by HR says the request technically falls outside remote work policy
BENGALURU — A software engineer at a mid sized technology firm in the city’s Outer Ring Road corridor has formally requested that his employer provide a car mounted standing desk attachment, arguing that his daily commute has become long and stationary enough to qualify as functional working hours under the company’s flexible work policy.
The request, submitted through the company’s internal HR portal, cites the employee’s average commute time of nearly two hours each way during peak traffic conditions, time he argues could be partially converted into productive work if the company provided appropriate equipment for his specific vehicle setup.
The Reasoning Behind the Request
Software engineer Varun Kashyap, who has commuted the same stretch of Outer Ring Road for three years, said the idea emerged after calculating that he spends nearly as many hours annually sitting in traffic as he spends at his actual desk inside the office.
“I did the math out of curiosity,” Kashyap said. “Nearly four hundred hours a year just sitting in my car, barely moving. That is close to ten full work weeks. I am not proposing anything dangerous, obviously not typing while driving. I am talking about the portions where traffic is completely stopped for extended periods, sometimes fifteen or twenty minutes at a stretch, where a properly mounted laptop stand could let me at least respond to emails.”
HR’s Response
The company’s human resources department responded to the request with what Kashyap described as polite but firm confusion, ultimately determining that the proposal did not fit cleanly into any existing policy category covering remote work, commute reimbursement, or office equipment provisions.
“We genuinely appreciated the creativity of the request,” said an HR representative, speaking generally about the situation rather than confirming specific internal correspondence. “But our current policies were not written with a car mounted standing desk in mind. We are treating this as a request that requires broader policy discussion rather than something we can approve or deny through our standard equipment request process.”
Colleague Reaction
Kashyap’s request has generated considerable discussion among colleagues facing similarly long commutes along the same congested corridor, with several expressing interest in a formal policy addressing commute time productivity more broadly, regardless of whether the specific standing desk proposal itself gains approval.
“Varun is only half joking about this,” said colleague Priya Nataraj, who commutes a similar distance. “The underlying frustration is real. We all sit in this exact traffic every single day, effectively losing productive hours to something completely outside our control. Whether the solution is a car desk or something else entirely, I think the company should take the underlying complaint seriously.”
Bengaluru Traffic Context
Bengaluru has long been recognized as one of India’s most congested major cities, with the Outer Ring Road corridor serving a large concentration of technology sector offices and correspondingly heavy commuter traffic during peak hours, a challenge the city’s traffic authorities have addressed through various infrastructure and signal timing initiatives over recent years.
The Bengaluru Traffic Police and city transportation authorities have periodically introduced measures aimed at easing congestion along major technology corridors, though sustained relief has remained elusive given the continued growth of the sector and the limited pace of complementary infrastructure expansion relative to that growth.
Broader Industry Trend
Kashyap’s request reflects a broader conversation within India’s technology sector regarding commute burden, particularly in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune where technology employment has concentrated heavily around specific corridors that were not originally designed for the current volume of daily traffic.
Some companies in the sector have responded to similar concerns through expanded remote work policies, staggered shift timing to avoid peak congestion, or dedicated employee shuttle services, approaches that address the underlying commute burden without requiring the kind of novel equipment request Kashyap has specifically proposed.
The Safety Question
HR representatives noted that any formal policy addressing in vehicle work would need to carefully address safety considerations, ensuring any equipment or practice does not create distraction risk during the portions of a commute when a vehicle is actually moving, even slowly.
“Safety has to come first in any policy we eventually develop,” the HR representative said. “We would need clear guidelines distinguishing between genuinely stationary traffic conditions and slow moving traffic where any distraction risk remains a real concern. That distinction alone requires careful policy language before we could consider approving equipment like what Varun has proposed.”
What Happens Next
Kashyap said he has been invited to a broader discussion with HR and operations leadership regarding commute related productivity policies more generally, a conversation he views as a genuine, if unexpected, outcome of what he initially considered a half serious proposal.
“I did not expect this to become an actual policy conversation,” Kashyap said. “I mostly wanted to make a point about how much time this commute genuinely costs all of us. If it leads to some broader solution, even one that does not literally involve a car mounted desk, I will consider that a success.”
Related Coverage
More reporting on India’s technology sector workplace culture can be found at Bohiney Magazine, and a British perspective on comparable commute frustrations is available at The London Prat. Additional material is collected at NewsThump.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
