Tag: WFH (Work From Home)

After Google, Intel starts cracking down on unvaccinated employees

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Close on the heels of Google putting its unvaccinated employees on notice, Intel has told workers that unvaccinated people who don’t get an exemption for religious or medical reasons will be put on unpaid leave beginning in April.

The California-based semiconductor company told employees last month they had a January 4 deadline to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or seek an exemption, citing a government mandate for federal contractors.

The constitutionality of broad government mandates is up in the air. A federal court in Georgia blocked the contractor mandate earlier this month, but the government is appealing.

Intel is for now leaving its policies in place, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

Also read | Google warns unvaccinated employees will eventually be fired: Report

“We are closely monitoring the legal environment and expect it will take time for the case in Georgia, as well as other similar cases, to be fully resolved,” Intel said in a statement.

In a December 7 memo to employees, Chief People Officer Christy Pambianchi told employees the January 4 vaccine deadline remains in place.

She wrote that employees who aren’t vaccinated must seek a medical or religious accommodation and submit to weekly testing, regardless of whether they are still working remotely.

Intel will review employees exemption requests until March 15. Pambianchi said employees who don’t receive an exemption will begin unpaid leave on April 4 for at least three months but will not be terminated.

She said Intel will continue providing healthcare benefits to unvaccinated employees on leave.

Several other companies have vaccine mandates in place but so far, they have yet to take a hardline stance on the issue.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Work from home getting to you? Here are tips to help you relax, be more productive

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Working from home sounds like a dream for many. Who doesn’t want to skip the morning commute and stay in their pyjamas? You walk a few steps and you are at your desk.

Easy peasy.

However, those of us who have worked from home for a long time, mostly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, know that it isn’t always as stressfree as it appears.

Here are some pointers to help you improve your remote work performance and stay motivated throughout the day.

Allow for rest periods

While it may seem strange at first, telecommuting allows you to schedule more short breaks throughout the day. Make sure to take a five-minute break from your desk between tasks to stretch your legs and get some fresh air. Allowing yourself the freedom to pause, reflect, and reset throughout the day can help avoid burnout.

Include white space

Taking breaks throughout the day is common advice, but determining when and how long to take them can be difficult. The Energy Project, for example, recommends that you follow your body’s circadian rhythm and take a 90-minute break every 90 minutes.

Utilise time-management strategies

When working remotely, it’s easy to lose track of time, so it’s crucial to incorporate some time-management techniques that can help you keep track of how much time you’re spending on different tasks. For example, the Pomodoro Method is a great strategy for getting you to work for two to three hours and then taking a 20- to 30-minute break.

Don’t let frequent emails hamper your productivity

If you let it, it can hamper your productivity. Instead of leaving your email open all day, productive individuals choose when they want to check it and when they don’t.

Make a workspace for yourself in a separate room of your house, or if you’re short on space, find a spot where you can work quietly without being distracted.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple delays return to office indefinitely

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Apple Inc is delaying its return to office plans indefinitely, Bloomberg News reported, while the company said it has temporarily closed three stores in the U.S. and Canada after a rise in COVID-19 cases and exposures among the stores’ employees.

The company’s employees were previously set to return to offices on February 1, according to the report citing a memo sent by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook.

Growing worries over the rapidly spreading Omicron coronavirus variant have derailed several companies’ plans for a return to normalcy.

Google told its employees they would lose pay and eventually be fired if they did not follow the company’s vaccination rules, according to a report, while JP Morgan Chase & Co has asked its unvaccinated staff in Manhattan to work from home.

Apple’s store closures in Miami, Annapolis and Ottawa come a day after the company reinstated its policy requiring all customers at its stores in the U.S. to wear masks.

All the employees at the three stores will be tested before the stores are reopened, the company said.

Through the pandemic, Apple has closed some stores for short periods of time around the world as coronavirus-related lockdowns were brought in and lifted.

COVID-19 cases are rising again in parts of Canada and the United States, with Canada’s government imploring its residents on Wednesday not to leave the country.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Walk from your bed to home office could count as commute, a German court rules

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

A man who fell down the stairs and hurt his back while walking from his bed to his home office can file a claim on his employer’s insurance, a court in Germany has ruled.

The employer’s insurer had refused to cover the accident claim. But the court said that the man was commuting from his bed to desk at the time and that he should be protected by his employer’s statutory accident insurance.

Germany’s Federal Social Court gave the ruling after a lower court had said the claimant’s walk was an “uninsured preparatory act that only precedes the actual activity,” according to a translation of the ruling.

Also read: COVID-19: Why working from home leaves the lowest paid at more risk of infection

However, a higher social court said it viewed this “first morning journey from bed to the home office as an insured work route,” before the Federal Social Court confirmed the decision.

If the “insured activity is carried out in the household of the insured person or at another location, insurance cover is provided to the same extent as when the activity is carried out at the company premises,” the federal social court observed.

The court added that the law applied to roles that were considered as “computer workstations that are permanently set up by the employer in the private area of the employees.”

Also read: Omicron disrupts return-to-office plans across the world

The German employment law was changed in June to include more activities at home that were brought under workplace insurance cover, if those activities were in the interests of the employer.

Insurance companies providing statutory accident cover would potentially be facing increased claims after the ruling, Killian O’Brien, a lecturer in German Law at University College London, said.

“This is because there is an increased category of activities and events that you can carry out [within the home] that will now be covered, and it seems likely that insurers will therefore have to revisit this ruling often,” O’Brien told CNN Business.

Also read: Bill Gates: Office meetings in the metaverse only 2-3 years away

A lot of work needs to be done in improving the rights of remote workers, who have been forced to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October, Portugal passed new labour laws, which included a ban on bosses contacting employees outside of working hours.

The rules also mandated employers to contribute to their employees’ expenses, such as internet and electricity.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Explained: Is remote working failing young employees?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of workplace culture. The sudden restrictions and lockdowns made companies shift almost overnight to models where employees could now work from home. Remote working or work-from-home (WFH) models suddenly become the main way the employees would join their organisations, instead of being reserved for a particular subset of employees in certain industries and roles.

As the COVID-19 pandemic receded on the back of higher vaccination rates, companies announced that they would be calling back employees to the office. From large tech companies to Wall Street institutions and more, employees were being recalled to offices in larger numbers.

But with cases on the rise across Europe once again , nations have started imposing restrictions anew. Amidst what has now become the new normal, many are wondering about the long-term impact of WFH on younger employees.

Also read: Demand for co-working spaces up as WFH on the wane: Report

What can be the adverse effects of WFH?

For young employees, the chance to make important social connections and learn the crucial skills that are needed later during their career are absent when working from home. The lack of interpersonal experience, managerial skills, and osmotic learning can prove to be detrimental for young graduates who are looking to navigate their company’s corporate environment later in their careers.

Many business leaders like Ken Griffin, the Manager and CEO of Citadel LLC, a multinational hedge fund and the largest market maker in the US, have already warned young professionals against the risk of continuing to work from home. “If you are early in your career, you are making a grave mistake not being back at work,” Griffin said at the Economic Club of Chicago.

“It’s incredibly difficult to have the managerial experiences and interpersonal experiences that you need to have to take your career forward in a work-remotely environment. So for our youngest members of our workforce, I’m gravely concerned that the loss of early career development opportunities is going to cost us dearly over the decades to come,” he added.

Studies have also shown that remote employees are often passed over for greater career opportunities by managers in favour of employees working from the office.

Benefits of working from home 

While companies and corporate leaders are quick to point out the ill effects of remote working, research and employees themselves paint a different picture. A recent study by Harvard Business School Online shows that an overwhelming majority of professionals have experienced advancement and growth — both on the job and at home — this year. Earlier this year, Microsoft’s first-annual Work Trend Index, which surveyed 30,000 people from 31 countries, revealed that 73 percent of workers want to be able to work from home after the pandemic.

Also read: Why employers are averse to allowing ‘work from anywhere’

Many also acknowledge the fact that the true measure of how successful a WFH model is dependent on the trust that an organisation has in its employees as well as the general line of work for employees. Knowledge workers seem to enjoy greater benefits from WFH models, as the importance of collaborative creation is much lower for their fields of work.

The demand for remote working has been so much that professional online network LinkedIn recently rolled out remote, on-site, and hybrid job search features after receiving overwhelming demand for flexible workplace searches in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The future

With COVID-19 possibly sticking around for years as an endemic threat to countries, the question of remote working will keep cropping up. Companies must recognise the benefits of the model while also establishing systems to aid and assist young professionals who are starting out their careers during these tumultuous times, in order to truly adjust to the situation that they are being presented with.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

The Office of the Future: The Operative word now is ‘Hybrid’

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The good news is that the workforce is finally trooping in back to the workplace. What began as a trickle is now a stream and hopefully, will soon be a flood. For enterprises, navigating the pandemic and staying afloat in its wake emerged as one of the biggest operational challenges of our times – something totally without precedent. For companies big and small, survival became the only mantra, as offices, factories, hotels, cinemas, malls and stores emptied out. Thankfully and hopefully, all of this is now in the past and even the worst affected economies are rapidly opening and embracing the new normal. Consequently, the return-to-work has emerged as a boardroom and C-suite issue – as business leaders personally monitor back-to-office plans.

The new normal has made professional communities break with deep-rooted conventions and embrace flexibility and resilience like never before. The change has been the realisation that the workforce can work remotely. And this is a big change for which one needs to take a quick detour into workplace history. The first offices came into being at the zenith of the British empire – the world’s first office was established in London in 1726. As industrialisation increased, a consequent increase in paperwork and focus on maximising workforce efficiency led to the development of open-plan offices, where workers sat in neat and endless rows under uniform lighting.

Also Read | Millennials and their crypto affinity

With time, office plans changed but the premise that offices were required for efficient workforce management remained fundamental. The pandemic ended this in a manner no one could have anticipated – communications technology ensured that even during the worst lockdowns, the workforce was engaged, productive and connected. Now that the pandemic is losing its grip, the workforce, realizing that the centrally located office headquarter is no longer sacrosanct, is demanding flexible workspace arrangements that allow them to be in better control of their time and space and thereby be closer to their families and loved ones and commute less. Realising this, what began as a pandemic-induced need, has now moved beyond the pandemic as corporates start laying out a hub-and-spoke model of workplaces allowing employees the option of flexible work.

Staging sustainability and sensitivity towards environment back in the centre

The conventional way of working which involves long commutes, crowded workspaces and working odd hours out of office headquarters make it difficult for companies to achieve their sustainability goals. Hybrid working not only advocates long term sustainability but also populates sensitivity towards the environment as it lets employees commute less by working from closer home, thereby helping enterprises and individuals reduce their carbon footprint.  According to IT giant, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the firm reduced its carbon footprint by 49 percent in 2020 by allowing its employees to work remotely. Amid the pandemic, the hybrid model is becoming an impetus in steering enterprises towards an environmentally conscious business model.

Also Read | Backstory: When the Amitabh Bachchan magic faded briefly

Making room for new business models & attracting better talent

Volatility in business and the environment it operates in does not shy away from setting precedents. Given the new normal, today more than ever businesses need to innovate and introduce multiple business models to secure their operational future. Flexible workspaces provide a wide berth to businesses to scale up and introduce new verticals by cutting costs, minimising risk, and facilitating the acquisition of high-quality talent. According to an EY report, more than half of the employees around the world surveyed would be willing to quit if not presented with flexible options to work. With the rise of the gig economy, employers need to take extra care and ensure the best utilisation of talent, skills and expertise. Flexible workspaces facilitate customisation of workspaces to individual needs, whether they are technology, creativity or administration driven. More agile businesses have better operational dynamics as they move in and out of markets with greater ease, thereby boosting investor and stakeholder confidence in their business strategy.

Prioritising employee wellness and health

With the pandemic, health and wellness have become uncompromisable factors for employees and enterprises. Conventional office structures have been largely choreographed to stack in more employees and cut down real estate costs. It is difficult for these offices to be operational even at half their capacity and follow social-distancing and hygiene guidelines, simultaneously.  Flexible workspace designs adhere to hygiene practices and focus on improving the working life of employees. Breaking the shackles of a cubicle, flexible workspaces are designed to be more ergonomic and dynamic with every foot. Something as extraneous as natural light and acoustics is managed properly to aid fluid working and collaboration of employees.

Also Read | The Greater Fool Portfolio Theory – Ponzi Variant or Employment Guarantee Program?

Adding value to social responsibility

Businesses cannot last long by alienating themselves from the surroundings they operate within. Workspaces must interact socio-economically with their localities to create thriving communities and boost local business. High rise office spaces established in constricted business districts can only offer so much, socially. Flexible work establishments in smaller cities and suburban areas generate both primary and secondary employment. In addition to this, hybrid work foster investment opportunities for local real-estate and infrastructure players thereby contributing to thriving local communities.

The value proposition and offerings of a hybrid work model far exceeds that of working out of conventional, business district based non-flexible offices. This is enabling a very real and holistic transformation of the way we work, improving work-life balance, being more sustainable and most importantly, boosting employee productivity. Hybrid work is really, therefore, the only smart way to work.

(The author of this article is Harsh Lambah, Country Manager India, Vice President Sales – South Asia, IWG. The views expressed in this article are his own.)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Find your next #workfromhome job on LinkedIn; here’s what Indian employers feel about it

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Professional online network LinkedIn has rolled out remote, on-site, and hybrid job search features after receiving overwhelming demand for flexible workplace searches in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The features also include #OpenToWork filters to meet jobseekers’ need for greater flexibility at their new places of work. Workplace policies and hiring environment have seen a tectonic shift since the pandemic hit about two years ago.

A report shared by LinkedIn said business leaders in India were the most confident in the entire Asia Pacific (APAC) region in leading a distributed workforce. According to the report, 9 in 10 business leaders in India are open to offering job sharing possibilities. The number of companies that are offering work from anywhere, even from other countries, is as high as 78 percent in India.

Also read: Work-life imbalance a major stressor for India’s professionals today: LinkedIn

With such high numbers in terms of a hybrid work culture, India is leading the APAC region. The numbers for other regions stand at 68 percent for job sharing and 58 percent for work from another country.

For such transformative policies to get implemented, there are various pitfalls that Indian leaders have to navigate. Some of the bumps include substandard work, which is a concern for 39 percent of leaders, lesser collaboration between employees troubles 37 percent leaders and bad customer experience is the concern for 36 percent managers.

Also read: TCS, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Deloitte: Work from home to end, list of firms opening offices

The main purpose of introducing these new features is to provide jobseekers transparency and flexibility while looking for new opportunities. The tools will also help jobseekers clearly state their preferred flexible working model and help them learn more about workplace policies. The tools are also meant to assist jobseekers effectively manage their side hustles.

#LinkedIn #FlexibleWorkForce #WorkFromAnywhere #SideHustles #OpenToWork

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Maharashtra considers ‘nodal centres’ in smaller cities for IT workers as WFH continues

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

With work from home (WFH) continuing for employees in the information technology sector, Maharashtra is mulling to create “nodal centres” on the lines of co-working spaces in smaller cities and towns, from where software professionals can work for their respective companies, a minister has said. The state, which is home to the IT hub in Pune and also has a presence of enterprises in other pockets like Mumbai, Nagpur and Nashik, has invited suggestions from the industry for an “inclusive IT policy,” Minister of State for IT Satej Patil has said.

Almost the entire IT staff has been in the WFH mode since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 and companies have been saying that the future will have a hybrid model, where a good part of the employees continue working from offices. A lot of the work done by IT professionals is for critical sectors like finance, where privacy concerns and data confidentiality are important, which also forced a few of the professionals to continue working from offices even during the lockdowns.

“We are also planning to start government-run well-equipped nodal centres where IT employees can come and work for their respective companies. All ideas are welcome in this regard,” Patil said in a tweet on September 7, responding to suggestions made by billionaire Anand Deshpande, the Founder Chairman of Pune’s Persistent Systems. Major cities, including those in the state, have co-working spaces like WeWork since before the pandemic as well which typically help workers from diverse companies and sectors to help from dedicated spaces.

Patil said the government is trying its best to promote IT in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. He appealed to industry lobby groups Nasscom and the Software Export Association Pune (SEAP) to come forward with help on creating district-wise databases suggested by Deshpande.

“Mumbai and Pune have been leading in the IT sector and have been saturated due to migration to these cities. We now want to take this progress to tier 2 and 3 cities like Nagpur, Satara, Amaravati, Latur, Nanded and others by giving incentives to the industries. The industries will be incentivised with various facilities through a separate IT policy,” Patil had said recently. A statement from Patil later said SEAP and Nasscom have responded positively to the appeal with suggestions.

“With hybrid work systems becoming a reality, our focus lies on ensuring equitable collaboration and access for all, regardless of location,” Nasscom said in reply to a tweet from Patil. SEAP Vice-President Vidyadhar Purandare said the focus should be on tier 2 and tier 3 cities taking the growth forward.

“This has to be in addition to enhancing infrastructure at existing IT hubs, to make them more attractive destinations. “SEAP would be happy to work closely with the state government. A nodal agency to collect and collate data points is the need of the hour,” Purandare said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Zoom and out: 20% managers fired employees for slips during calls, says this survey

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

A recent survey has found that over 20 percent of managers have fired an employee due to some sort of gaffe during a video or audio conference, and 40 percent have given at least an informal reprimand to erring employees.

The survey also found that executives at companies don’t trust one-third of their staff to perform well when working remotely.

About 200 senior managers at companies with 500 or more employees were part of the survey conducted by Vyopta Inc, reported Bloomberg. Vyopta helps companies manage workplace collaborations and communication systems.

As the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated work-from-home (WFH) models, telecommunication applications like Zoom saw their downloads increase in a matter of weeks. Zoom saw a growth of 10 million daily participants in December 2019, but it grew to 300 million daily participants in April 2020.

While many companies have slowly resumed work-from-office models, others have shifted to a hybrid model of working or delayed their plans of coming back to the office due to the resurgence of COVID-19 cases as a result of the infectious Delta variant.

Also read: Hybrid model of working is going to be the reality, says Zoom COO

Typical issues that employees face or accidentally cause during video and audio conferences are: Not muting, joining late, having a poor connection, and accidentally sharing important information. According to the survey, such mistakes can come back to bite the company with lost sales, deadline delays and losing clients.

The survey’s result comes days after Zoom Video Communications Inc saw a disappointing sales forecast as a result of schools, offices and workplaces slowly opening up as well as due to increased competition from competing apps. The forecast saw the company’s shares dip by 16 percent even as the company had seen a steady rise in its price since the start of the previous year.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Work-from-Home does not mean end of workplace sexual harassment

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

“My male colleague persistently calls me in the name of connecting for work, even at night.” 

“My boss insists on video calls, even during odd hours.”*

These are some of the messages received over the past year on the chat helpline of Sheroes, a social networking platform exclusively for women. (*Following principles of counselling, the messages have been re-worded by Sheroes and are not verbatim)

Even as several companies moved their employees to a work-from-home model since the start of the pandemic last year, it has not meant an end to the sensitive issue of workplace sexual harassment, of which women are more often the victims.

“Sexual harassment doesn’t necessarily mean physical harassment. In fact, workplace harassment usually isn’t physical,’ said Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women.

“Sexual harassment could be in the form of inappropriate remarks or gestures to make a woman feel uncomfortable. With several employees now working from home, there seems to be a thin line between cyber harassment and sexual harassment. Calling at odd times seems to be a common problem now, while other cases also include putting up inappropriate pictures in the background during a video call,” she added.

As per the Vishaka guidelines formulated by the Supreme Court in 1997, ‘Sexual Harassment’ includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or by implication) as physical contact and advances; a demand or request for sexual favours; Sexually coloured remarks; showing pornography; any other unwelcome physical, verbal or nonverbal conduct of sexual nature.

The Vishakha guidelines became the foundation for the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and made it mandatory for companies to put in place measures to prevent and redress sexual harassment in the workplace (POSH Rules).

According to the database of the National Commission of Women, 125 complaints of sexual harassment of women at the workplace were received in 2021 so far. In 2020, NCW received 201 such complaints. This is lower than the 330 such complaints received in 2019, a year when most employees were still in their offices.

On the Sheroes helpline too there has been a drop in workplace sexual harassment-related complaints. Earlier about 20 percent of the overall daily messages would be about the issue, but over the past year, that number is under 5 percent, according to founder Sairee Chahal.

While the number of cases may have dropped from the previous years, the problem still persists, and the nature of workplace sexual harassment may have become more difficult for women to identify or report, according to Shakun Vijay, Head of the Ask Sheroes Helpline.

“The signs can be subtle and many times women may not be able to identify sexual harassment or may not know how to report it when they are working remotely,” Vijay said.

While many industries in the essential services sector still had a lot of their staff reporting to offices during the pandemic, several corporates, especially those in the tech space, were able to transition most employees to work from home.

For example, IT companies moved nearly 90 percent of their employees to work from home since the beginning of the pandemic.

But even then these companies reported cases of workplace sexual harassment in FY21, though there has been a drop as compared to the previous year.

TCS, which employed nearly 5 lakh people as of FY21, received 27 complaints of sexual harassment in the fiscal as per the annual report as compared to 86 such cases in FY20.

The annual report shows that out of the 27 complaints in FY21,  19 complaints have been resolved with appropriate action taken and 8 complaints remained pending as of March 31, 2021.

Infosys reported 25 workplace sexual harassment cases in FY21, as per the annual report, down from 88 in FY20.

Wipro’s Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Saurabh Govil recently said that the company was working to create awareness on sexual harassment, especially as the nature of such harassment is changing.

“There is a clear shift in the nature of workplace harassment. People expect others to be on videos at odd hours. We have instituted awareness training on sexual harassment for employees in this context because new ways of working bring up new issues,” Govil said during Microsoft’s ExpertSpeak sessions on July 20, in response to a question from CNBC-TV18.

Wipro had reported 43 complaints regarding sexual harassment of women at the workplace during FY21. In FY20, the company had seen 125 such complaints.

Work-From-Office

It is important to note that not all employees and staff had the privilege to work from home. All essential services sectors continued to work out of physical locations through the pandemic and that meant regular shifts at the office.

E-grocery platform BigBasket continued to offer delivery of groceries and other products during the pandemic, which required roughly 27,000 of its workers at the warehouses and for deliveries to come in daily. The company reported 8 cases under Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) in FY21, most of which were reported from the company’s warehouses.  This compares to 14 cases the previous year.

“There has been no change in the nature of sexual harassment. All cases that were reported involved in-person interactions. Most cases reported in the past, and now, continue to be in our physical warehouses and dark stores,” said TN Hari, the Head of HR at BigBasket.

Hari said BigBasket has taken steps to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace through “education and awareness among employees, including those on contract, on their rights and recourse, active  internal complaints committees across all locations, bringing external women members of repute to aid and assist in the investigations, ensuring speedy, and fair investigations, and exemplary action in cases where sexual harassment is established irrespective of immediate consequences on the business.”

Under the “POSH Rules”, any company with over 10 employees must set up an internal committee that can address grievances of employees on sexual harassment complaints.

False Reporting, Misreporting Persists

Another issue that persists is the identification of a sexual harassment case as distinct from other issues such as discrimination and sexism.

“Gender discrimination cases are also being filed as sexual harassment complaints since there is no other avenue,’ NCW’s Sharma said. “We should have a gender discrimination policy for workplaces,” she added.

Sharma said that there are also multiple cases of false reporting, especially when some form of action is taken against a woman employee.

However, industry members said false reporting is usually a small part of the number of complaints, and that it was an encouraging sign that women are raising other workplace issues as well.

“Women are showing the courage to report even small incidents, some which don’t fall under the purview of sexual harassment and may be better classified as general harassment, sexism, misogyny, bad leadership, poor awareness of the nuances of what constitutes personal space etc. And we see this as a great sign, and an opportunity to further refine the vocabulary and help everyone understand the +nuances better and nip them in the bud,” BigBasket’s HR Head Hari said.

Domestic Violence Cases Rises

Another grave concern has been rising complaints of domestic violence cases that have shot up over the past year and a half.

Domestic violence complaints received by NCW nearly doubled from 2,960 complaints in 2019 to 5,297 in 2020.

In 2021 so far, NCW has already received over 3000 complaints of domestic violence.

“During the lockdown, domestic violence cases had increased sharply, especially since women were stuck at home with their abusers and could not go out to families, or even the police,” Sharma said.

On the Sheroes’ helpline, 30 percent of the queries are now around domestic violence issues, which is double from the previous years, Chahal said.

“We are now seeing many cases of domestic violence being reported from smaller towns, and many even from abroad,’ Vijay said.

Domestic violence could be physical, financial, verbal, or emotional, Vijay explained.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow