How famous CEOs view new trend of employees working from home

BusinessToday.In

Sep 25, 2020,
Updated Sep 25, 2020 10:42 AM IST

The past six months have witnessed a paradigm shift in the way professionals work. Leading companies that once thought working from home was unimaginable have readjusted to the idea and working from home has become the new normal. But is this new norm here to stay or will it slowly disappear as life limps back to pre-COVID times? Although most companies have seen an uptick in productivity and less absenteeism, some CEOs are still treading carefully. While some like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that employees could work from home forever, others have not been so benevolent. Here's what some famous CEOs think about remote working and if it should be adopted in the long term.
Story: Rashi Bisaria

Satya NadellaCEO, MicrosoftNadella has gone so far as to say that the world has gone through 'two years worth of digital transformation in two months'. Earlier in the pandemic, Nadella seemed wary of long term telecommuting as a work option. But of late, he has spoken about the need for organisations to foster a culture of hybrid work and the need to focus on tech intensity.

Tim CookCEO, AppleCook seems to be impressed by employees' capability to work from home and that the pandemic will have long-lasting changes on work culture but he also noted that remote work is 'not like being together physically'.He's hoping most of the staff will return to the office sometime next year.

Bill GatesCo-founder of Microsoft and philanthropistGates is quite optimistic about this new style of working. 'This work from home culture will continue even after the pandemic ends'. But he also added that technology had to improve if this culture were to stay even after the pandemic is over.

Reed HastingsCEO, NetflixHastings sees no positives in working from home and has been direct about his views. "Not being able to get together in person, particularly internationally, in a pure negative," he said.

Jeff BezosCEO, Amazon'Much of the essential work we do cannot be done from home', said the richest man in the world and the CEO of Amazon. But even though he believes this to be true, he has allowed employees to work from home till January 2nd at least.

Mark ZuckerbergCEO, FacebookFacebook is in the process of hiring a director of remote work to prepare for a more permanent plan for working from home. That it is looking at remote-first ways of working says a lot about how it views remote work. Employees will continue to work from home till July 2021 at least. Zuckerberg expects about half the workforce to work from home in the next ten years.

N R Narayana MurthyCo-founder, InfosysMurthy has minced no words about his views on the new work-from-home culture. He has confessed he does not like it and that it cannot be a permanent solution. He views it as a short-term solution for a huge crisis like coronavirus pandemic.Worried about productivity standards, the co-founder of Infosys has stressed that this culture may not work for Indians and employees must put in 10 hours, six days a week for the next 2-3 years to overcome the current economic crisis and make the work-from-home culture sustainable.

Sundar PichaiCEO, Alphabet IncGoogle is reimagining work life. Sundar Pichai has stated that he's looking at a hybrid model where employees can work from home on some days and come to office on others. Google was one of the first companies to allow work-from-home till 2021 considering the surge in coronavirus.