Infosys, India’s second-largest IT services company, founder, NR Narayana Murthy, has urged firms to encourage their staff to return to offices as now the worst of the Covid -19 pandemic appeared to be over.
He also stated that if people work from home, it is very difficult to foster a culture of hard work, imagination, excellence, intuition, meritocracy, discussion, and debate.
“I am not a big supporter of work from home at all,” the IT veteran remarked at DH’s Bengaluru 2040 event on Friday, citing the practice’s negative influence on business culture.
In a virtual session, Murthy remarked, “When people work from home, that institutional culture will slowly become weaker and weaker.”
He also mentioned a few cons of working from home. He described that working from home is not a viable option in a country like India, where many employees live in multi-generational households, have insufficient Internet speed, and also don’t have a separate area to convert into a home office.
To explain his point of view, he also pointed out that India’s production was lower than Bangladesh’s, a country that was founded a little over four decades ago.
According to official figures, India’s per capita income was just over $1,900 in the financial year 2020-21 versus Bangladesh’s $2,227 and $12,551 in China.
Murthy also used the example of Germany in the 1940s, when workers put in “over 16 hours a day, six days a week” to rebuild the country’s economy following WWII.
“I believe in emulating that as it is the only way we can raise our economy and follow China,” Murthy added.
Many businesses, particularly those in the information technology sector, enabled workers to work from home during the pandemic, but are now attempting to rehire them.
“My wish is that all the companies get back to the office at the earliest,” Murthy stated.
In 2022, Narayana Murthy quoted, “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 WFH. But this should be a short-term solution.” He had said.
