IvyCap Ventures Advisors founder says firms should offer employees flexibility in returning to office

Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner, IvyCap Ventures Advisors has his office and stays in Powai, Mumbai. "The office is walking distance from my home. However, I usually go by car and on the way back I walk down. We had shut down our office mid-March and decided to work from home. We have generally experienced an increase in productivity during this period," he says.

Office Again
Gupta resumed work from the office back in September. However, they decided to operate on an alternate day basis.

"The experience of starting office back was generally good. It was actually great to see the staff back in person after a long gap. All of us are mostly wearing masks while in the office. We are actively using hand sanitizers, washing hands frequently, and are also sitting at least one meter away from each other. As much as possible, people have been assigned separate areas to sit. Individual people also sit in the board room, meeting rooms, etc to avoid any contact with each other. We have separate air conditioning facility in each separate area," he says.

Mental Strength
There was an initial period of hesitation; however, people have now adjusted to the situation.


"We are still very cautious about meeting new people from outside. So far, there has been no issue in working in this model. People in the team are also using their discretion on days when they decide to work from home," he shares.

The company has a small team of 15 people in their Mumbai office. "We are working on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from the office from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Other days of the week we are working from home," he says.

Advise Affirmation
As long you follow adequate precautions, it is okay to work from the office, feels Gupta. "However, one should keep it flexible for the employees since they do not yet want to come back to offices. There has not been much change from the work from home scenario because we were able to accomplish the work that we were all assigned. However, there could be situations where employees who are less productive than others get noticed faster in a work from home situation than working from office situation," he ends.