Reports say TCS ending hybrid work policy from Oct 1; netizens say 'this means more traffic jams'

Amid reports of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) ending its hybrid work policy from October 1, 2023, netizens said this move will fuel more traffic jams and also lead to massive attrition.

Moneycontrol reported on Friday that managers in various divisions of the IT major have been imploring employees to return to office five times a week. The Mumbai-headquartered company, however, will reportedly retain flexibility/hybrid policies and make exceptions wherever necessary. Currently, TCS has a hybrid work policy where employees have to be at office thrice a week.

An internal email accessed by CNBC-TV18 stated, "As communicated by CEO and chief human resources officer (CHRO) in various townhalls, it is mandatory for all associates to attend office on all the working days (5 days per week if there are no holidays) starting 1 October 2023."

“As we are in the silent period at the moment, we will not be able to comment on your query," said TCS when asked for a comment.

In July, in a post-Q1 earnings call, Milind Lakkad, the Chief Human Resource Officer of TCS, noted that work from office is being actively practiced at the IT services major.

Lakkad said that more than half of the staff at the company has been working from office three days a week. He said, "Our Return to Office initiative is picking pace, with 55 per cent of the workforce already in office thrice a week."

In the wake of Covid pandemic, all IT companies resorted to work from home policy to keep the work going. However, with the spectre of 'moonlighting' emerging, where IT employees have been seen working for two companies at the same time, WFH policy has been frowned upon. With Covid cases on the wane, the IT majors had at first implemented hybrid work policy where employees will come to office thrice a week.

Users of X platform (formerly Twitter) said TCS' move would mean more traffic jams across all major Indian cities.

"If my work revolves around a laptop, I don't need to sit at a particular place for 8 hours and then commute for another 2 hours to do the same thing that I can do at home," quipped an X user.

The alleged decision by TCS comes at a time when Bengaluru, India's tech hub, witnessed massive traffic congestion earlier this week with people taking a whopping five hours to travel 15 kms on the Outer Ring Road.

Some observed that TCS will see massive attrition if its ends WFH policy.

In June, TCS revealed that attrition rates among its women employees have surpassed those among men. This development has raised concerns about the potential impact of the end of work-from-home arrangements.

Lakkad highlighted the unusual nature of this trend. "Historically, the attrition among women employees — who constitute over 35 per cent of our workforce of over 600,000 — has been lower or similar to that of men," he noted. Lakkad suggested that the domestic arrangements reset during the pandemic might have prevented some women from returning to the office even after normalcy was restored.

“I would think working from home during the pandemic reset the domestic arrangements for some women, keeping them from returning to office even after everything normalised," he said in an interview published in the company's annual report.