Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu explains why company won’t expand WFH, says ‘issues take …’

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has now clarified the decision why his company will not expand its work-from-home (WFH) policy, even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the organisations to cut on fuel consumption and reduce travel. Vembu has now said that Zoho reviews its stance on work-from-home internally but concluded that in-person collaboration remains critical for productivity especially in research and development. In a post shared on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) Vembu explained that problem-solving in R&D teams is significantly faster and more effective when employees work face-to-face.

Earlier this month, PM Modi urged citizens and organizations to adopt measures like carpooling, public transport, and WFH to cut down on fuel consumption amid rising global crude oil prices. He highlighted that virtual meetings and video conferencing, widely adopted during the pandemic, should continue as part of everyday work culture.

Read Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu X post here

“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 meeting the people involved in solving the problem. Collaboration happens more fluidly face to face and we come up with better solutions.We are looking at electric bus fleets and electric cooking in our canteens to save fuel. We have made heavy investments in solar already.”

Zoho focusing on alternative sustainability measures

Instead of expanding WFH, Zoho is focusing on other sustainability initiatives to align with the government’s call for reduced fuel use:

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• li1Electric bus fleets for employee transport.
• li1Electric cooking in company canteens.
• li1Solar energy investments to power operations sustainably.

Sridhar Vembu responds to Meta engineer’s post who says layoffs will continue till we learn to use AI

Recently, Sridhar Vembu replied to a post by Meta engineer Arnav Gupta which said that job cuts will continue till one learns to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Agreeing with Gupta’s views, Vembu shared the post on his timeline writing “Important post from Meta engineer Arnav Gupta on all the AI-led layoffs”. Vembu further continued: “As he explains well, AI has increased costs massively for all tech companies. Our own AI bill is skyrocketing and to add insult to injury, server prices have gone up 200-300% in a year because the AI infrastructure boom is consuming all the advanced memory chips”.

In the post, Sridhar Vembu said that these layoffs are the economic response by tech companies to control the main cost they control (people) to pay for AI and servers. “Of course most are spinning it as the result of the "AI productivity miracle" but reality is more cost control than a productivity miracle, at least not yet,” he stated.