Five years ago, India began working from home—now it’s time to unlearn the lessons of half a decade
Monish Chandan works from home for a Bengaluru-based company and is an influencer/writer by night. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Dear [employee’s name], [Company name] wishes to inform you that we’re now implementing a [full-time, hybrid] return to the office. Your time of [remote work/leave] will be ending, and we’re excited to welcome you back to the office on [date] at [time]—popped up on our Google search when we asked about work-from-office.
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The ready-made template that turned up a few seconds after hitting enter proves that there have been many who have used the same keywords as us—mostly by employers who have had to send out an email informing them that to come back to the office, full-time.
A Cisco study, From Mandate to Magnet: The Race to Reimagine Workplaces and Workspaces for a Hybrid Future, found that 96 per cent of companies in India have mandated a full or partial return to the office with productivity, team communication, and leadership pressure as key drivers.
A study has said that almost 96 per cent of companies in India have called their workers back to the office. Pic/iStock
Since late last year these dreaded emails have hit the inboxes, eliciting a range of reactions, from grumblings about the logistical nightmare of commuting, to outright resignation. Whatever the reaction, the reality is that the era of work from home is coming to a close.
India was one of the first countries to announce one of the harshest lockdowns on March 24, 2020. The prime minister’s announcement added a new dimension of uncertainty for a population already worried by the virus. But people adapted to the remote life; shopping, communicating and working online became de rigueur. Now, Indians are expected to go into reverse gear—at least where work is concerned.
Pune-based Roopal Jain, 34, works in Human Resources and is one of those who received the mandate to come to work five days a week late last year. Jain, who had delivered a baby girl in 2023, asked for an extension of the two-day hybrid work policy but management refused. “Since only the HR department was asked to come to work full-time, I tried to get an internal transfer but somehow that didn’t work out too,” This caused Jain to put in her papers after a few months. “Even the appraisals were so demotivating, that it made much lesser sense spending hours in daily commute!” she says incredulously.
Roopal Jain, Roseline Catherin and Vasundhara Mudgil, Head of PR, India, Spotify
Jain believes that companies have been acquiring land cheap during the COVID-induced commercial real estate downfall, and now they need to fill those offices with people. “During the pandemic because of a drop in land prices, my ex-company purchased a lot of land and built swanky office spaces but there was no one to come to work in them. These are the kind of reasons why companies are calling back employees, not because of productivity; in fact in pure terms people were more productive. Though it came at the cost of working odd hours as well, nevertheless more work was getting done when people were home,” she says.
Roseline Catherin joined an MNC in Bengaluru during COVID-19 pandemic when work-from-home was a given. Things changed when she got married, moved to Mumbai and had a child. “Last year they gave us a few months to come back to work. I asked them to let me continue to work from home, as life had changed for me in the last three years. They flat-out refused,” says Catherine, adding that she was surprised, shocked and disappointed because she, much like Jain, was a dedicated employee. “They knew my work, knew I’m not a shirker, so I was heartbroken when they did not let me continue to work from home,” she says over the phone.
The Mira Road resident found a job late last year which let her work remotely. “It is a completely remote role in an India-based company with a presence at Vikhroli but I have never had to go to the office since I joined last year,” she says. So what does she feel about the debate that has been raging since companies have asked employees to turn up? “Honestly I think that a lot of these rules and regulations are made for the companies and not for the well-being of their employees. As long as the work is being done, it is now up to every person to make a decision for themselves,” she adds.
Monish Chandan, 35, is a business analyst by day and an influencer by night. Chandan, a Mulund resident, works for a Bengaluru-based company and goes there only once in three months. He loves the time this gives him. “The fact that I do my work for the day and log off at the end is a big plus. Our office hours are from noon to 9 pm but I finish my work on time and attend many events, and even do some writing,” he says. The extra time has resulted in a book he wrote (Maya–Let Life Unfold). “I think it also depends on the relationship you build with your manager, who for me is very cooperative so this arrangement works for me,” he adds over a phone call.
On the other end is Ashish Thippanakaje, whose company has made coming back to work since the last few months an incentive rather than a chore. “A lot of people don’t mind coming to the office because we get a lift and a drop from the office and that’s a big plus. Additionally, breakfast and lunch are free so they have taken away our biggest expense, that is commuting and food expenditure,” he says over the phone from Bengaluru.
Spotify became one of the most sought after companies after their “Work from anywhere” campaign, but even more so when Spotify’s chief human resources officer Katarina Berg came out with a statement saying, “You can’t spend a lot of time hiring grownups and then treat them like children. We are a business that’s been digital from birth, so why shouldn’t we give our people flexibility and freedom?
A Stanford survey found that 17 per cent of workers said they would give up 20 per cent of their paycheck to work remotely, while 10 per cent would surrender more than 20 per cent.
Vasundhara Mudgil, Head of PR & Communications-India at Spotify talks about solid workable programmes brought in at Spotify so that the company put their money where their mouth is, “Our Work From Anywhere (WFA) program, introduced in 2021, enables them to work from where they work best—whether that’s at home, at the office, or at times, somewhere else entirely. Even before the pandemic hit, the HR team at Spotify had been discussing the future of work and what it will look like, and always concluded that globalisation and digitalisation are drivers for a more flexible workplace, that is better for both the company and our people,” she says.
Mudgil equates freedom to effectiveness, “Effectiveness can’t be measured by the number of hours people spend in an office—instead, giving people the freedom to choose where they work will boost effectiveness. By advocating a better work-life balance, Spotify has been able to retain its existing, talented band members, and attract new ones. We do not believe in mandating everyone back to an office—many roles can be location agnostic, while a few are required to be in a relatively more hybrid set up. We continue to embrace flexibility whilst simultaneously reviewing and shifting some of the focal points of our WFA program,” she adds.
Another line of Berg’s epitomises the situation: “Work is not a place you come to, it’s something you do.”
17%
Workers who said they would give up 20 per cent of their paycheck to work remotely, according to a Stanford survey
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