To maintain productivity and avoid absenteeism on account of rains, many companies in Chennai offered employees a combination of choices — work from home, flexible timings or transport arrangements.

The IT company Varalakshmi N works for encouraged more employees to work from home and also provided transport.

Singaravelan N, who works for a software major, said, “With water logged residential areas and roads, we were allowed to come later than usual.” His company reported over 80 per cent attendance despite the rain, he added.

However, people like Karthik Sankaran, whose office in Sholinganallur got inundated and had to be closed, were asked to work from home.

Smaller companies, in contrast, decided to close operations early. Kishore K, who runs a consultancy firm in Mylapore employing close to 50 people, said: “Attendance has been low since October 30, when the rain started.

There are barely 10 people coming to work. So we are planning to shut shop early.” But, according to him, it is better than 2015, when the whole office was empty.

Venkat Raghav, a lawyer with private practice in Velachery, too, decided to close early. “The area is already inundated. With more rain in the offing, it seemed wise,” he added.

Schools closed While most companies decided to remain open, small eateries, which do roaring business at night, were mostly closed. Marimuthu K, who runs a small juice shop in T Nagar, said the business had been dull the past two days as people did not venture out. Karunakaran S, a mechanic, has not opened his shop for three days. “I will wait for rain to abate before opening,” he said.

Schools remained closed, for the third day. The Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Agency was active on social media platform Twitter, with regular updates about relief measures. The platform itself was abuzz with tweets about rain, traffic information and waterlogging.

IT firms ‘ready’ Wiser after the December 2015 floods, IT companies were better prepared to deal with cloudburst of Thursday night and managed to start business as usual on Friday, even as roads were flooded and traffic was gridlocked.

Despite the State government asking private companies to shut shop on Friday, most IT companies worked, at full strength, said sources.

Unlike the last time, IT companies did not face any major issues around power supply. “Everything was normal last night,” said an official at Cognizant Technology Solutions. There is no crippling water logging near various IT parks, including Tidel Park and Ramanujam IT Park, DLF IT Park, or Sipcot Siruseri IT campus.

Tata Consultancy Services provided accommodation for nearly 2,000 staff and sleeping arrangement for employees who could not go home at its Siruseri facility last night, said sources.

As the rain gathered strength, at around 5 pm, most companies asked their employees to leave the campus, said sources.

“No impact. It is business as usual,” said an official at Intellect Design.

A number of companies allowed those employees who were unable to reach office from places to work from home.

“In view of the situation resulting from incessant rain in Chennai, we have given our employees the option to work from home. We continue to closely monitor the situation and there is no disruption in work. Our dedicated communications channels continue to ensure that our colleagues are kept apprised of the situation,” said a Cognizant spokesperson.

Related Topics