healthcare and banks and education. (Badagabettu also has rock pythons, vipers and cobras...but every rose has its thorns.)

Enough with our lives in the big cities. Let's spread out to the India we don't know yet!

[haisaikat]

I have voted mixed.

For people in the service industry, if organization or the hierarchy does not respect the demands of work life balance, eventually employees will burn out in WFH. Also those who work in teams, where team members frequently change involving new faces to the organization be it experienced or freshers, the physical presence if office helps in having a better atmosphere of coworking including collaboration too.

However cannot overlook the WFH advantages of those days when we have time crunch or need flexibility of physical presence like attending a family event, having a personal emergency or even going out on a vacation / roadtrip, the time and energy saved in not having to commute owing to WFH is immense.

But I strictly think remote schooling for kids (like mine who is yet to turn 4) is a big flop and serves no purpose, takes more time from parents and need to be relooked at. They are not developing social habits like making friends or playing with them. Its a big problem for the future.

[poloman]

If you are a decision maker, request not to jump the gun and make WFH permanent. For every job like in the IT sector, 4-5 people are employed indirectly, be the drivers, canteen staff, house keeping staff and so on. All these people will be driven to penury. This will affect the GDP growth and come back to bite you in multiple ways.

Why should the govt not impose a tax for doing commercial work at home for cheaper power and infra rates? So are you willing to pay a WFH tax?

All this productivity increase and all applicable only to select jobs. I am working in semiconductor industry and we have lost atleast 50% productivity and learning opportunities in labs due to lockdown.

[Malyaj]

Some companies are thinking of 'once or twice a week from office' kind of routine, which doesn't have many takers (from anecdotal evidence). Employees believe that the need to go to office even once a week ties them down to a location and they would rather move lock stock and barrel to a location of their choice for bulk of the year and return to their HQ location for a small period.

Obviously that doesn't work very well as you can't accumulate all personal interactions in a window of your choice. Lately I have had a very bad track record in making predictions and the opposite of what I think is generally coming true. This time I think that people are genuinely scared and will not return to office in hurry, vaccination or not. I would love to be proven wrong again (meaning that we have defeated the virus).

[anandhsub]

It was a 100% work from office setup before March 2020 hence it would be impossible to move to a 100% work from home setup in the future.

However there will be more flexibility in terms of 1-2 wfh days a month ( for which I used to take leave earlier) while can do shorter hours at office and the remaining time at home ( I work in markets which are open 23 hrs hence used to be at least 11 hours at work and still used to miss out on some price moves)

[Raghu M]

The org that I work for, I am part of the senior management team. I have announced a permanent work from home for my teams for now. We were supposed to lease a new space but did not keeping the pandemic in view. It has saved us a huge reserve. The productivity has shot through the roof for a few teams, reason? Most of the employees have been given a work from home town option. Cities are expensive to live in and work, the luxury to live in small towns and villages and yet work for big firms is something we may not experience ever again. So why not utilize the option and make the most of it.

I am myself from a town but settled in Hyd. I do not have an option of moving out, but I definitely hear my team out. Most of my teams are very young (between 21 to 29). They can save at least 40% more by staying in their natives. Rent, food and travel are all huge gains. I did a simple calculation and found that I saved close to 70K on fuel during the last year. And the pain of driving in Hyd peak Hitech city traffic is gone altogether, at least for now. The plan for 2021-22 is to hire people from Tier II and III cities and give them an option of working from their natives. The initial challenge for 2 to 3 weeks with communication and training is worth the effort when you compare with the huge cost saving numbers.

[ike]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Respecting boundaries and working hours does not come easy to most Indians and an employee Working-From-Home is more vulnerable to an immature supervisor.

Isn't this more about the culture in an organization rather than the supervisor or his/her nationality? Of course there will be the odd occasion where I may have to ask someone to stay on and finish something important. However if the organizational culture is to respect employee and their privacy, these instances will be very few and far apart.

[motorpsycho]

I voted a full 100% WFH, however a lot will depend on what my company states.

Many argue that setup at home is not conducive, with power cuts and network issues being frequent in India, I do not agree to this, my US based colleagues too suffer from Network issues and also with power issues once in a while, most of my Texas based colleagues were out for almost a week during the recent snow storm.

With increasing fuel cost, spiraling rental, I find working in Metro cities like Bangalore very expensive, school fees are a min 1LK/year for a decent school, a school in my home town charges 50% of the fees.

Quality of life is way better, due to no commuting, I get more time for myself and for my family. My kids and my parents get to spend time with each other, my wife has more time to pursue her hobbies, as we have more people at home and she does need to keep an eye on the kids all the time.

Aged parents - this is a very important thing for me, with me here with them, it is easy for me take care of them and keep an eye on goings-on, me being in Bangalore, the well being of my parents was always at the back of my mind.

[avira_tk]

Originally Posted by poloman

If you are a decision maker, request not to jump the gun and make WFH permanent. For every job like in the IT sector, 4-5 people are employed indirectly, be the drivers, canteen staff, house keeping staff and so on. All these people will be driven to penury. This will affect the GDP growth and come back to bite you in multiple ways.

Why should the govt not impose a tax for doing commercial work at home for cheaper power and infra rates? So are you willing to pay a WFH tax?

All this productivity increase and all applicable only to select jobs. I am working in semiconductor industry and we have lost atleast 50% productivity and learning opportunities in labs due to lockdown.

Agree with you on the ancillary jobs that are created or depend on working from office. The issue is that the freshers salary hasn't kept pace with inflation and the savings are considerable. Factor in education loans and its a no brainer. There are some industries where this will not work, semiconductor probably is the best example. A lot of jobs are nothing like that and wfh is going great.

[condor]

Our Business Unit has been doing a mixed WFH for many years now, and we are used to it. Actually, when we used to commute to office, our productivity used to drop a bit.

So once things open up again, I dont think it will change. May be once a week or so, so that the team meets up face to face.

I also expect companies to split usage of facilities between teams - so same place is being used by different teams on different days, thus saving costs.

[KiloAlpha]

I voted for "mixed", but in reality, it is most probably going to be 80% home and 20% office.
I work for a software company. All of us have been working from home from the past year. While the company hasn't taken an official stand on permanent work-from-home, there are fairly strong and (kinda) substantiated rumours that work-from-office will be optional forever.

From a personal stand point, I like going to the office once in a while. It is a change in environment that tends to recharge my mental batteries. Also, if the team needs to collaborate, it makes sense to work together from office. So in that scenario, I will get people together in office as and when needed to give a motivational boost and grease the wheels.

[JediKnight]

I work for big semi-conductor MNC. My ideal work would be able to work from my home town which happens to be a picturesque British era hill station. Earn big metro salary with small town expenses and breath fresh pine scented air. Also I have great schools in my home town. The quality of school teachers is surprisingly poor in big cities.

But WFH is a pipe dream for me. My boss does not believe in it. And sometimes I need to go to the lab to setup equipment etc. It will be back to office for me when the Covid situation improves.

[400notout]

Voted: 100% work-from-office after Covid situation settles down

This is coming from a guy who was commuting 3- 3.5 hours to and fro before this second wave hit. Yes. I would like to get that 3 hrs of driving back to my life rather than save that time and money working from home.

Between my kids online classes (Jr. KG) , frustrations of an overworked wife and my inherent lack of discipline, I would want to stay out of the house for 12 hrs minimum. This was not my outlook during the previous lockdown, but my role then was managerial and we home-schooled the kid for Nursery. My present role is of hands on production so I need to give minimum 8 hrs a day on the system. Also, I need peace to concentrate on my work, and that is not happening with the constant warlike atmosphere at home. And all this when I have the luxury of a separate 'work-room'.

I wish life gets back to normal, I go to office (I really miss driving), the kid goes to school, so that the wife gets peace to WFH. I don't want family around when I'm thinking of work and don't want to be thinking of work when I'm with the family.

[vikram_d]

Where's the NOTA option? I run a manufacturing industry, so none of these are even options for someone like me.

Or at least include an option called "Don't have choice but to work from office" :-)