HYDERABAD: A day after a coronavirus suspected case at Raheja Mindspace IT Park sent jitters across Hyderabad’s IT hub, many techies on Thursday opted to be safe and preferred to work from home.
And it was not just Building 20 at Raheja Mindspace, which was suspected to be the Covid-19 Ground Zero in Hyderabad, that wore a deserted look as it remained more or less empty. with only staff of one company, OMICS, reporting to work. Traffic in the otherwise choc-a-bloc IT corridor was also thinner than usual.
“We learnt that traffic in the IT corridor was almost like on Sundays,” said Telangana IT principal secretary Jayesh Ranjan, adding that with the suspected case testing negative it should be business as usual. Ranjan said that despite the breather, the authorities are not letting their guard down and are constantly in touch with IT companies to monitor the situation.
“We had a detailed meeting today with more than 100 HR and company representatives. We have decided not to slacken effort. We will continue to take the same precautions. Every person showing symptoms like sneezing, cough and cold should not come to office and create a scare.”
“The remaining eight companies at Building 20 had staff working out of other facilities/ shared facilities or home,” a Raheja Mindspace official said. Building 20 also houses players such as Facebook, Yash Technologies, Parexel and Realpage.
A spokesperson for DSM too confirmed their office in Building 20 remained shut on Thursday as well with employees working from home. The company also has another facility at Brightspace which too remained closed.
A Cognizant spokesperson said that the company will resume operations in building 20 from Friday. Cognizant has multiple facilities in the city employing over 35,000 employees and except for building 20, rest of its offices were operational, a source said.
An official of an IT company housed in a building opposite Building 20 too confirmed that the morning rush in the IT park was much lesser than usual with around 30-40% of the employees opting to work from home.
HS Kumar, who works in an IT company in Hi-Tec City, said, “We are waiting to get back to our workplace as the environment is totally different as compared to work from home. Though technology helps us to connect virtually, the team work helps to be more productive and problem solving becomes easier.”
It was not just IT companies, even startup incubator T-Hub asked its occupants to work from home and thin attendance was seen in many IT companies in Hi-Tec City as well as Gachibowli area.
However, for many it was business as usual. “We are running as any other normal day. Of course, there could be around 20 to 25% who worked from home,” Ranga Pothula, managing director (India sub-continent) & SVP global delivery services, Infor, said.
In view of Coronavirus, IT companies have also been discouraging employees from undertaking non-essential travels and have been stringently following sanitisation protocols to keep workplace safe.
And it was not just Building 20 at Raheja Mindspace, which was suspected to be the Covid-19 Ground Zero in Hyderabad, that wore a deserted look as it remained more or less empty. with only staff of one company, OMICS, reporting to work. Traffic in the otherwise choc-a-bloc IT corridor was also thinner than usual.
“We learnt that traffic in the IT corridor was almost like on Sundays,” said Telangana IT principal secretary Jayesh Ranjan, adding that with the suspected case testing negative it should be business as usual. Ranjan said that despite the breather, the authorities are not letting their guard down and are constantly in touch with IT companies to monitor the situation.
“We had a detailed meeting today with more than 100 HR and company representatives. We have decided not to slacken effort. We will continue to take the same precautions. Every person showing symptoms like sneezing, cough and cold should not come to office and create a scare.”
“The remaining eight companies at Building 20 had staff working out of other facilities/ shared facilities or home,” a Raheja Mindspace official said. Building 20 also houses players such as Facebook, Yash Technologies, Parexel and Realpage.
A spokesperson for DSM too confirmed their office in Building 20 remained shut on Thursday as well with employees working from home. The company also has another facility at Brightspace which too remained closed.
A Cognizant spokesperson said that the company will resume operations in building 20 from Friday. Cognizant has multiple facilities in the city employing over 35,000 employees and except for building 20, rest of its offices were operational, a source said.
An official of an IT company housed in a building opposite Building 20 too confirmed that the morning rush in the IT park was much lesser than usual with around 30-40% of the employees opting to work from home.
HS Kumar, who works in an IT company in Hi-Tec City, said, “We are waiting to get back to our workplace as the environment is totally different as compared to work from home. Though technology helps us to connect virtually, the team work helps to be more productive and problem solving becomes easier.”
It was not just IT companies, even startup incubator T-Hub asked its occupants to work from home and thin attendance was seen in many IT companies in Hi-Tec City as well as Gachibowli area.
However, for many it was business as usual. “We are running as any other normal day. Of course, there could be around 20 to 25% who worked from home,” Ranga Pothula, managing director (India sub-continent) & SVP global delivery services, Infor, said.
In view of Coronavirus, IT companies have also been discouraging employees from undertaking non-essential travels and have been stringently following sanitisation protocols to keep workplace safe.
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