No ‘Work From Home’ for Zoho employees

Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu has made it clear that the company is not planning to expand remote work for employees, even as India debates whether work-from-home should return in some form to cut fuel consumption. The company’s founder said face-to-face collaboration still delivers better results, especially for research and development teams, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently encouraged companies and citizens to revive some Covid-era habits like online meetings and remote work to reduce fuel usage.

In a detailed post on X, Vembu said the company internally discussed the idea after his earlier comments on work culture sparked reactions online. However, he revealed that Zoho eventually decided against increasing work-from-home options because in-person teamwork continues to be more effective for solving complex problems.

“Ultimately, after a lot of people inside weighed in on my X post, we decided not to expand WFH because the productivity of face to face problem solving is much higher in R&D,” Vembu wrote.

He added that his own experience with development teams showed that issues often take longer to resolve when employees are working remotely. According to him, spontaneous collaboration happens more naturally when teams are physically present together, leading to better ideas and faster solutions.

Vembu’s remarks come at a time when the Indian government is encouraging people and businesses to reduce unnecessary fuel consumption due to the economic pressure linked to the ongoing West Asia conflict.