Women employees working for India-based Tata Consultancy Services are resigning after the company asked employees to come back to the office, reports India Today. TCS’ Chief of HR, Milind Lakkad said in the company’s annual report that the company asked people to return to the office, and there have been more resignations from female employees because they wanted to work from home. He also clarified that this could be one of the reasons and that there is no relation to discrimination. TCS reportedly lost more than 20 percent of its workforce in the previous fiscal year. This percentage could include both genders. The IT firm hasn’t quoted the exact number of how many women employees might have left the company because of the policy.

Historically, women’s attrition at TCS has been similar or lower than men’s attrition, so this is unusual,” Lakkad said. “There might be other reasons but intuitively, I would think working from home during the pandemic reset the domestic arrangements for some women, keeping them from returning to office even after everything normalized,” he said.

“The higher attrition among women in FY 2023 is a setback to our efforts to promote gender diversity but we are doubling down on it,” Lakkad said. He added that TCS’s aim to promote gender diversity won’t go down and that it would continue to hire more, in both genders.

TCS has also confirmed that approximately 20% of its employees have returned to office. CEO Rajesh Gopinathan said that the firm will continue to follow its 25x25 model in the future too. This model means that only 25% of its global workforce is expected to come to office for work with people spending only 25% of their time in the office.