[DetectiveMiles]

Higher than normal resignations at TCS as WFH ends

Its chief human resources officer Milind Lakkad said that historically, the attrition among women employees – who constitute over 35 per cent of the over 6 lakh-strong workforce – has been lower or similar to that of men, and called the development as "unusual".

Over 6,00,000 people work at TCS of which 35% are women. The corporation retained 38.1% of its female employees in the fiscal year 2023. Additionally, women held about three-fourths of the top positions. It should be noted here that TCS lost more than 20% of their workforce in the previous fiscal year.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/busin...240689397.html

[Samurai]

I am surprised how TCS misread this situation. TCS was always a very pro-women company. Even 30 years ago, there were plenty of women in senior roles. In fact, 3 out of 4 bosses I had in TCS were women. By the 80s, they had figured out that the women employees were fiercely loyal and would regularly promote them to key roles. TCS was way ahead of the curve when it came to gender diversity.

I expected TCS to know that WFH would be highly valued by women when compared to men. When TCS pulled the WFH plug, what else did they expect?

[Vishal.R]

Originally Posted by DetectiveMiles

Higher than normal resignations at TCS as WFH ends

Its good and bit surprising that they publically disclose this observation. Normally management / HR remains in denial mode, tries to downplay such links and comes up with different excuses when decision is taken by top management.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Samurai

... When TCS pulled the WFH plug, what else did they expect?

Makes backfilling critical roles complicated too, with the ongoing staffing kickbacks scandal.

[iskandariya]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Makes backfilling critical roles complicated too, with the ongoing staffing kickbacks scandal.

It was made public atleast a quarter late in my opinion.

WFH backfiring big time, especially when competition is picking up even freshers which have been trained by tcs to whatever extent they may be.

Additionally, seniors are also moving out , this will lead to a deep crunch. Projects are feeling the pressure.

All this when there is so called recession on going.

Agree with 80s approach of being ahead of the curve but why are they saturating on old idealogies now

[am1m]

Caught up with someone I know after a bit of a gap. She's been working remote for the past 4 years (even before Covid) since she was in a role that didn't require them to be physically present at work and their company was ahead of the curve at saving on unnecessary office space costs. Post-covid the company gave up even more office space in Bangalore and more people worked remote. This is a very old, very established, very profitable, publicly-listed, brand-name US-based IT company, with literally thousands of employees. And this person is an experienced (20+ years) professional who has worked across a couple of continents.

Was telling me how grateful she was that she could spend more time with her father during these last few years of his life. Wouldn't have been possible had the job required a daily commute to work. And during the past 4 years, she's gotten two promotions and continues to be a good performer (I know of this from other people), with a normal workday that stretches over 10 hours on most days. I also know her job involves a lot of co-ordination and strategic planning with stakeholders across the globe. All done virtually. She's absolutely not interested in jumping to another company, no matter how good the offer is, because she's grateful for the flexibility.

[DDIS_RE650]

Originally Posted by am1m

Caught up with someone I know after a bit of a gap. She's been working remote for the past 4 years (even before Covid) since she was in a role that didn't require them to be physically present at work and their company was ahead of the curve at saving on unnecessary office space costs. Post-covid the company gave up even more office space in Bangalore and more people worked remote. This is a very old, very established, very profitable, publicly-listed, brand-name US-based IT company, with literally thousands of employees. And this person is an experienced (20+ years) professional who has worked across a couple of continents.

Was telling me how grateful she was that she could spend more time with her father during these last few years of his life. Wouldn't have been possible had the job required a daily commute to work. And during the past 4 years, she's gotten two promotions and continues to be a good performer (I know of this from other people), with a normal workday that stretches over 10 hours on most days. I also know her job involves a lot of co-ordination and strategic planning with stakeholders across the globe. All done virtually. She's absolutely not interested in jumping to another company, no matter how good the offer is, because she's grateful for the flexibility.

Very true, all the organizations gained a lot with WFH but the issue is with new joiner who never witnessed the professional life. We have noticed that folks who joined corp life during the COVID era did not dwell like folks who got in-person training and got mentorship on the job. For me, working from home is a boon. I would have never imagined staying in Patna for this long. I would have never done many things in Bangalore, e.g. owning a pressure washer and washing my car/bike, etc. I can visit my village and get to see the farmland. Life is totally different when compared with the busy life of Bangalore. It is a win-win situation for employers as well as employees. I can hop on a Zoom call at any time as there is no worry about facing Bangalore's famous traffic. It also gives us the opportunity to stay with our Parents and participate in all functions and pooja which we were missing.

[iskandariya]

I have simple arrangement I give extended availability when at WFH
Trained my team, during COVID freshers and infact have set a benchmark on how to identify them groom and make them efficient, within the account. Best part is I no longer need to refer to local regional pool I have pan India pool for my reference allowing for a better rich team. You give them what they want and they will give you not the organisation what they have to offer.

[kamilharis]

As I work in the Engineering sector I don't have much experience with the WFH culture. The max I had was for 1 month during the peak covid time and it was an okay experience.

But I can relate a lot to it as my dear one is doing her duties from home ever since she joined for work, just around when COVID started. As someone mentioned it is good if you are staying with your parents and family as you can be around them throughout the day.

The negative side of WFH is that even though the person is present physically around you, the amount of quality time you get with the person is way less as the work hours sometime get stretched to 10+ hours. Even though on paper there is a Check-in and check-out time that is mostly not followed, your clients and managers expect you to be available anytime.

Regarding the future of WHF, yes some companies might find this as a good and budget-friendly alternative but I am still unsure whether as an employee someone would like to sit at home and work for the whole of their life.

But I agree there is more flexibility for you when you WFH. Like you don't need to take a whole day off even if you want to attend a marriage function or pay a visit to the bank , or dentist and so on.

[turbowhistle]

Originally Posted by am1m

Was telling me how grateful she was that she could spend more time with her father during these last few years of his life. Wouldn't have been possible had the job required a daily commute to work. And during the past 4 years, she's gotten two promotions and continues to be a good performer (I know of this from other people), with a normal workday that stretches over 10 hours on most days. I also know her job involves a lot of co-ordination and strategic planning with stakeholders across the globe. All done virtually. She's absolutely not interested in jumping to another company, no matter how good the offer is, because she's grateful for the flexibility.

Can resonate completely, this is true in mine and my sister's case as well. My sister looked for a fully remote opportunity last year and couldn't have been happier with the result. Her case is similar as well, a big US company with lots of employees and several meetings a day but the flexibility and compensation she has is unmatched for in India in her field. Performance recognition hasn't taken a hit as well so she also doesn't want to move even if the offer is more lucrative.

My case was slightly different, I work for a smallish company in EU ( around 25 employees). We never had a formal concept of WFH but since covid the company realised the potential and let go of the office which was in city center. We even started hiring from remote places and in general it has worked great I would say. I had a kid in 2021 and I'm thankful I get to spend a major part of my day with her and see her growing up which would not have been possible otherwise. Even now it's completely my decision to visit office or not. I was bit worried initally about the appraisals but have had 2 promotions since then and encouragement at every possible step. Have worked in 3-4 companies before, never felt this way in my whole career.

[Gaur]

Originally Posted by am1m

Caught up with someone I know after a bit of a gap. She's been working remote for the past 4 years (even before Covid) since she was in a role that didn't require them to be physically present at work and their company was ahead of the curve at saving on unnecessary office space costs. Post-covid the company gave up even more office space in Bangalore and more people worked remote. This is a very old, very established, very profitable, publicly-listed, brand-name US-based IT company, with literally thousands of employees. And this person is an experienced (20+ years) professional who has worked across a couple of continents.

Was telling me how grateful she was that she could spend more time with her father during these last few years of his life. Wouldn't have been possible had the job required a daily commute to work. And during the past 4 years, she's gotten two promotions and continues to be a good performer (I know of this from other people), with a normal workday that stretches over 10 hours on most days. I also know her job involves a lot of co-ordination and strategic planning with stakeholders across the globe. All done virtually. She's absolutely not interested in jumping to another company, no matter how good the offer is, because she's grateful for the flexibility.

This very closely relates to something at my home as well.

Wife is in WFH mode since mid 2019 initially it was due to pregnancy as we were expecting twins and doctor advised complete bedrest, her oneway commute was around 25kms and we couldn't take any chances and her office allowed an exception, until then it wasn't the norm at her company in Bangalore.
Our kids were delivered just a month before lockdown, we were lucky to be at our home town with our families.

She is now working from Mumbai since then and visiting office for a few days once in a quarter, this arrangement is working for the time being even though office has resumed and people are being called back, difficult for us to imagine managing 2 kids all by ourselves in a different city.

Apart from being able to see kids growing up with grandparents, uncles and aunts, attending family functions, festivals and weddings it has also resulted in good financial savings.

However more important is that her career graph has only zoomed up since then, Promotions, multiple hikes and recognition across department.

Her work involves daily interaction with stakeholders in Europe and managing around 8-10 people in India, none of which has suffered due to her working from home.

We do know had she switched jobs or been regular to current office she would have got more opportunities to grow but she is very clear at the moment about kids being her priority and more then happy to let go other things.

Lets see how things unfold in future but at the moment we only wish it continues like this.

[Zippy_wheels]

Our company did not encourage work from home prior to covid. While the policy was there and some teams were allowed, most others were not, citing SEZ rules, but the actual reason seemed to be a general lack of trust . My work required me to work after office hours so I already had a set-up at home and I would log out from office, come home and continue my work.

With covid, everyone was forced to work from home, but the transition was easy for me since I was already spending hours, almost daily, working from home after-hours.

I still continue to work from home but in order to be successful one needs to be ready with a proper set-up. A seperate room without disturbance, a good work desk, ergonomic chair, good monitors, a fast and stable internet, backup power etc. needs to be in place even if your company doesnt sponsor these.

I see a lot of people not being able to work properly, and keep giving excuses like power cut, internet down etc. which is frankly embarassing. I know getting a dedicated room/space is difficult but everything else can easily be managed. If you dont want to spend, then best to go to office. I now have a better setup than what the office offers, so I can get more work done from home than I can, from the office.

I have tried going to office since its not that far, for a change and to catchup with friends, but I find I cant really get much work done from there. As things stand, everyone is happy, so there is no pressure on me to go to office, but given how some others are misusing wfh, it wont be surprising if everyone is slowly forced back.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Zippy_wheels

I have tried going to office since its not that far, for a change and to catchup with friends, but I find I cant really get much work done from there.

This is something that surprised me as well! I've been very surprised by how little of the focused work actually gets done in the office. Since the place I work at is conveniently located near a Metro station, I've been going in a couple of times a week to catch up with people. What happens is a lot of talk, a lot of catching up, easily over an hour (sometimes more!) spent on just lunch. Find that I can get a lot more done at home!

Of course it depends entirely on the nature of work. But what reinforced that recently was my own boss saying on a call that she didn't go in to the office on a day she was supposed to... because she needed to get something done and was able to do that a lot easier from home "without distractions"!

I don't think we're going to be called back to in-person work anytime soon!

[Zippy_wheels]

Originally Posted by am1m

What happens is a lot of talk, a lot of catching up, easily over an hour (sometimes more!) spent on just lunch. Find that I can get a lot more done at home!

Of course it depends entirely on the nature of work. But what reinforced that recently was my own boss saying on a call that she didn't go in to the office on a day she was supposed to... because she needed to get something done and was able to do that a lot easier from home "without distractions"!

I don't think we're going to be called back to in-person work anytime soon!

Exactly, my office has had a lot of churn post covid, and I initially thought I'd be thought of as a new guy (since I havent been going much) but I was surprised to find a lot of old friends that I had forgotten about. Wfh tends to do that to you.

I shared my concerns with my boss, about not being able to do much at office, and no one was surprised. I would have never ever thought I'd admit as much, but covid changed a lot of things. Coupled with the fact that my office started flexi desk policy post covid, so we dont even have a desk to call our own any more. On the plus side, the time does pass over pretty quickly in office.

Post covid, there has also been a surge in traffic which was already very bad previously. Now that we know there is no "actual" need to go to office, I guess our approach to work from office has changed a bit too.

[Everlearner]

Our org has been working in hybrid mode post covid with a mandate of 5 days of work from office every 2 weeks. This was not followed by most people, but there were people who did not. Now, they have completely formalized this with the same split of home/office working, but with rigid plans team wise on who should attend office when. Many people are complaining that at least the flexibility to choose WFH days should be provided, but the management stance is that it is highly challenging to ensure desk availability to everyone if people start choosing their office days randomly.

I personally don't mind 50-50 split of office/home working, but would have preferred a bit flexibility to choose days of WFH as and when required. At the same time, management do have a point that they need to optimize desk utilization. They are saying that this setup will be run for a few months and feedbacks will be taken from people to assess and redefine if required, which I think may not happen.