IT cos against WFH amid moonlighting

Daunting HR Issues

- WFH resulted in moonlighting

- IT firms facing clients' permission and productivity issues

- TCS asked employees to come back to offices by Dec

- Google said its staffers have to come to offices

Bengaluru: Indian IT companies are asking their employees to come back to offices, which is a sign of ending the two-year long work from home (WFH) stint with most IT engineers operating from remote locations.

Sources in the know said that factors like moonlighting, clients' permission and productivity issues are prompting IT firms to get back employees in offices. Already some of the large IT firms including market leader Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have asked their employees to join back in offices by end of this year. "With things normalising after Covid, many clients are not that forthcoming in giving permission for work from remote locations. IT firms are also facing moonlighting issues (employees working on other jobs without permission), productivity is another area of concern," said an industry source.

According to HR experts, WFH is one of the major reasons behind plethora of HR issues. As attending interviews becomes easier in remote mode of working, this has led to high attrition. Similarly, remote-model of working has led to staffers doing multiple jobs without the permission of the company.

"Now, TCS in a note has asked employees to come back to offices by the end of this year. Many IT companies are not officially communicating, but getting their staffers known through team leads that they have to come back to offices soon. So, we can soon see end of WFH despite management commentary on the contrary," said the person.

Globally, many technology giants have been asking their employees to operate from offices. Google has said its staffers have to come to offices given the deteriorating earnings of the technology giant.

Earlier, Elon Musk said in an email to Tesla employees with the subject line 'remote work is no longer acceptable'. "Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean minimum) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla," he had warned.

During the first quarter earnings, management of top firms have said that around 20-25 per cent of employees were working on the premises and this number would go up every month.

Meanwhile, a debate over moonlighting by IT sector employees has been going on with differing opinions. In a tweet, Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said that moonlighting is simple cheating by staffers. However, Tech Mahindra CEO has said that his company may come up with such a policy allowing staffers to work on other assignments after disclosure and permission from the company.

With IT sector employees coming back to major technology centres like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, New Delhi and other small centres; rentals are going up with rising demand for homes.

With IT sector employees coming back to major technology centres like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, New Delhi and other small centres; rentals are going up with rising demand for homes