Bill Gates: Work From Home Will Continue For All IT Employees; But Infosys, Wipro Has Other Plans

The COVID-19 pandemic resultant lockdowns have driven the companies to let their employees work from home.

On September 23 at an online business summit organized by Financial Daily The Economic Times, Bill Gates said that the work from home culture has worked well and many companies will continue with the system even after the coronavirus pandemic ends.

Read on to find out more…

Bill Gates Says Work From Home Will Continue Post-Pandemic!

After admitting that he hasn’t traveled for work the whole year, Bill Gates the co-founder of Microsoft and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said, “Honestly I have got time to do much more. It’s been… eye-opening for me.”

The software developer said, “It is amazing to see how well the work from home (WFH) culture has worked and I hope will continue even after the pandemic is over.”

He added, “But once this pandemic ends, we will rethink on what percentage of time we spend in offices… 20, 30, 50 percent. Lots of companies will expect their employees to spend well below 50 percent of their time in offices and maybe the rest of the companies will go the normal way.”

However, the business magnate said software requires for WFH has to improve for it to become engaging. Gates also said that with kids are home, house chores, it is difficult to work. Women have too many things to handle at home hence WFH comes with its own setbacks. 

Gates when asked about India’s two-month lockdown to curb the virus said the country did some “incredible things” like the use of digital infrastructure to transfer money to households in need. On working remotely in India the billionaire philanthropist said that many people have jobs where remote working is not possible. 

Gates said, “India was always going to face much bigger problems compared to Europe and the US. We hope as we get into fall, things don’t get worse although the cold temperature is not good for containing the virus.” “Right now some great things are happening, the Premjis, Primals, the Tatas, etc are stepping up efforts to minimize the damage,” he added.

Employers’ and Employees’ Opinions Differ!

Currently, out of 1.85 lakh Wipro employees, only 3000 are working from the office. In other words, 98% of employees are working from home. Although till this year-end Wipro employees won’t come to the office, but this can change.

Rishad Premji, who is the son of Wipro Founder Azim Premji has said that employees should be able to come to the office and work, and not work from home. According to him, it’s important that employees interact and mingle, share ideas and dreams.

Whereas Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said in an interview, “I believe the office is the place to work, home is the place to spend time with your loved ones. Mixing the two is not a good idea on a long-term basis. Yeah, I understand that there is no alternative therefore, we have adapted. But this should be a short-term solution.” He also said that the work from home setup is not productive. 

However, according to an ASSOCHAM-Primus Partners survey, around 74% of Indians would like a WFH like an arrangement post-pandemic.