Interviewtimes 
Written by :- Dilip Mishra and Abinash Sahu
Mr. Dilip Mishra is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and Mr. Abinash Sahu is an Alumnus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal.
It’s been more than one year since the nation has been reeling under the grip of deadly Corona virus, not only it has induced several barriers to the economic activities but it has downright adversely affected varied economic sectors of the country. The IT sector, one of the country’s most employed and growing up sector, has also suffered the repercussions of the global pandemic. The IT sector which supports sectors such as tourism, automobiles, home furnishing, and luxury goods industry are affected adversely.
Battling all odds, the IT sector has buckled up to accept the COVID-19 induced challenges. Work from Home (WFH) and telecommuting has become the new normal.
22-year-old Gurusha Thakur, a fresher at a multi-national IT firm based in Bangalore has adjusted herself to the WFH mode and has been working from her hostel room since the lockdown was imposed in late March. She was quoted saying that a good internet connection and a proper computer working system is all that it takes, rest the working environment is likely comfortable.
It is not just Gurusha but thousands of employees have embraced the WFH drift. Online virtual video conferencing apps have fulfilled the needs of official meetings. Oddly enough, the work procedure has paced up, which might be due to the fear of losing jobs during this time. This has triggered a sense of concern among the employees that lets them to work swiftly and productively with more patience and cautiousness.
“During office hours my work was up to to 8-9 hours a day. But now I am working more than 9 hours a day and making it sure that all my work done on my own accord, making sure I don’t miss out on any crucial task. All before the deadline” said Kishore, an employee from an MNC IT company in Bengaluru.
Rajesh Bastia, a senior software engineer at a MNC in Bangalore said, “Work from is quite stress-free, during my office schedule in Bangalore I used to leave my home for office, 2 hours prior the office time as the traffic is So terrific here, sometimes it takes me 1 hour to travel just 15 kms of distance by road. Not only that, while returning from office I face the same situation of traffic, which pertains to stress and anxiety.”
Similarly, employees would not have the same seriousness what they have now considering the volatile financial condition of the industry. With the available database, it would be fair to say that the WFH mode has made employees more productive and effective.
Additionally, IT firms are now saving their miscellaneous expenditures like electricity bill, security, housekeeping, team outing bills, etc. Though most of the companies have extended the work from home till March 2021, some have extended it to August 2021 and it may be extended further reviewing COVID-19 situations.
Even hiring for new positions has to become a virtual affair, many firms are taking the test online, interviewing the candidates online, and even sending the required gadgets through trusted couriers for the process of work from the home condition. Mrs. Bijayalaxmi who was working for MNC, Bangalore joined another MNC in Bangalore staying at a Tire 3 city in Odisha. The de-boarding and on-boarding of the employee happened virtually. Many startups are mulling to make this work from home culture a happening one as this saves their cost and expenditure in many alternative ways. Anish Biswal, a startup owner said, “working from home has become a new normal for not only the employees of IT sector rather for other sectors too, but the employees are also getting more family time and space at home.”
Meanwhile, the positive covid-19 cases are surging day by day, and there is no scenario of working at the office in the coming days. Other sectors have also adopted the roster system or 50 percent workforce to work in the office. The new normal of working from home may induce a new dawn for the IT sector to mull over its work culture and might make it happen in reality in post-covid-19 era.
If the IT firms of India opt for an alteration pertaining to this pandemic, their tens of thousands of employees will seek to work from their home cities in order to have more secure lifestyle, save expenses and for better family time. This may surge the development of those cities, as coming from a Tier-1 city to a Tier-2 and 3 cities would not stop their minimum expenditures. Those small cities will witness new avenues of growth and overall development. Different financial and developmental sectors of those Tier-2 &3 cities will see a growth in overall development, starting from housing to real estate and providing basic amenities. The standard of living of people will see a new height. Local businesses will be promoted. At the other end the mega cities where big IT firms are situated will see degradation in terms of spending expenditure, migration of people and developmental growth.
What will happen to the over grown real estate in the IT cities. What will happen to the IT Park if company will reduce their work space, what will happen to the Mall and newly built apartment complex if migration of employees will happen to Tier 2 and 3 cities because of work from home. As major of the real estate companies are backed by some politician, state Govt. may take steps to convince the IT companies not to go for virtual office.
All the cities which are made on the economy of virtual product industry like IT and software engineering may enter to a negative growth stage and the city which will accommodate more physical product-based industry like electronics, automobile, bio-technology which needs the presence of human resource will thrive in future. So, cities like Bangalore, Pune may try to accommodate some physical product industry to remain in the positive run of the growth.
