People who have gotten used to working from home in India, their time is up and companies are now ready to call their employees back to office as things go back to pre-pandemic mode. TCS is one of the many tech companies asking its employees to return to the office, which means a lot of people having to move back to the metros.

Tech companies are also giving a clear warning to their people that if you don’t come to office, chances of hikes and promotions are slim. The TCS Chief was recently speaking on the sidelines of a tech event this week, where he was asked for the reasons to start work from the office again and how people are reacting to these changes.

K Krithivasan, CEO, TCS mentioned that work from office means better for team building and overall learning for the employees. He also pointed out that the experience of coming to office and engaging with colleagues is never going to match the virtual quality through Zoom and Microsoft Teams calls.

Basically, companies feel the need to move beyond the pandemic approach, which means, people will be asked to work from office, and that could invariably force people to switch jobs or head back to the metros where expenses go up and need to be matched by the pay they get. Talking about jobs, the TCS chief was quick to dismiss the impact of AI on the job market in the short term, as companies will need to invest in resources and technology to integrate them into their systems.

Jobs have come at a premium and AI is being used as the convenient reason for changes by companies like Google, Meta, Amazon and more. TCS isn’t ready to push the boat on that front, but hiring is likely to face challenges in the years to come, which means the workforce will have to reskill and learn the new tools to stay relevant for the market.