‘WFH same as study at home. No real bonds,' says CRED founder Kunal Shah

As we near two years of the first nationwide lockdown imposed across the country, one debate that just refuses to die is this: “Is work from home good or bad?”

CRED founder Kunal Shah jumped into the discussion when he posted his views on Twitter, mainly against the idea, calling it “damaging” for a professional’s career in the long run.

Shah tweeted on Sunday: “Impact of WFH on youth is the same as impact of children who study at home. No real bonds. No real social or network skills. Illusion of understanding and learning. No osmosis. Comfortable but damaging in the long run.”

While several employees have returned to their offices (some of them never had the luxury to stay home), many others are still at home and working, mainly because corporates, especially the IT sector, latched on to this opportunity and immediately permitted their employees to work remotely. Today, WFH has become a norm in several sectors and employees, as well as employers, have accepted it as a reality.

Shah emphasised that working from home did not foster real bonds or social skills. The tweet started a debate on the microblogging site which has brought in an array of thoughts on a practice that was unheard of for most professionals before March 2020.

Some agreed with Shah while many others did not, enumerating the benefits of working while still staying close to family all the time.

One Sergio Pereira said: “Strongly disagree! Remote work is democratizing opportunity. And the youngsters of today, mostly the ones living in poor countries, will benefit the most. For the first time ever, they’ll have access to opportunities that their parents didn’t!”

Pereira further said: “It’s not just about avoiding a 2h commute. There’s a decent opportunity to accelerate your financial freedom with remote work.”

Not true! Here am I, I made a ton of new friends over LinkedIn and Twitter, learnt new things, started a side income, learnt to play flute, read a ton of books..

I even managed to collaborate a group of "Sanskrit Memers" for a great project.

And boy it has been a great ride!

— 𝚄𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚑 (@deltaneighbour) February 6, 2022

Another user said: “This is a constant refrain – young people are losing out by not being in the same room as ‘experienced’ folks”…it’s hard for someone to see outside of the four walls of a system they’re a product of. If in-office is the future of work, then yes they’re but is it?”

Kashif Raza, founder of Bitinning, said: “People don’t progress at the office by doing a mundane job. They progress by finding new exciting alternatives.”

Some supported Shah as well. A user said: “Work from home productivity > Social skills apparently. Engineers that think everything is a problem that can be solved objectively are the ones who believe social interactions are un required. Not all jobs can be done working from home.”

Also read: What do employees want? Remote work

Yet another user underlined the benefits of offline work by calling it important in developing social skills. “Agreed. Indian (sic) as community already lack social skills (good %), and with WFH it will become worse but companies should not just call them for sake for office,” he said.

Looks like someone here can’t enjoy working from home !! Some of the biggest companies are successfully operating with WFH model, it definitely works# Also I have life out of office to socialise

— Pratik Ambokar (@pratzzie) February 6, 2022

In the early days of the lockdown, Kunal Shah seemed convinced about the idea though. Taking to micro blogging, he had listed several benefits of working remotely. On March 13, 2020, he wrote: “WFH is more productive for meetings. Virtual ones end sooner, are more focused, have less bakar.”

Still we cannot replace the vibes and genuineness's we get while meeting and talking to someone in person ! For college going students they are missing out on some of their best days in life….

— AMISH RAY R S (@AMISHRAYRS1) February 7, 2022

A few days later though the 38-year-old founder of the fintech major said that juniors who learned by observing their seniors in offices were suffering because of WFH.