Tata Consultancy Services tells staff to go to their rooms and stay there, even after the pandemic passes Indian technology services giant Tata Consultancy Services will increase its use of remote working in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with pay TV channel India Live, Tata (TCS) Chief Operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam said: “Customers are happy and employees are happy” as all service levels have been …
And employees will be happy too, since they can avoid spending hours traveling in traffic and save significant money too. I already have a big fat fibre connection at home, with full generator backup. So my work is unaffected but i am avoiding traffic, travel stress, and even people interruptions. It really is a good deal for a lot of people too.
If only the employer will then release some of the cash savings to, for example, provide home workers with proper equipment, desks, chairs etc as appropriate too. Also, in some jurisdictions, allow for the potential extra costs landed onto the employees such as possible pro rata commercial rates bills, property taxes, heating/cooling costs etc. Some, but possibly not all of those extra costs may be balanced against commuting costs but it does need to be taken into account. Many of these work from home people will be minimum wage office clerk or phone jocky types.
About the one thing that was handy with my visiting a partner site every one or two weeks was I could stop by Lowes/Home Crappo/Harbor Freight on the way home and pick up supplies/parts/tools that the local home improvement center doesn't stock. Or some other thing that isn't worth an online order for (where shipping ends up about the same as the item itself).
But then again I have a proper workspace that I've used the past 6 years as a remote employee on multiple jobs.
"“Customers are happy and employees are happy” as all service levels have been met."
Tata Consultancy Services, well known for gaming service levels is using service levels to judge their staff effectiveness?
As Leonard Cohen, the outspoken critic of outsourcing, once said:
Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
Great to see a company experiencing and quantifying the benefits of home working. Most companies have been forced into the homeworking scenario rather than actively embracing it pre-Covid-19. If this results in an industry-wide culture shift and greater acceptance and even promotion of home working, there are employer, employee and environmental benefits to be had.
Hope the lockdown will end soon, but also that the lessons learned through the enforced home working scenario are not lost and we all don't just go back to 'business as usual'.
I think the long belly-ached about “low productivity out of the office/managing people remotely difficult ” corporate why you can’t work from home excuses have finally been hosed. Many people will work their 8 hours productively between7 and 10pm and get their shit down.
Office providers- and esp. people like WeWork - should be quaking one their boots. Who needs much more than a token head office now.
All you need is a home office setup - desk/table, mid-range laptop, decent (24” or greater second screen), headset, printer possibly and VOIP telephony/conferencing. The only slight fly in the ointment is broadband.
Automatic benefit too of saving the planet with reduced commuting/air travel and consequential CO2 and other emissions ... Greta will be ecstatic.
I'm always more productive when wfh.
Fewer distractions and interruptions and
Given that I typically save 2.5-3 hours travel time everyday, I don't mind putting in an extra hour or more to knock a few more things out.
And I always eat healthier when wfh. I can eat when I'm hungry instead of forcing my body to take on food first thing in the morning when it's not really ready for it.
This allows me to eat all my days meals within an 8-10 hour window which has been demonstrated to have numerous health benefits.
Many years ago I worked for a company that had two distinct versions of WFH.
Working From Home : Was basically someone who did it occasionally, i.e. office based most of the time, had a desk, and just the occasional, perhaps a day every week or two, working at home.
Then there was Home Workers: These were officially based at home, so no allocated desk in an office, and only expected to go into an office on rare occasions (like annual appraisals, that always had to be done in person, client workshops, group training sessions etc).
The key difference was, if you were just WFH, there was no special treatment.
But if you were a 'Home Worker', someone from HR came to inspect your house, check that you had a proper desk and chair, a working heating system, a phone line (late 90s, so before tin'ternet took off).
If you were missing anything, such as a proper H&S compliant chair, one would be provided. You were also paid a monthly allowance to cover things like the increased heating bill, and phone line usage etc.
HR would visit each year or two to make sure you were still H&S compliant, i.e. correctly set desk and chair etc.
If this does change the status quo with regards to many more people WFH, and especially if it becomes the new norm, at least in some sectors, then I'd expect landlords will change their offerings to accommodate. e.g. A small office space (i.e. a desk and chair) per person, could become a requirement for many apartments.
Landlords would do this, as they'd assume 'professional' person, therefore we can bump the price up for the same floor space (space for desk, gained by a smaller bed/wardrobe/less other furniture) etc.
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