[DDIS_RE650]

For me and all my colleagues, going back to office is pain now. None of us are interested to waste time in commuting, spoiling our lungs in congested traffic, getting opportunity to eat biryani or Andhra/Punjabi meals during lunch. This work from home is win-win for everyone, I can attend a call at any point of time from 9 AM to 11PM. There is never any rush when working from home. This is first time in my life, I have joined gym and reshaping myself.
At our office, it has been decided to create another location as flexi location. If your manager agrees to allow you work from home then no harm.

[am1m]

Unfortunate to hear about more companies going back on their statements about being more open to remote work. Friend just got the call back to office from her new boss, even though her previous boss had specifically mentioned remote work would be the way forward.

Good thing to be aware of when evaluating offers- ask if remote work is a company policy or if they have deliberately left it vague. If they say things like "manager's discretion", remember all it takes is one old-school/micro manager to yank that back.

[TorqueyTechie]

Company that I work for is for now allowing work at home articulating clearly what it means (no working vacation, no working from cafes/public places, not working from mobile network etc). They have also mentioned that this will continue even later as well barring any govt orders (we are in SEZ and so govt has a say) or performance issues. I am going to office weekly once just for that connect while all my team is distributed across India.

I was surprised to know that there are different SEZ zones across India (link here) and we follow cochin SEZ which has notified that people can continue WFH until December.

[am1m]

Saw a post on a social media site made by a senior executive I know who was the top guy at a company I used to work at some time ago. This person posted about how they spent a productive work day working remote that also allowed them to fulfill some family commitment. And of course there were the usual likes and comments on how forward-thinking all of this was.

Found it funny because during my time at our past employer, I distinctly remember this manager directing HR to discourage people from working from home. The line was- if you needed to get some personal work done, take leave! In fact thanks to this person, the office shifted from a well-connected part of town to a space notorious for traffic and a bad commute. The official reason given was to "encourage collaboration with everyone in the same larger office".

Good to see management can change to support remote work...when it works for them!

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by am1m

Found it funny because, during my time at our past employer, I distinctly remember this manager directing HR to discourage people from working from home. The line was- if you needed to get some personal work done, take leave! Good to see management can change to support remote work...when it works for them!

If he could not work from home during the lockdown, his job was at stake. My argument has been if it is really inevitable make working from the office mandatory, else just let the people do their work.

[am1m]

Two news articles about the subject:

https://www.ndtv.com/business/work-f...mm-min-3173604

"Work from home (WFH) is allowed for a maximum period of one year in a special economic zone unit and can be extended to 50 per cent of total employees"

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/92963065.cms
----------------------

The first one seems significant. To me it seems like the government is taking the first steps towards allowing companies within an SEZ to at least be able to provide the option of remote work without losing the benefits. Not sure about all the implications though. Perhaps the better informed members of the forum could clarify.

Second one sounds more like setting up offices in smaller towns rather than facilitating remote work. But I guess that's a step forward too.

[m8002?]

Looks like Apple now wants employees 3 days a week in office. I am sure other companies will soon start forcing a hybrid policy.

https://www.news18.com/news/business...s-5756947.html

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by m8002?

Looks like Apple now wants employees 3 days a week in office. I am sure other companies will soon start forcing a hybrid policy.

https://www.news18.com/news/business...s-5756947.html

It's about time! WFH doesn't really work for all industries. Maybe for a few noncritical IT guys, WFH is great but for larger more complex roles, it's very crucial to be in the office.

[Samurai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXR0KH74rwo

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by Samurai

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=VXR0KH74rwo

That news reporter should also be working from home!! Why is she in the Studio!

On a serious note - I'm happy that WFH is ending! And for good! I hated WFH and still hate it.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

I'm happy that WFH is ending! And for good!

For good? I don't know about that. Both the company where I work and where my wife works have given up a significant portion of their office space and have no intention of taking more. So there's no space to accommodate everyone anymore. Several friends are in the same situation. A senior exec I know has been tasked with setting up a 150-seater in a small town in a different state to hire from there.

And of course there are enough examples of companies calling employees back to the offices in cities too.

So like a lot of people predicted at the start of this thread, what will happen will be a mix, depending on companies. What this has done though has given options and shown that remote work can (and has) worked for over 2 years.

Hopefully we can rise above generalizations like 'I hate it so it obviously doesn't work' or 'I love it and it works for me, so everyone has to do this only'. Perhaps accept that different work styles work for different people (and could change for the same people at different stages in their personal lives and careers).

[am1m]

A pic is worth a 1000-word post:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ml#post5390325 (Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation)

I recognize that stretch of road in the pic, that was my commute for 2 years. Apart from the traffic (usual) and flooding (unusual, but happens), the iron bars for the Metro construction are also visible. Construction that will go till at least 2028 I'm sure.

Work from office, I don't mind. But the commute to those offices along that stretch?! No thanks! (At least not till the Metro starts.)

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Post-coronavirus, 75% of 3.5 lakh TCS employees to permanently work from home; up from 20%

TCS, the bellwether company which triggered massive WFH among the large IT services employers, has now done complete U-turn on the WFH. In fact, it is more than an U-turn, it has gone into a spiral.

While there may be some flexibility to juniors due to attrition fears, the seniors in their late 40s and 50s have no choice since they can't go anywhere. They have been strictly told to work from office.

Folks who did WFH before the pandemic because of the nature of their work, are also not allowed to work from home anyone. WFH is a bad thing now in TCS.

Ultimately TCS is an IT services company, is has to do what the customers want. Customers want their service vendors work from offices, then that is what TCS will deliver.

[am1m]

https://insideheadline.com/dxc-techn...n-india-chief/

"DXC Technology will continue with the work-from-home policy for its 43,000 employees in India."

"“I’m looking at continuing to use the virtual-first philosophy as a way to attract and retain talent. We are not bound to recruit in a particular location. We can give people the flexibility to work from where they feel most comfortable,” said Nachiket Sukhtankar, managing director of the Indian arm of the Virginia, US-based company."

[am1m]

Some pages ago the discussion went into whether WFH was bad for women employees since that meant they would not only have their office work to do but also longer house work hours since they were at home all the time. This news bit seems relevant to that aspect of the discussion:

https://www.cnbctv18.com/education/w...k-14661951.htm

"Jobs and professional networking platform Apna.co witnessed a 132 percent rise in the number of women users, compared to last year, with most of them looking for remote jobs."

"Founded in 2019, Apna.co has over 5.1 million women registered on its platform."

"The company has recorded a 56 percent rise in the number of job applications by women compared to last year. In the last eight months, the platform has seen a 2X rise in women applying for remote jobs."

""This data is likely to increase in the coming months, especially with more remote working job opportunities available locally," it said in a statement.""