In struggle to get employees back to office; companies tread cautiously

In some small companies and mid-cap IT services, 20-30 per cent of people are already back in office, especially in areas where heavy engineering and design concepts are required

A mass resignation reported at Mumbai-based coding startup WhiteHat Jr after it asked its employees to get back to office within a month has put the spotlight on a massive problem confronting India Inc: Employees simply don’t want to return to office full time.

Take the case of Mathew Philip (name changed on request). The pandemic, says Philip, made him realise that he’d rather be with his family in Kerala than hold on to his high-paying job in a metro. The birth of his second child during the peak of Covid in 2021 convinced him further that he wanted to