End of Work from Home? Are TCS employees being forced to come to office?

Work fundamentals have significantly shifted in the past three years. Jobs that didn’t seem to be well suited for working from home (WFH) unexpectedly started to materialise in exactly that way—and more successfully than expected. The fatal COVID-19 virus sent everyone fleeing for cover at home. But now that the pandemic is almost ended, businesses are calling their staff members to come back to work. Last year, Tata Consultancy Services sent an official mail asking its staff to return back to work. However, it appears the IT services firm has now cautioned staff to abide by its work-from-home policy. Let’s take a closer look at the matter. Also read: TCS announces massive salary hike after increasing 8% net profit in previous quarter, details here What happened? Times of India in a report claimed that TCS has begun delivering notes to staff members who don’t put in at least 12 days of in-office work each month. According to the TOI report, the message also threatened employees with disciplinary action if they failed to follow the roster. TCS’ memo read, “You are warned and directed to start reporting to work from your office location according to the assigned roster with immediate effect.” What is TCS saying? TCS has refuted claims that it issued stern warnings to workers who disobeyed its return-to-work policy. A TCS spokesperson claimed in a statement that although the business had been encouraging staff to work from home three days a week, “linkages to career or compensation” had not been “communicated or deployed.” “We are excited to see our campuses buzzing with energy and want all our employees to be a part of that vibrant ecosystem. A significant number of employees have joined TCS in the last two years. It is important for them to experience the TCS environment to collaborate, learn, grow and also have fun together, thus developing a stronger sense of belonging to the organisation and enabling better integration,” the spokesperson told TOI. The person told the outlet, “Over the last several months we have been encouraging associates in India to return to office and spend 3 days a week at the workplace. This has yielded good results with many of our people returning to the office. Our objective is to have all associates work from office for at least 3 days a week on average in the month, and towards the same we continue working with all our groups to have everyone participate. For now, we have not communicated or deployed linkages to career or compensation.” What are the company’s work from office guidelines? TCS mandated that workers report to work three days per week beginning in October of the previous year. Notably, t he Tata Corporation was one of the first providers of IT services to summon its employees back to the workplace. Additionally, it is the only one to date to strictly adhere to the diktat. Rostering would be based on project requirements, the company had stated last year, and a mix of new hires and seasoned workers will be invited to the workplace. The move, according to TCS, is part of a staged transition away from the company’s Secure Borderless Workspaces (SBWS) and towards a more hybrid approach that will permit the majority of its workers to work from the office for some days each week. Not more than 25 per cent of TCS employees will need to work from the office at any given time, in accordance with the TCS practice of calling staff to the office three days per week. Additionally, according to the TOI report, if an employee who has been scheduled to work in the office during a particular week requests to work from home instead, the request may be granted if the employee agrees to make up for those days at another point in the month by physically reporting to work on those days. The policy also says requests for remote work must be submitted at least five days in advance, reported Hindustan Times. Also read: Work From Hell: Which type of job makes people the unhappiest? How many employees does TCS have? In FY 2023, TCS hired its highest-ever number of experienced experts and over 44,000 freshers. For the quarter that ended in March 2023 (Q4FY23), TCS’ employee headcount increased by a net of 821, according to Livemint. As of the end of March 2023, there were 614,795 employees overall. TCS reported that for FY23, it added 22,600 net new employees. According to a LinkedIn report in 2023, TCS won the award for the finest workplace in India this year, followed by Amazon and Morgan Stanley. For the quarter ended 31 March 2023, TCS reported a 14.8 per cent year-over-year growth in consolidated net profit to Rs 11,436 crore. The combined revenue from operations was Rs 59,162 crore, up over 17 per cent from Rs 50,591 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. A final dividend of 24 has been issued by the corporation for each equity share. The company’s share price on the BSE ended the day on Wednesday at Rs 3,242.10, up 0.87 per cent. Also read: Stop Work: How an Indian tech firm is pushing staff to go home on time How other offices are calling employees to the office? Other IT firms, including Infosys, reportedly asked staff to come in twice a week but did not yet make it compulsory, according to TOI. Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc. , has also put into effect a new rule requiring staff assigned to an office to work there three days a week. Bloomberg cited unnamed insiders with knowledge of the situation when reporting that the corporation intended to increase productivity and efficiency through this method. According to Times Now, Amazon requested its staff to work three days each week starting on 1 May. CEO Andy Jassy stated in October of last year that managers will be in charge of determining how frequently if at all, their employees should report to work. Starbucks requested that its staff come into the workplace at least three days a week in January of this year. CEO of the Walt Disney Company Bob Iger announced a four-day in-office requirement starting on 1 March, while CEO of Apple Tim Cook informed staff through email of the company’s new hybrid work-from-office policy. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.