What Does TCS’s 35-Day Bench Limit and End of Remote Work Mean for IT Employees?

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced a new policy for its employees; a new regulation capped the bench period at 35 business days in a year. This will take effect from June 12, 2025. This is also TCS’s effort to improve workforce utilisation and align the workforce performance with business objectives.

Traditionally, being in the “bench” also served as a buffer period for employees who did not have active projects. They could funnel time into upward skills or redeployment. But now, in the new policy, associates must log at least 225 billable business days per year. This now closes non-project time. TCS is one of the first employers to practise one of the most stringent benching policies in the Indian IT sector.

Read Also: US Labor Investigates TCS for Alleged Bias Against Non-Indian Workers

Mandatory Return to Office for Bench Employees

One of the major components of this initiative is the mandatory work-from-office (WFO) requirements for employees on the bench. This ends the flexibility of remote work that many found to be the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since unassigned employees are required to come back to the office, TCS wants to help employees be more accountable and help them engage better in structured upskilling opportunities as part of their mandatory attendance in the 35-day unallocated period.

Upskilling, Fewer Short-Term Projects, and Strategic Shifts

The programmes will include internal learning opportunities, certifications, and internal projects that can get an employee ready to accept a client’s needs and deploy them quickly. Additionally, TCS has used this opportunity to move away from many short-term projects, instead preferring longer and more stable engagements with customers in order to create more predictability in their delivery.

This policy announcement is happening while the global economy is uncertain, IT budgets are tight and deal cycles are slower. As other companies may be turning to layoffs, TCS instead is continuing its culture of internal redeployment and performance filtering. This indicates a shift toward efficiency without layoffs.

For IT employees, this is a shift toward clearer performance expectations with less flexibility.