CHENNAI: Infosys has moved to tighten its work-from-home and hybrid working framework, marking another step by India’s large IT services companies to recalibrate workplace flexibility after the pandemic-era experiment with widespread remote work. The revised policy introduces clearer attendance expectations, tighter controls on exemptions and greater managerial oversight, signalling a shift towards a more office-centric model even as hybrid work remains formally in place.
Under the updated guidelines, employees are expected to spend a minimum number of days each month working from company offices. Automatic approvals for extended work-from-home are being curtailed, and additional remote-working days beyond the prescribed limit will now require explicit approval from reporting managers. The company has also placed a cap on the number of extra work-from-home days that can be availed in a quarter, except in cases involving medical or other exceptional circumstances, say reports, which have quoted some internal mails circulated among the employees.
According to industry experts, the changes reflect Infosys’s assessment that prolonged and unrestricted remote work can dilute collaboration, slow knowledge transfer and affect team cohesion, particularly for large, multi-layered project teams that form the backbone of its delivery model. Executives have repeatedly emphasised the importance of in-person interaction for mentoring young employees, accelerating training and fostering a shared organisational culture.
At the same time, Infosys has introduced a parallel exercise asking work-from-home employees to share details about household electricity consumption, usage of appliances, lighting wattage and the presence of solar power systems, along with suggestions for energy conservation. The initiative is positioned as part of the company’s environmental, social and governance reporting, aimed at building a more accurate picture of the carbon footprint associated with remote work.
Together, these steps point to a broader rethinking of how hybrid work is managed, moving away from the pandemic’s trust-based, largely self-declared model to a more structured and measurable framework. Infosys appears keen to retain some degree of flexibility, but within boundaries that are aligned with business needs and client expectations.
The tightening of norms also mirrors a wider trend across the Indian IT industry. Peers such as Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro have in recent months reinforced return-to-office requirements and limited work-from-home exemptions, underscoring a sector-wide belief that physical presence remains critical for productivity and delivery quality, especially as companies navigate an uncertain global demand environment.
From a strategic standpoint, the timing of Infosys’s move is significant. The IT services sector is dealing with slower decision-making by clients, shorter deal cycles and growing disruption from artificial intelligence-led automation. In such a setting, companies are under pressure to demonstrate efficiency, faster turnaround and consistent service quality. Greater in-office presence is increasingly being viewed as a lever to achieve these goals.
According to reports, employee reactions to the policy shift have been mixed. Some staff see merit in a clearer structure that balances flexibility with accountability, while others worry that reduced work-from-home options could hurt work-life balance, increase commuting costs and make the company less attractive in a competitive talent market. How Infosys manages this trade-off will be closely watched, particularly as younger employees place high value on flexibility.
For now, the revised policy suggests that the era of unrestricted remote work in large Indian IT firms is drawing to a close. Hybrid work is set to remain, but in a more controlled and standardised form. Infosys’s approach indicates that the future workplace in the sector will likely be defined not by where employees can work from, but by how closely work arrangements are tied to organisational priorities, client needs and measurable outcomes.
