BENGALURU — Infosys updated its hybrid work policy in late January 2026, requiring employees at job levels 5 and below to work from an office at least 10 days each month and limiting work-from-home exemptions.
The India-based IT services and consulting company also capped additional work-from-home flexibility at five days per quarter and tightened the conditions for getting more days approved.
Infosys introduced automated attendance controls that block requests beyond the quarterly allowance and route exceptions through internal systems, adding managerial authorization to what had often been handled informally.
The policy change applies across Infosys’s global workforce of nearly 300,000 employees, reflecting a broader post-pandemic shift among large tech employers toward clearer limits on remote work.
Internal emails and manager communications in late January 2026 announced the rules and outlined how employees should plan office time and remote days within the new limits.
Infosys positioned the change as a way to support collaboration and delivery on projects that require close coordination, including work in AI, cloud services and digital transformation.
The company’s move aligns it with other major Indian IT companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro, which have also tightened remote-work norms as part of a wider industry recalibration of hybrid models.
Under the Mandatory Office Presence requirement, employees covered by the rule must be physically present for at least 10 days each month, with the company emphasizing on-campus collaboration, mentoring and team cohesion.
Infosys also narrowed the scope for working beyond the allowed remote days, limiting extra work-from-home time to exceptional circumstances tied to serious medical conditions affecting the employee or dependents.
The policy requires that such circumstances be documented by a doctor, and it channels requests through internal systems rather than informal email communication.
Alongside the monthly attendance requirement, the company limited additional work-from-home exemptions to five days per quarter, including for employees who previously had more flexibility.
Infosys’s system-level controls automatically block requests for work-from-home days that exceed the quarterly allowance, turning enforcement into an automated process rather than a discretionary one.
Managers must authorize exceptions, creating a formal approval path that the company framed as an effort to standardize compliance and reduce ambiguity around hybrid-work eligibility.
“substantial increase”
In internal messages, managers linked the tighter controls to a “substantial increase”, an account that accompanied calls for employees to plan ahead under the new structure.
The shift comes as companies that expanded remote work during the pandemic rework hybrid arrangements, weighing flexibility against collaboration and project delivery needs.
Industry experts cited compressed project timelines, agile manpower needs and reduced collaboration in fully remote setups as factors that pushed employers to tighten in-office expectations.
Aditya Narayan Mishra, managing director at CIEL HR, said 2026 may see more firms pushing full office days for active work periods.
Infosys also paired the attendance policy with a sustainability reporting step that asks remote employees to share monthly household electricity usage data, a move that sparked discussion about privacy and the environmental accounting of remote work.
The company asked employees working remotely to submit monthly household data on appliances including air conditioners, heaters, fans and lighting, as well as solar installations.
Infosys Chief Financial Officer Jayesh Sanghrajka addressed the purpose of the request in an internal email, linking it to the company’s greenhouse gas emissions reporting rather than cost recovery.
Infosys tied the request to its sustainability metrics, pointing to a 55% per capita energy reduction since 2008 and 77% renewable electricity in the last fiscal year.
The electricity data collection reflects how some companies now treat hybrid-work patterns as part of broader reporting and compliance processes, extending beyond attendance tracking into environmental measurement.
Infosys’s hybrid work policy update also carries implications for jobseekers and international professionals who consider roles at global consulting and tech employers with changing definitions of remote flexibility.
Job postings increasingly spell out minimum office attendance expectations, and the tighter approach at Infosys adds to signals that hybrid arrangements now come with more explicit boundaries.
Candidates, including those on H-1B, L-1, or dependent work authorizations, may need to clarify expectations around office presence, remote allowances and travel obligations during hiring discussions.
The shift also highlights talent mobility questions for professionals weighing relocation to tech hubs such as the U.S., Europe or Singapore, or prioritizing roles that keep remote work as a core feature.
For Infosys employees under the new rules, the policy sets a measurable monthly office requirement while limiting the amount of extra time that can be worked from home across each quarter.
The structure places the baseline expectation on office attendance and reserves additional work-from-home time for a narrow set of documented medical exceptions.
Infosys’s approach also removes informal workarounds by requiring employees to use internal systems and by building automated blocks into the request process.
That combination of automated enforcement and managerial authorization shifts the policy from guidance into a compliance framework that affects day-to-day scheduling across teams.
The company linked the push for office presence to collaboration needs on complex work, where leaders and managers want more in-person interaction to support mentoring, cohesion and delivery.
Infosys’s alignment with TCS and Wipro on reinforced in-office attendance underscores a broader shift in India’s IT services industry as large employers recalibrate hybrid work after the pandemic period of expanded remote options.
Employee reactions were mixed, with some valuing structure and environmental accountability and others pointing to commuting costs and work-life balance concerns.
The policy’s details also create a common reference point for hiring managers and candidates, as employers increasingly combine flexibility with minimum office attendance requirements.
Infosys framed the updated hybrid model around clearer boundaries on remote work, pairing the Mandatory Office Presence rule of at least 10 days each month with work-from-home exemptions capped at five days per quarter.
The company’s enforcement plan centers on automated blocks for excess requests and required approvals for exceptions, while its sustainability reporting approach adds monthly household electricity usage data to estimate home-work carbon emissions.
Infosys Tightens Hybrid Work Policy with Mandatory Office Presence and Quarterly WFH Cap
Infosys has introduced a stricter hybrid work policy requiring 10 monthly office days and capping quarterly remote flexibility. The policy uses automated systems to ensure compliance and limits exceptions to documented medical needs. Notably, the company also requires remote employees to share household electricity data for greenhouse gas reporting, highlighting a trend where environmental accountability and office attendance are increasingly integrated into corporate operations.
