Bengaluru floods: Work-From-Home returns to these IT companies, startups
PremiumVarious IT firms have resorted to work-from-home amid Bengaluru floods.
While severe rains blocked roads, cut off water and electricity, and caused mayhem in Bengaluru's streets, several of India's most well-known IT companies and startups ordered employees to work from home.
Tractors were used to rescue residents after some upscale housing communities were swamped. The operations of IT firms and startups were mostly impacted because most of them had power backup and a hybrid work environment where some employees checked in from home, even if portions of the city where several international enterprises and homegrown startups are located were under water.
Videos of IT workers riding tractors to work in the midst of severe waterlogging in the city appeared on social media sites as rains delayed transportation and threw life out of gear.
The global workflow of technology companies conducting research and development, however, was greatly impacted by access concerns. According to a top executive of a technology company with German headquarters, the majority of the work is still done in a hybrid environment, but getting to research laboratories is still difficult.
"All our associates at Bengaluru are safe. We are closely monitoring the situation and our delivery teams have been advised to exercise due caution," a spokesperson of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said.
However, it did not mention how many workers were working from home and how many were arriving at the workplace.
On September 6, Indian IT giant Wipro urged its staff to work from home and reported that business continuity strategies had been used.
"Due to heavy rainfall in Bengaluru, Wipro has advised its employees to work from home today. Business Continuity Plans have been invoked and there has been no disruption to business," Wipro said in response to an email query by PTI.
The same scenes that had been seen the day before were repeated in many areas of the city on September 6 due to heavy overnight rainfall, flooded streets and roads, tractors ferrying people across flooded areas, and submerged vehicles.
"For our delivery staff and hubs in affected areas, we have maintained a helpline number and there are SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) in place for their safety, including security training, SOS Awareness, Loss Prevention Awareness, and response protocols etc," the Flipkart spokesperson said.
"Things are bad. Please take care," Gaurav Munjal, founder of the Softbank-backed education technology firm Unacademy said on Twitter after his family and dog were rescued by a tractor.
General Manager of MediaTek in Bengaluru, Rituparna Mandal, stated that the company was taking all required precautions to safeguard the safety of the teams during the flood crisis. Although MediaTek employs over 800 employees in India, it was not involved in the Bengaluru split.
"We have issued guidelines to ensure minimum disruption to work and have advised employees to work from home till the situation improves," Mandal said.
A Meesho official claimed that the company had introduced a ground-breaking "Boundaryless Workplace Model" in February, allowing workers to conduct their business from any location, including their homes or offices.
"The flexibility of the policy enables employees to choose a location based on their convenience, thereby breaking the traditional workplace dynamics of compulsory attendance to office.
"The 'work from anywhere' model has played an important role in the current situation in Bengaluru when daily commute has been hugely disrupted in the wake of the incessant rains," the spokesperson said.
(With PTI inputs)
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