[ninjatalli]

Covid might be still relevant in some markets of the world but for the corporate/professional Indian diaspora, it's more or less a done deal. Most of my friends working in local & MNC organizations across different industries are already operating in some makeshift or work-in-progress model of 'Return To Office' (/RTO); with some firms getting back to daily runs to office (as they used to do pre-covid) while the most have established 'hybrid' working model to get the best of both worlds (WFH as well as work from office).

For example
- Amazon has a 2 day mandatory work-from-office (Mondays & Tuesdays IIRC) while rest of the days employees can work from home
- My firm (a global bank) will be implementing a hybrid model with employees expected to be in office 2 days of the week but each team can implement how it wants to schedule it within their team members

So here's a thread to discuss what is the RTO model your organization is planning to implement or is piloting an initial trial run or has already implemented the go-to RTO model in your office(s)? How successful has it been so far? What has your experience of it so far?


Note: There's already an existing thread on 'Work From Home'. This thread is to discuss the RTO models our respective organizations are engaging (or planning to engage in).

[denzdm]

Working for a multinational and so far its kept fairly simple. I have segregated them into 3 categories.

- Client facing role - Follow the client's contract / obligation (less than 10% workforce working from office)
- Internal team working with local teams - Not mandatory - suggested to work hybrid atleast twice a week from office to connect with the team mates.
- Global role with few team members in the city - Work as you prefer.

[ashis89]

For my wife, they have to be in office for 3 days in a month. However, the office will decide and inform the employee of the week in a month when the employee has to come thrice.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

- My firm (a global bank) will be implementing a hybrid model with employees expected to be in office 2 days of the week but each team can implement how it wants to schedule it within their team members

Ours is a similar model. Since June 1, employees have been asked to be in their respective "base" locations and urged to come to office. The frequency can be decided at individual team levels.

For my team, people are reluctant to come regularly given the traffic situation and I let them be. We meet once or twice a month or if we need an in-person meeting as a group.

That said, there are a couple of outliers who are not back to Bangalore yet. They give personal and family reasons to justify this. Genuine or not, I haven't checked yet and haven't forced them to return as long as they're getting the work done.

BUT, there's a demerit of missing from office for long. We tend to connect more with members who are in and around Bangalore and subconsciously forget those who we have not met in a long time.

Also worth mentioning here that unlike my organization, my wife's org. encourages having video calls for most of their meetings. They tend to be more "cohesive" as a team.

[ImranHyd]

I work for a multinational software org and we never had a complete work from home policy. We went to office even during non-peak Covid times. Only times we worked from home completely is during peak Covid periods (March 2020 - May 2020), (April 2021 - May 2021) and (Jan 2022 - Feb 2022). Rest of the times, we had split shift system where we were supposed to be in office every alternate fortnight. Office site started operating on 100% capacity from April 2022 onwards. RTO was implemented very strictly and now we are working at almost 100% capacity.

[GeneralJazz]

My company has mandated a hybrid system, but the definition of the hybrid system has been left to the individual team managers!

Sometime last year, our team was shifted to a new building, where the seating capacity is about 80% of the actual team strength. The managers have to make weekly/monthly schedule on who has to be in the office. Since our manager is satisfied with our performance working from home, he is least interested in insisting us to come back to office! A few team mates are coming daily, while the rest of us show up once in a while. I'm in a customer facing role, but since our customers are from East Asia, they are also happy since we can join early morning meetings in urgent cases (think 4-5 AM).

No one cares, as long as work gets done.

My wife is a doctor. Shes doesnt really have a WFH option!

[SnS_12]

I work in the Insurance industry and am part of the reinsurance side of business in my organization.

So the business is basically structured in two parts that is Insurance and Reinsurance and there are different teams/people who specialize in different insurance products (Property, Marine, Liability etc) within these two verticals.

With regards to the Insurance side of business since the team has to deal with clients on a regular basis they are back to attending regular office all 5 days a week.

On the reinsurance side of business we have now opted for a hybrid model with each separate reinsurance team attending office twice a week. Our dealing are mostly with insurers/reinsurers who are based out of India and hence we can continue to have WFH from home 3 days a week. We could have continued and moved to a complete WFH model as were doing during the pandemic, but the management felt that it would help for trainees/freshers joining us to better understand the business when they have one on one interaction with the respective teams in office.

[GTO]

Covid opened our eyes to newer ways of doing things. Some methods I thought were impossible before, were proven very effective. My office has moved to a permanent work-from-home policy . Only time we meet now is during test-drives or socially.

[Dhillon]

I work for an automobile consulting organization and mine is a client facing role. However, our organization requires us to come to office only twice a week. An individual can choose on which days he wants to come.
But 6-9 months view is that gradually, we will have to RTO completely. I personally go to office daily and I like it that way. Working from home made me kind of lazy

[Scarlet_Rider]

For us it is 5 days per month work from office. How that is met is left to individuals and their respective managers. Staff can work 1 or 2 days per week. Some staff work an entire week from office and remaining days of the month from home.

[roy_libran]

Global Bank - Hybrid model.

For some teams up to 4 days a week (max). For some, like mine, not exceeding 2 days a month (min). And, everything in between, based on business drivers or management diarrhoea.

[atnyia]

That's a whole different definition of RTO. Although, I am pretty sure it evokes a similar dread to some.

At my previous employer that was technology driven, location didn't matter much. My current org has a very clear view on the 'remote work'. The current place puts a lot of emphasis on relationship building, in-person discussions and workshops. I am a convert to this and I see a lot of value add. We get additional thrust that had been missing while being remote. I in-fact thoroughly enjoy it.

Currently it is up-to teams to decide when they want to come.

People who had moved back from the metros don't want to leave the comfort of the homes. I see that a short term gain for a long term loss career-wise. You never get to feel the culture that's essential for the grooming in the longer horizon.

The relationship with employer remains very transactional. That's okay for run-of-the-mill IT service company/such roles. But, for anyone higher up in the chain, culture matters and it should matter.

[whitewing]

Working in S/W product development company.

Guidance has been to work hybrid thrice a week from office, this has not been made mandatory. Ostensibly to improve collaboration and innovation. It is another matter that several of the teams are spread over 3 continents.

The final call on the frequency is left to the team managers although there is a nudge from management "encouraging" WFO.

[vb-saan]

Flexible with no mandated no. of days for the employee to be in office. I prefer the social aspect and hence try and be in the office for around 3 days (sometimes 4) a week. Generally, I see folks going in for a couple of days a week, but some of my colleagues have been in full work-from-home mode. And a couple of others do office once a week (usually Wednesdays).

One difference from the pre-Covid era is that now it’s a fully open office, and there are no named desks/offices in my workplace. It’s hot desking for everyone and there are few meeting rooms for team discussions.

[gischethans]

My organization, a global capability centre of an MNC, has chosen a hybrid model with the current attendance requirement being 50% of a month in the office. This is expected to go up in the coming months. A fully remote role given only to proven contributors. Such individuals are encouraged to travel to the office at least once a quarter to maintain a healthy team bonding.

[vj_torqueaddict]

Announced permanent wfh in 2019 and will continue.
Can move to any country where we have office. If it's a self move we need to take care of visa expenses. Can work anywhere in India without any compensation hit.