WFH vs RTO: OFFICE-HOME BALANCE GETS REALITY CHECK

Is the increasingly common trend of working from home a problem or a solution? That depends not only on who you are talking to, but also the context. What is increasingly clear is that the WFH honeymoon is over, and the heat is on those for whom it has been an escape from many things—long and troublesome commutes, the pollution outside, having to eat out, and facing an unpleasant office atmosphere.

- MADHAVAN NARAYANAN

The new abbreviation in town is RTO—return to office—a reverse swing on the original reverse swing that happened as Covid shut down the world. That happy convergence between emerging communication technologies and avoidable disease is now getting a reality check. A closer look reveals that the WFH-RTO debate may not be just about where you work from, but the very idea of how people work in corporate teams and family units.

Things came to a head last week when an employee was sacked and then reinstated by the biggest American bank, JP Morgan Chase, for pleading in courteous language during a town-hall meeting with CEO Jamie Dimon that RTO decisions should be left to employees. Nicolas Welch, among the bank's 317,000 employees affected by the forced return to office five days a week from March, said his team was spread across different time zones and RTO was not going to enhance productivity. It won applause from colleagues, but went against the grain of the company's big boss who spoke against the inefficiencies of remote work. A leaked audio clip of Dimon's stern message revealed that he summarily dismissed a petition by employees for more flexibility.

In India, the chairman of construction giant L&T, S N Subrahmanyan, who recently survived a social media storm over his idea of 90-hour work weeks, said employees are increasingly reluctant to move cities or leave home.