This Indian IT Company Imposes 100% Work From Home For 2.3 Lakh Employees; Shuts Down Office

Wipro is shutting all its offices around the world for 4 weeks in view of the omicron situation.

It will reconsider office return as the situation evolves.

Office Return Delayed Again

The move comes at a time when the company was getting ready to bring its employees back to offices.

Senior executives had been commuting to office twice a week since September, and nearly 3% of the entire workforce had also made the return.

Industry peers also began gearing up for everyone to return to offices after 18 months of working from home.

Industry Forced To Change Plans

For example, TCS had announced its plan to  get 80% of the employees to work from the office by 2022.

It had already started calling vaccinated employees to offices since November 2021.

However, the speedy surge in cases in India and elsewhere forced the industry to change track.

Vaccination Key To Regain Normalcy

As vaccination gains pace, Wipro will accelerate the initiative to get more people to the office from January, said a top executive during an earnings call.

Already at least 50% of the total strength are fully vaccinated and 85% with at least one dose.

Premji Prefers Offices Over Remote Work

Rishad Premji, executive chairman, Wipro, expressed his support of bringing employees back to offices even as others offer flexible work options.

He cited “culture and innovation” as the two reasons people connect in physical spaces such as “over the water cooler or coffee machines”.

He believes that organisations grow when “people gossip about them”, something which “doesn’t happen in this transactional medium of being virtual.”