Work From Home vs Work From Office Debate: Zerodha's Nithin Kamath On Why WFH Not A Fit For All

New Delhi: The majority of companies are reversing the work-from-home trend and Zerodha is one of them. Nithin Kamath, CEO of the stockbroker firm took to X (Formerly Twitter), to shed light on the company's decision to revert to office work after a stint of remote working during the pandemic.

Kamath, through a post detailed the challenges faced by various teams within Zerodha while working remotely and the subsequent shift back to the office environment. (Also Read: Big Blow To Loan Borrowers! BoI Raises Lending Rate By 10 Basis Points) 

Nithin Kamath's Post

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, like many other organizations, Zerodha swiftly transitioned to remote work to ensure business continuity. (Also Read: 'I Started My Career On Shop Floor Of An Auto Plant': Anand Mahindra To Elon Musk)

However, Kamath revealed that the experience had not been entirely smooth sailing for all teams. He acknowledged that while remote work had its advantages, it also led to communication gaps and challenges for critical decision-making teams, such as business and technology.

Zerodha Asked Employees To Return To Office

In response to these challenges, Zerodha decided to gradually transition back to office work. Kamath highlighted the positive impact observed since 10 percent of the core workforce had resumed reporting to the office.

He emphasized that this move had facilitated better communication and collaboration within the organization, ultimately improving productivity.

All of us at @zerodhaonline went fully remote during the pandemic lockdown in 2020. While it's been great for some, it hasn't been for others. In this post, K explains why it didn't work for everybody at Zerodha.

Work from home works well for support roles given the structured… — Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) April 1, 2024

CTO's Experience

Kamath also shared a blog post by Zerodha's Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Kailash Nadh, which further elucidated the challenges faced by the company during remote work and the benefits of returning to the office. 

Link to the full post. 2/2https://t.co/ATXHx7Y1rW — Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) April 1, 2024

Social Media Reaction

Kamath's post garnered netizens' attention on social media platforms. The comment section is full of a diverse range of reactions from users. Some of them are:

We have some very strong arguments in favour of both : WFH and WFO.

Although people save commute time and fuel by doing WFH, but they miss a lot in terms of personal networking. — Akshay  (@akshayji10) April 1, 2024

Does this mean that the team will now have time to implement basic features like expiry roll over contracts available with even small time brokers? It’s been 3+ years since I was first told they will get implemented “soon”! — Akshay (@aksh_yay) April 1, 2024

Functional systems can operate in WFH model only if you need to 'get the work done'; but scaling from WFH is a bit rough.

I have been reading a lot of perspectives around the WFH v/s WFO model - what's best for my business, this share helps me be more abrasive about what's next… — vivan. (@VivanVatsa) April 2, 2024

I can identify with most of these experiences when I was leading a team of 25 at @xencov during Covid. The mental fatigue was not due to work but the insane rise in need of 1:1, mostly related the communication gaps between teams. A team which was built on a culture of inclusion,… — Suroor Wijdan (@suroorwijdan) April 2, 2024

Oh yes, there are pros & cons to the work from home model. For a tech risky start up business like Zerodha, there won't be any big saving from work from home. Right? — Mafuzur Rahman (@DrMafuzur) April 1, 2024