Gurgaon: A day after torrential rain and hours-long gridlock crippled Gurgaon, the city’s roads wore an unusually deserted look on Wednesday, as thousands of corporate employees chose to work from home.Police issued an advisory urging offices and employees to consider WFH wherever possible. But most professionals said the call had already been made individually, well before the advisory came through.There were no company-wide HR directives even as employees worked remotely, took leave or delayed travel, recovering from Tuesday’s ordeal. “After what happened on Tuesday, nobody wanted to take the risk. The police advisory was enough. When I logged in from home today, I realised hardly anyone had gone to office,” said Ashish Agarwal, a corporate professional who spent hours stuck in Tuesday’s traffic.Across Cyber City, Golf Course Road, Golf Course Extension Road, Sohna Road and other office districts, commuters reported markedly lighter traffic than a normal weekday, with parking lots at many complexes far less occupied than usual.“I save my sick leaves for days exactly like these,” said Rahul Singh, a corporate employee. “When the city floods, commuting becomes mentally exhausting. Spending two to three hours on roads for what is normally a 35-minute drive makes no sense,” he added. Singh said several colleagues independently chose to work remotely without any formal instruction from their employer.For some, past experiences of being stranded — near Subhash Chowk, or outside Ambience Mall — have made the calculation almost automatic. “The fear is psychological now,” Agarwal said. “Whenever heavy rain is predicted, you immediately start calculating whether it’s worth stepping out,” he added.Under normal conditions, a five-to-six-kilometre commute takes around 30-35 minutes. On Tuesday, the same journey stretched beyond an hour, with several commuters reporting travel times of 75-90 minutes. “When five kilometres starts taking more than an hour, productivity disappears before you even reach office,” one commuter said. “Working remotely saves both time and energy.”Another office-goer, who spent nearly three hours on the road Tuesday evening, said they finished their work “peacefully” from home by evening on Wednesday. “The difference is unbelievable,” this person said.Residents pointed to ongoing infrastructure projects as a key factor behind Tuesday’s congestion. On Golf Course Extension Road, several stretches remain dug up for construction, narrowing carriageways and leaving little room for vehicles to manoeuvre during waterlogging. “The biggest issue is that there are no usable shoulders anymore. If water accumulates or a vehicle breaks down, everything behind it comes to a complete halt,” said one commuter.Among the worst-hit spots was Sector 54 circle, already notorious for evening congestion. Tuesday’s rain, combined with nearby construction, turned the junction into one of the city’s biggest bottlenecks, with tailbacks stretching 700-800 metres. “I spent more than 20 minutes just crossing the Sector 54 circle. After that the road was comparatively free, but that single intersection ruined the entire commute,” one office-goer recalled.Several companies allowed employees to work remotely after individual requests, rather than issuing blanket HR circulars. Office workers said WhatsApp groups were flooded with colleagues informing teams they’d be logging in remotely — creating what many called an “organic work-from-home day” across the city.
