As rain pounds city, hybrid work mode comes to aid of IT workforce

Hyderabad IT employees opt for hybrid work mode as rains make daily commute challenging; attendance in offices low; companies allow WFH for two days, office for three; HYSEA to assess rain situation before issuing advisory.

Hybrid work mode came to the aid of thousands of IT employees in Hyderabad as rains pounded the city on Thursday making daily commute challenging, many roads risky to ride and also travel by cabs and autorickshaw expensive.

Attendance in the offices of IT companies was low with many employees opting to work from home in view of the rain, Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) president Manisha Saboo said. This, however, was on expected line with most large IT firms, in the wake of the pandemic, permitting hybrid work mode. They have allowed employees to work from home (WFH) for two days and three days from office.

“Our employees decide whether they want to come to office or not as most of the offices are working in a hybrid mode. Thus, some of the offices on Thursday did not send out any communication [on coming to office or WFH]... whoever came to office were asked to leave early in view of the rain alert. Offices buses left early,” she said.

Almost all of the little over 9 lakh IT employees in the State are attached to IT offices in Hyderabad and its immediate neighbourhood. According to the State IT Department, net new jobs created in the IT industry last fiscal was more than 1.27 lakh.

HYSEA would prefer to assess the rain situation before issuing any advisory to its members, numbering around 300. “Most of the employees know what to do because work from office is not compulsory and in most of the companies employees are enabled to WFH. They will be obviously use the option,” Ms. Saboo replied to a query on the likely impact of more rains in the days ahead on the IT sector.