A firm wide email was circulated today evening by HR of Khaitan that the firm will reopen physically wef 1 July 2021 in a phased manner. Vaccination is mandatory. Relaxation for this travelling by public transport.
What’s so important that you have to open office, when your people are not fully vaccinated? Even those with covaxin double shots may have family members who have just 1 shot of COVIshield. All work can be done remotely..but don’t know why they want to call everyone so soon. Even US firms areu opening September 2021 onwards (despite large number of US population being fully vaccinated). Very disappointed in Khaitan
KCO has planned to start phased opening of its offices from 1 July 2021, with utter regarding of safety of employees. With the firm trying to put on a face that they care about their employees, this certainly comes as a shock to many.
It is proven that WFH works and until things are completely normal country wide we should not be called to office, as last year even with WFH they had a splendid year as far as revenues go. The recent variant of the virus breaks through the vaccine, a recent study by AIIMS clearly proves that. We can understand essential workers who have to step out but when risk can be avoided they should really not be calling people to office, specially in Mumbai and Delhi where the wave suddenly picks up.
KCO are you really serious about harming your employees in such an atmosphere and without safety protocols, when a third wave is imminent as broadcasted even by various state and central govt. Why risk your employees unnecessary when it is proven people can WFH. Maybe take feedback of employees and not just send out a firm wide update without consultation?
Even Tata Chairman yesterday said that TCS will soon open its offices. The same TCS last year had promised to make 75% jobs permanent wfh by 2025. Seems like a lot of boomers are just not happy with wfh. Unfortunately its them who get to make decisions.
Now that KCo has started off being Covidiots,all the other law firms will follow suit.Let employees be damned,law firms want to form the Covidiot gang!!!!!
JSA opened its offices too early and many associates came down with infections throughout the office and had to shut down in haste. Boomers everywhere are destroying this country
Email says opening will be reviewed basis then prevailing situation. Not sure if it’s opening on a mandatory basis on 1 July. Doesn’t seem to be the case.
What happens to people who have come back to their home town? They will have to take up the hassle of coming back to Mumbai/Delhi/Bangalore take up place on rent again until the time offices get shut down again due to the 3rd wave of Covid.
So glad I don't work at KCO, many (if not most of us) have seen Covid take the lives of people we care about .... There is something seriously wrong with the mental makeup of people in management taking such decisions, given what our country has gone through! KCO staff, hope you guys fight back and make an example of them in the industry.... More power to you
Please ask the management to show some kind of apathy towards the employees. Understandable for jobs which require physical presence but unnecessarily putting lives at risk is not called for. Wonder what happens, the last 1 year by their own admission KCO has had a wonderful year economics wise, so being in office has no impact.
The country still has almost 1 lakh cases a day, don’t understand the logic. Govt themselves state, wherever work from home is possible, it should be followed. One thing is there, the firm will lose out on good people. If you can’t trust your employees after 1 year of Covid ans wfh, think the blame lies with the management.
Wow, I do not work at KCo. but from friends all I have heard through the last year is:
Jumping the gun on when to open offices; and Partners threatening actually monetary and career progression consequences if people did not turn up to office even when the official policy was "our offices are open and you can choose to come in if you want but no compulsion" late 2020.
For all the grand moral superiority KCo. HR displays with the (clearly useless) policies they keep coming up with, this is really incriminating. Looks like they need someone to implement their own highly idealistic and patronising HR policies instead of running to LegallyIndia and Bar and Bench everytime they come up with a policy document solely for PR.
Shame on KCo. for deciding to put their entire workforce at risk when most are only vaccinated once and have also seen devastation in their families (much unlike 2020 where COVID did not really affect firms in such large numbers).
Frankly I think that's probably every law firm.All are just waiting to open up physically like it's some stupid rat race who can show greater masterhood or something by shepherding all their employees physically into the offices afain.And I can easily predict who will win the race to open up physical offices because they obviously stand to gain from physical offices with the rental agreement of renting out their owned offices for rent to their own firms and gaining tax savings as well as profits from their firm.
Phased manner could mean so many things...may be people who have been vaccinated (including 1st dose) could come; people who have there own vehicles could come; still reluctant - check with respective senior / partners, if you could continue working from home (esp. during the rains in Mumbai, I hate being on the road...).
Also, lets accept the fact, Corona is going to stay around for a long time .....
While we are accepting facts, let's accept one that the nature of transactional work that firm lawyers do can easily be done from home too. Case in point, no tier one firm has lost any business or revenue worth mention during the pandemic. The decision makers want people to come physically because they can't abuse the latter as much otherwise.
Common KCO, are you serious? This policy is complete hogwash and requires a rethink. Not fair. For a moment try to justify one reason to open up offices, when the pandemic continues to rages on.
Indian vaccines reduce severity of the disease but not the disease itself. WFH is working for your law firm, you yourself admitted, if anyone is misusing the system (unlikely, they would be fired in a heart beat) take them to task. What’s the hurry when there has literally been no effect on work.
Even clients have now gotten used to lawyers working virtually and understand the pandemic. Wherever physical meetings are required, concessions can be made.
Makes no sense KCO - common, don’t be a Covid idiot. Where people can WFH and keep everyone safe, they should continue to do so, as those who need to step out can do is with comfort.
Give us any logical reason for calling people to office when hardly 15-20% of the country has been vaccinated?
What perverted world are you living in, where not wanting to risk your and your family's lives over something completely unnecessary is your definition of 'having it easy'.
Kind of feeling really good that I'm not in KCO ( though how bad I wanted that firm earlier before graduating). Hopefully Cyril doesn't follow this atrocious precedent.
Have law firms considered the mental strain on us associates when they start nudging us to come back to base at times like this?
I was called back a month before the second wave started and I had to go through the scramble of finding a new place to rent and then leaving it behind to go back. I am not looking forward to repeating this exercise again in the course of the coming months.
Anyone with even a shred of common sense can see that the worst effects of covid will be behind us only once a substantial chunk of the population gets at least ONE dose of the vaccine which is not happening anytime soon. Request better sense to prevail over these firms please. At least don’t make us transactional lawyers who have managed perfectly fine over remote mode come to office so soon.
There is no salary an employer can pay in exchange for demanding that their ‘resources’ risk their health and safety like this.
Who told you your a "resource"?HR(hmmm,mental note to talk to HR about what they tell the slaves).What is this your talking about rights, health,safety,life???Don't talk like a lawyer here.We are a law firm,yes.We are also required to follow law???
Many of the old world law firms like Wadia Ghandy have also opened up. And now Big Law has also started. Don’t understand the hurry! Really! I know there are few lawyers who have been complaining that they want office to open as they are missing the office environment, can’t handle family (kids/spouse) 24*7 anymore etc etc. Well most of these lawyers are settled in their place of work (mumbai/delhi/Bangalore) and have their own car. Think about those who have left for their resp hometowns and will have to come back for 2 months before again offices shut for the third wave.
Most importantly everyone (not all law firms actually) should think about the support staff. They do not have own cars, can’t afford Uber/Ola and they stay in the suburbs. Opening offices mean that they will have to take public transport and during office hours...social distancing in public transport is a myth. So all employers and those employees (who can’t WFH) please think about these people before u decide to open/want office. For u wanting offices to open means u r forcing the lesser privileged to risk their and their family lives.
This isn't surprising. During my time with the Delhi Corporate Team, some Partners really wanted the office to re-open. I guess they will be thrilled with this.
One thing I have noticed is that people have been complaining incessatnly about long (longer than before) working hours, inflexible timings, being on call 24*7 (sounds nightmarish) ever since WFH began, and yet they desperately do not want it to end either!
While it would certainly be ideal to have a cap on the working hours during WFH, or some kind of norm which stipulates that no calls would be made after a certain time in the evening, its clearly not going to happen.
So, is WFH as it is currently really better than how things were before covid? Back then, your work for the day was done (usually atleast) the moment you left office right?
Is going back to office really such a bad thing then provided every person in the firm gets vaccinated?
Yes, it is! Make no mistake - Work from Office post-COVID will only mean WFO + WFH. You will work from 10 AM to 9 PM, come back home and then work from 10 PM to 3 AM because your BDSM-loving partner remembered something after you left office.
So, it is going to all the bad things from WFH (long hours, 24x7 anxiety) + travel + health risk of COVID - savings of WFH - time with family.
And please don't tell me vaccines are the solution. My father was in the ICU a month after receiving both the doses of the vaccine. They may risk your chances of mortality - but your chances of going on ventilator are still there.
You really want to risk that just so you and your boss could look at each others' loving faces?
It's been chaotic since the time HR decided to drop that email. There is no clarity on things and people are panicking across teams. This is really unwarranted. The least the firm should have done was have a town hall. On top of this, Partners take every opportunity to tell how the firm is better than the likes of Azb, SAM and CAM.
Kian, why don't you reach out to the overenthusiastic KCO HR for a comment? Their "no comment" will also be newsworthy.
C'mon! I'm sure you are itching to do some real journalism. This is a bigger story (affecting possibly 700 odd people and their families?) than some partner exiting CAM.
Got another email today on the reopening of the offices. Shame on KCO for trying to create an atmosphere of returning to work! If your revenues have increased due to more availability of associates working from home then why do you feel the need to call us back?! This is bizarre and unreasonable!
Just an advice - with the ongoing attrition at the firm (especially the Delhi corp), people will leave even more due to this!
What’s so important that you have to open office, when your people are not fully vaccinated? Even those with covaxin double shots may have family members who have just 1 shot of COVIshield. All work can be done remotely..but don’t know why they want to call everyone so soon. Even US firms areu opening September 2021 onwards (despite large number of US population being fully vaccinated). Very disappointed in Khaitan
[Moderator note: migrated from separate topic]
It is proven that WFH works and until things are completely normal country wide we should not be called to office, as last year even with WFH they had a splendid year as far as revenues go. The recent variant of the virus breaks through the vaccine, a recent study by AIIMS clearly proves that. We can understand essential workers who have to step out but when risk can be avoided they should really not be calling people to office, specially in Mumbai and Delhi where the wave suddenly picks up.
KCO are you really serious about harming your employees in such an atmosphere and without safety protocols, when a third wave is imminent as broadcasted even by various state and central govt. Why risk your employees unnecessary when it is proven people can WFH. Maybe take feedback of employees and not just send out a firm wide update without consultation?
So much for caring about employees?
Wonder what happens, the last 1 year by their own admission KCO has had a wonderful year economics wise, so being in office has no impact.
The country still has almost 1 lakh cases a day, don’t understand the logic. Govt themselves state, wherever work from home is possible, it should be followed. One thing is there, the firm will lose out on good people. If you can’t trust your employees after 1 year of Covid ans wfh, think the blame lies with the management.
Kudos KCO, another great achievement.
Jumping the gun on when to open offices; and
Partners threatening actually monetary and career progression consequences if people did not turn up to office even when the official policy was "our offices are open and you can choose to come in if you want but no compulsion" late 2020.
For all the grand moral superiority KCo. HR displays with the (clearly useless) policies they keep coming up with, this is really incriminating. Looks like they need someone to implement their own highly idealistic and patronising HR policies instead of running to LegallyIndia and Bar and Bench everytime they come up with a policy document solely for PR.
Shame on KCo. for deciding to put their entire workforce at risk when most are only vaccinated once and have also seen devastation in their families (much unlike 2020 where COVID did not really affect firms in such large numbers).
Also, lets accept the fact, Corona is going to stay around for a long time .....
Indian vaccines reduce severity of the disease but not the disease itself. WFH is working for your law firm, you yourself admitted, if anyone is misusing the system (unlikely, they would be fired in a heart beat) take them to task. What’s the hurry when there has literally been no effect on work.
Even clients have now gotten used to lawyers working virtually and understand the pandemic. Wherever physical meetings are required, concessions can be made.
Give us any logical reason for calling people to office when hardly 15-20% of the country has been vaccinated?
Hopefully Cyril doesn't follow this atrocious precedent.
I was called back a month before the second wave started and I had to go through the scramble of finding a new place to rent and then leaving it behind to go back. I am not looking forward to repeating this exercise again in the course of the coming months.
Anyone with even a shred of common sense can see that the worst effects of covid will be behind us only once a substantial chunk of the population gets at least ONE dose of the vaccine which is not happening anytime soon. Request better sense to prevail over these firms please. At least don’t make us transactional lawyers who have managed perfectly fine over remote mode come to office so soon.
There is no salary an employer can pay in exchange for demanding that their ‘resources’ risk their health and safety like this.
Most importantly everyone (not all law firms actually) should think about the support staff. They do not have own cars, can’t afford Uber/Ola and they stay in the suburbs. Opening offices mean that they will have to take public transport and during office hours...social distancing in public transport is a myth. So all employers and those employees (who can’t WFH) please think about these people before u decide to open/want office. For u wanting offices to open means u r forcing the lesser privileged to risk their and their family lives.
Ask what’s the hurry in opening when there has literally been no disruption to the work?
While it would certainly be ideal to have a cap on the working hours during WFH, or some kind of norm which stipulates that no calls would be made after a certain time in the evening, its clearly not going to happen.
So, is WFH as it is currently really better than how things were before covid? Back then, your work for the day was done (usually atleast) the moment you left office right?
Is going back to office really such a bad thing then provided every person in the firm gets vaccinated?
So, it is going to all the bad things from WFH (long hours, 24x7 anxiety) + travel + health risk of COVID - savings of WFH - time with family.
And please don't tell me vaccines are the solution. My father was in the ICU a month after receiving both the doses of the vaccine. They may risk your chances of mortality - but your chances of going on ventilator are still there.
You really want to risk that just so you and your boss could look at each others' loving faces?
Stay safe! The paycheck is totes worth it
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.timesofindia.com/city/mumbai/third-wave-could-hit-as-early-as-in-2-4-wks-says-state-task-force/amp_articleshow/83591132.cms
C'mon! I'm sure you are itching to do some real journalism. This is a bigger story (affecting possibly 700 odd people and their families?) than some partner exiting CAM.
Just an advice - with the ongoing attrition at the firm (especially the Delhi corp), people will leave even more due to this!