[sharatravan]

My company(a global Bank) started with fixed 3 days a week, and has now moved to flexible 3 days a week, at the individual teams' discretion. It is mandatory to maintain 60% attendance in office and so you have the flexibility to manage your time as well.. say if one week you are present just for 2 days, you can compensate for the deficit next week by working 4 days so the team average stays at 60%. In genuine cases, you can work from home for as long as you want.

However, I rarely see the entire team in office on the planned days, defeating the entire purpose of working from office. In my opinion, this model is unsustainable and will not work in the long term.

[JediKnight]

My organization policy come to office at least three days or get fired. Strictly enforced. Also you need to get a Covid test every 14 days. Again strictly enforced.

[narayans80]

We are a small organization. Except for a part of the support team who work in US time, rest are working from office on a daily basis. We started returning to office as early as November 2020 till early April before Delta outbreak, returned in October 2021, another hiatus in Jan to Feb 2022.

It is not 8 hours in office yet, most are there for about 5-6 hours a day. Anyone with the slightest cold or fever works from home or takes the day off.

Overall attendance at office is about 70-80%

I've been working part day in office, evening calls from home model from 2017 itself. I am flexible with my team as long as work gets done.

[sam264_2000]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

....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?

Our offices opened 25% in June 2020, till Sept 2020 i.e. 1 week in office and 3 weeks WFH after the 1st lockdown (March 2020 - May 2020). From Oct 2020 to March 2021, we operated at 50% i.e. 2 weeks in office and 2 weeks WFH. During both these periods, we could not WFH during the weeks we were supposed to be in office. Exceptions were allowed on a case by case basis. There was no change in this policy and no intention to cut back on office attendance even during the deadly 2nd wave and rising infections in office and outside. However, due to strict action from local corporation against my org and black and white WFH mandate by MH state government, our office had to return to 100% WFH from April 2021 till June 2021. We then returned to office at 50% again from July 2021 to Oct 2021. From Nov 2021, we are back at 100% return to office, with the expectation that we maintain at least 70% office attendance at every global office location, irrespective of PTOs and holidays. As per the quarterly global office attendance numbers that are shared with us, all locations are managing between 60% to 80%.

During all these months/years, strict quarantine and tracing measurements were put in place. ALL employees were given an iPhone SE which had an app developed inhouse and installed by default. It generated a work pass based on answers to a questionnaire AND ONLY IF Bluetooth and Location Services were turned ON in office premises. I think by doing all this circus, the company management felt that they have been fairly successful in their so-called endeavor of collaboration and innovation. Not to mention, employee experience is otherwise. It has been an hassle for majority of the employees trying to comply to these stupid policies. Such a waste of time, money and effort I tell you!

Now we have been told that starting next FY, individual performance rankings will also factor in office attendance God bless the souls who formulate such rules.

And in case you are wondering, I work for a giant multinational product (software and non-software) organization.

[rakesh_r]

Working for a telecomm network equipment major.
No requirement to return to office, upto the employee if he/she wants to work fulltime or hybrid from office, else WFH, CTC gets curated as per location.

[WhiteKnight]

Being a smaller product organisation, we've been watching what the giants are coming up with. We realised, it is not easy just to copy a template.

Few things that we have noticed so far about us.

• Working from home has not hit our productivity. I'd go to the extend that it may have got better
• Majority of people seem to highlight the work-life balance. Even to the extend that leadership suspected whether enough work is happening.
• Teams are spread across the country.

What we have tried....and succeeded
We have been doing events to bring people together, once in a while. Those events are super hits, however there is money involved.

Perceived work-life balance is not because people are working less. It is because of the ease at which one can shape-shift from work to personal life and back. So, for our people, including me, work is 24 hrs, personal life is 24 hours too. It is seamless transition as needed.

Most important, we measure our people based on outcomes- NOT based on time spent in front of laptop. I lead product team. Product function, by definition need to be flexible about their availability. I am very fortunate to have competent people with me, and my job ends where I give them charter, provide them the ammunition, and close air cover. They will get the job done.

Within my organisation, there are functions that demand people to come to office, because of their nature of work.

One aspect that did not work for sure, is expecting people to come few days in a week to office. That is because, our people have moved out of the city where our office is, to places where they are comfortable. A more durable modal is to have teams coming to office for a week or so in certain intervals.

To conclude, we still see the need for office. At the same time, we are well aware that blanket mandates won't work. We need to be flexible. End of the day, only thing matters is that we getting the job done spectacularly, and we are enjoying it!!

[ObsessedByFIAT]

Working for a global bank in a SEZ has its own downside. We are required to have atleast 50% of total staff present in office to enjoy the SEZ benefits. That means we are required to work from office three days a week at the bare minimum. More the merrier.
Which days of the week can be decided by the employee.

As recently as 14th September 2022, Our respected minister Piyush Goyal ji has given a directive for allowing all SEZ employees to work from home. Just waiting for that to trickle down to us.

Link to the news article : https://m.economictimes.com/news/ind...w/94207126.cms

Travelling in Pune's peak hour traffic is becoming a royal pain these days. It takes me anywhere between 2 to 2.5 hours to cover a distance of around 25 kms one way.

[na_agrawal]

My office's RTO policy is a state of complete snafu!!

They have come up with a weird arrangement, here goes -

They have 3 offices in India, Pune, BLR, and DEL.
Delhi folks have been assigned Mon, Tue & Wed.
Pune folks Tue, Wed, & Thurs.
BLR employees Wed, Thurs, & Fri.

Now since the team members are spread across cities, the problem faced is when someone's in office, others are not. Moreover, except Wed, none of the days are coinciding so there's always someone who cannot join a virtual meet due to any of the constraints at home.

Moreover, what fuels the fire is, no strict policy. 3 days are suggested, but there's no enforcement, so I see my manager in the office once in 15 days and so he sees me rarely.

I am a rather new-ish entrant into IT. Out of my total career of 4 years, 2.5+ years have been spent in the covid-era, so I have gotten a flavor of both sides. What I have felt is, even if we are implementing a Hybrid model, there should be a planned visit to the office for all the important meet-ings/ups so that no one misses out on the important office bits and at least I can meet the seniors and members once in a week and we can have a healthy time brainstorming over ideas and contemplate over the office work.

Also, I wonder, when an office party or a semi-annual weekend gateway can be planned so meticulously, why can't a simple RTO once a week be done in the same manner?
Either the senior members don't want to RTO, or employees, in general, have REALLY got used to the comfort/freedom of WFH>>WFO.

~NA

[RGK]

Employees at my workplace, an IT giant, are under stringent orders to report to work three days a week. However, we only observe a pitiful attendance of 30% to 40% on certain days. At present employers are not in a position to force associates to come to office as the market (esp for developers) is hot.

[s_kuppalli]

I work for a technology company (US based), it is hybrid. It is up to employee and his/her manager to decide what works best for the team/project. So we go to office once a week just for the collaboration and it is not mandatory, just a nice to have agreement.

[ransomware]

I work for an European tech company, RTO policy is fully hybrid for us. Teams can decide amongst themselves when and how frequently they want to work form office.
I go to office at least once a month, since mine is a very small team, Manager is in another country. I stay in Mumbai and office is in Pune, so its a nice little roadtrip for me once a month🙂
Also company has a global “work from anywhere” policy where employee can work from any country in the world for upto 90 days per year.

[Cruzn]

I manage Operations for an MNC in IT and we start with a hybrid model from Oct 3rd onwards.

As a company, 50% are expected to be staffed with "slots" given throughout the month. My team will be working the first 2 weeks of every month until Jan '23 after which it becomes 100% WFO.

Most of the team aren't really happy with this arrangement especially when they have friends in other companies who are required to come in <5 times a month.

Apart from the "Welcome Back" hamper promised, there is nothing else arranged. I know a certain Big 4 company that organized RTO games where winners would get prizes ranging from Iphone 12 to an all expenses paid trip of 5 days for 2 people to Singapore. There was also someone who won free petrol for a year!

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by JediKnight

My organization policy come to office at least three days or get fired. Strictly enforced. Also you need to get a Covid test every 14 days. Again strictly enforced.

Is your org run by Hitler?

This is beyond ridiculous.

[Gaur]

My new company (switched a few months back) a large Automobile MNC has already declared a Hybrid model last year itself, applicable globally to all functions which can work remotely.

Its a 30%(Home)/70%(Office) monthly model, which translates to roughly 5 days office and rest day work from wherever you want, no requirement on being at base location.

The final rostering is left to respective team managers and individuals, some people come to office for 5 days at a stretch some split it over the month.

Individuals outside the "BASE" locations prefer coming to the city for a week, staying in the nearby P.G/Hotel finish the quota of 5 days and then back home.

Some smarter ones club the last week of a month with the first week of the next month covering the WFO requirement for 2 months at a stretch and then enjoy almost 2 months at home till you repeat the cycle.

Its working well for all, with the top management recently reiterating their commitment to this policy.

[hondatoyotafan]

My organization(large US bank) in Hyderabad has now mandated a compulsory 2 days from the office. The 2 days are upto the discretion of the manager. Our team has picked Tue and Wed so that every weekend is a long weekend if someone goes out of station.

For some critical support functions they are expected to be in the office 5 days a week. Myself and a lot of other colleagues who went to the native place during WFH are now back in Hyderabad.

The return to office is strictly being monitored by the respective line managers with orders from above to not compromise in any way. If one has to work completely remote in one week they have to file an exception with their respective manager.