By Sonia Singal

“Work From Anywhere” was hailed as the future of work during Covid times. You could work from anywhere in the world, and we even saw the advent of working stations in places like Ladakh – all you needed was a wi-fi connection to connect to the MS Teams calls. This was a boon for folks from Tier 2/Tier 3 towns. They could save huge rentals by staying in their hometown, along with the warmth of being with their near & dear ones.

But come 2022/2023, this entire excitement around WFA seems to have come to an end. Is it trust issues at play? Was the trust further eroded by cases of dual employment?

Elon Musk told Tesla employees they had to “spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” and not in “some remote pseudo-office.” If they didn’t come in, Musk and Tesla “will assume you have resigned.”

JP Morgan CEO dismissed remote work and Zoom meetings as “management by Hollywood Squares,” seeing it feeding “a working environment that’s less honest and more prone to procrastination.”
Goldman Sachs CEO said remote work was “an aberration” that didn’t fit Goldman’s “innovative, collaborative apprenticeship culture”.

IT companies want the techies back in the office – the amended Rule 43A of Special Economic Zone Rules, 2006 mandates 50% strength to work from office –

Take the case of Meesho, one of the famous proponents of WFA. Now, starting June 1, 2023, Meesho will adopt a Flexi-Office model combining the flexibility and convenience of remote work with the energy and enthusiasm of periodic in-office presence. Employees will come to the office one day a week and can continue to work remotely for the rest of the week.

This means you have to shift back to Bangalore for work. Rentals in Bangalore have become 2X because everyone has to shift back.

A presentation by Peter Cappell from Wharton stated that for individual employees – life satisfaction might be higher, but work-related and career outcomes are worse in every dimension examined. WFA leads to Less communication, now, with remote workers, mainly within “silos”, Neuro-science differences with face-to-face in building relationships and isolation.

What’s your take on this?