TCS Women Employees Resign Due to End of Work From Home, Issue Kicks Up Debate

TCS women employees reportedly resigning in large numbers, reportedly due to the company ending its work from home policy. The IT major, probably for the first time, is facing a higher attrition rate for its women employees than its male employees. The issue has been acknowledged by TCS in its annual report. This new development, however, has given rise to the work from home Vs work from office debate yet again.

Why TCS is Ending Its Work from Home Policy?

Milind Lakkad, executive vice president and CHRO, TCS in an interview published in the company’s annual report has stated that while work from home certainly had its benefits it also had drawbacks. He said that while employees who were with the company for a long term and were well networked were coping well with work from home,  junior employee missed out on workplace essentials like collaboration, mentorship and team- building. 

Lakkad says that over half of the company’s workforce were hired after March 2020, and were missing out on learning about the organisational culture due to lack of physical interactions with senior colleagues and leaders. “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,” said Lakkad.

Why Women Employees are Leaving TCS?

Lakkad has accepted that the higher attrition rate among women TCS employees during the financial year 2023 was a matter of concern, and a setback to the efforts of the company in promoting gender diversity. “There might be other reasons but intuitively, I would think working from home during the pandemic reset the domestic arrangements for some women, keeping them from returning to office even after everything normalized,” said Lakkad in the interview.

Internet Divided on the Issue of Work from Home Vs Work from Office

Reactions on the issue on social media platforms suggest that there is a disagreement as far as normalisation of work from office is concerned. “It's a concerning trend of avoiding work. Women are often seen shying away from responsibility and this tendency persists. Nowadays, they prefer the comfort of home over office work,” says an account called Nyaay Prayas Foundation.

Ravi, founder of udChalo has tweeted saying: “Companies like TCS are bound by agreements with vendors, where some vendors may require a dedicated area inaccessible to others. With WFH (work from home), achieving this becomes challenging. WFH culture can be fully enjoyed by product companies. Let's not solely blame TCS here. Businesses have various intrinsic factors to consider.”

On the other hand, some views suggest that the women employees had every right to leave for companies that offer the flexibility of work from home. “People will leave if you don't provide them flexibility no matter how big a brand you are. 1 Lakh + employees left TCS in last 1 year. The mass resignation of Women employees in Tata Consultancy Services is happening due to company asking them to do work from office,” says Ranjan Mistry on Twitter.