Why Satya Nadella Opposes Permanent WFH!

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to shutdown of offices and almost all the IT companies have pushed their employees to take up work from home. But, the new mode of work had its own problems. Besides some ergonomic and technical issues, the IT employees have suffered various other issues in reality due to extended hours of working, continuous video and audio meetings.

During this lockdown, few companies like TCS have announced that WFH will be the new normal and around 75% of their total work force will do permanent WFH in the coming few years. The companies have made sure productivity isn’t impacted due to new working model.

Reacting to new working model, the CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella said that ‘lack of social interaction in permanent work from home could cause various mental health issues and it’s much more damaging’. Nadella pointed out that the virtual can never be as same as physical interactions and it will effect connectivity and community building among people. “One of the things I feel is we are burning some of the social capital we built up in this phase where we are all working remote. What’s the measure for that?” Nadella questions.

Earlier this month, Microsoft told its employees that they can avail WFH till October due to Covid-19 shutdowns by various government. Other tech giants like Twitter and Apple have allowed their employees to permanently work from home.