Actually (Cite Contribution), nice initiative. We as HR should know.
It is a little sad to think that there are employers who wouldn't want to shut down their offices. Sure, closing offices might lead to a huge loss, but what loss can be greater than a loss of life?
I don't mean to say that someone who's too strong to commute to the office is going to get killed. But the situation becomes too rowdy at times.
I heard autos, taxis, and buses to halt services, and there may be a rail roko aandolan.
What would a poor employee who stays far off the city, having no personal vehicle to commute, do on the day?
Sure, the firms would want to keep the offices open, especially smaller firms. But understanding the plight of people coming from far suburbs should be given consideration.
Honestly, the order has to be passed from above. Since we are in news intelligence for a particular segment/industry, we cannot remain shut completely. But I would suggest to my firm to allow the editorial team to take laptops home so that if they cannot move out of their place, they can work from home. The marketing managers have office phones, and so they too can share their database to their email so that they can work tomorrow from home for the worst-case scenario. The IT people can be contacted in case of bugs on the site. Accounts people are not so work-pressured with targets, so it shouldn't matter much. At the same time, if there are people who cannot reach the office, the taken leave shouldn't be deducted from the leaves credited to them as this was a beyond-my-reach situation. The bandh was not declared by the absent employee at the end.
I am hoping for the best.