India’s IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has informed that it will be ending the Work From Home arrangement for its employees and directed them to begin working from office for five days a week, starting from October 1. TCS has been preparing for this shift from the hybrid work culture for a while now, with several of the company’s managers in various divisions having already been requesting the employees to work from office for five days a week, even when the mandate remained that they had to come to office for only three days a week. 

“As communicated by CEO and chief human resources officer (CHRO) in various town halls, it is mandatory for all associates to attend office on all the working days (5 days per week if there are no holidays) starting 1 October 2023,” read an internal email of the organisation, according to CNBC-TV18. 

According to Livemint, TCS has been emphasising the need for a work-from-office model for a while now. The company’s annual report for FY-23 had stressed the need for physical interaction among its employees, stating that it will allow employees to learn from each other, understand the different ways of working behaviour of employees and so on. 

Milind Lakkad, Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO)  was quoted by Money Control as saying that although work from home was convenient for many employees, it is necessary for some of the junior and new employees of the company to interact with senior colleagues and thought leaders “by observing and following their behaviours and ways of thinking. Without those interactions, employee engagement as well as acculturation got badly impacted. All these factors led us to gradually bring back people to our offices during the year."