India’s second-largest IT services provider, Infosys, is set to make three-day work-from-office mandatory for its employees. The development comes in the wake of management's unsuccessful attempts to encourage a return to the normal office routine, reported The Economic Times quoting sources. According to the ET report, Infosys vertical heads have emailed employees, asking them to start coming to office at least three days a week. “It will become mandatory very shortly,” as per the email quoted in the report. Infosys has not yet issued a formal response to the reported development.
Earlier in October, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy expressed concerns about India's work productivity, noting that it was one of the lowest in the world. He said that youngsters should work for a minimum of 70 hours per week if the country wanted to compete with emerging economies."Somehow our youth has the habit of taking not-so-desirable habits from the West, and then… not helping the country. India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government at some level, because we have been reading I don't know the truth of it, unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking this decision, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress. So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, this is my country, I’d like to work 70 hours a week," Narayana Murthy said. The comment proved controversial, igniting widespread debate on social media. Then a few days later, Microsoft founder Bill Gates responded to a similar question with an opposite worldview, triggering a further round of social media hubbub. The US billionaire argued that "job is not everything" and backed a 3-day work week.