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Zoho's Sridhar Vembu Isn’t Expanding Work From Home
Zoho's Sridhar Vembu Isn’t Expanding Work From Home: 'Collaboration Happens More Fluidly Face To Face'
Following a national appeal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging citizens and enterprises to reduce fuel consumption, avoid unnecessary travel, and resume pandemic-era Work From Home (WFH) habits to combat rising global crude oil pressures, corporate India went into a huddle. Among the first to publicly respond was Zoho Corporation’s founder, Sridhar Vembu. On May 11, Vembu noted that Zoho would actively revisit its fully-implemented Work From Office policy to heed the Prime Minister’s call.
However, after a week of intense internal deliberations and public discourse on X (formerly Twitter), Zoho has officially chosen a different path.
Taking to social media, Vembu clarified that Zoho will not be expanding its work-from-home arrangements. The primary reason is the irreplaceable, raw productivity premium of in-person collaboration for core Research and Development (R&D) teams.
He wrote on X: “Ultimately, after a lot of people inside weighed in on my X post, we decided not to expand WFH because the productivity of face to face problem solving is much higher in R&D," Vembu wrote. “I have experienced this in my own development team – issues take longer to resolve when you are not meeting the people involved in solving the problem. Collaboration happens more fluidly face to face and we come up with better solutions."
To meet the government’s sustainability mandate without diluting engineering efficiency, Zoho is shifting its focus to heavy infrastructural overhauls. Instead of changing the workforce footprint, the tech giant is scaling up massive investments in solar energy, deploying corporate electric bus fleets for employee commutes, and implementing electric cooking within campus canteens.
Ultimately, after a lot of people inside weighed in on my X post, we decided not to expand WFH because the productivity of face to face problem solving is much higher in R&D. I have experienced this in my own development team – issues take longer to resolve when you are not…— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) May 18, 2026
Vembu’s admission has triggered an immediate viral debate among product managers, tech leaders, and corporate employees. Users who believe in the benefit of WFH added to his tweet. “Thanks for doing the best. I do not believe the operational jobs require face to face interaction and The more fuel you save your rupees can buy more. The lesser We burn fuel the stronger the rupee is and the choice is yours."
Another user commented on how employees’ needs also needed to be put into focus. “That’s not a responsible statement and not fully considering employees. You speak about electric buses, solar, and sustainability, but until transportation becomes completely electric at scale, thousands of employees commuting every day still means congestion, pollution, time loss, and unnecessary stress. A modern company should balance productivity with employee well-being, commute realities, and environmental impact instead of treating office presence as the only solution. ✌️✌️"
“If the Teams are distributed across different cities then, being in the office does not bring in much productivity. We can be present for the sake of it," opined another commentator.
Tech team leaders also added their two cents to Vembu’s post: “My experience running distributed teams is different. The face-to-face edge in problem solving is real, but it shrinks fast once the team adopts shared async tooling: structured written decisions, recorded design walkthroughs, and AI agents that codify tacit knowledge from senior people into searchable artifacts. Co-location wins when the tooling is weak. The real question is whether to fix the tooling or fix the seating chart."
And there were some old-school traditionalists who agreed with ZOHO’s decision. “I am with you on this Sridhar.. I advise several companies on this one point: get your teams back together in rooms.. the power of the handshake, the camaraderie and the collaboration that can be achieved in person is impossible to match virtually."
Source: News18
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