A Bengaluru startup founder has highlighted the impact of the city’s traffic on employees after finding his office almost empty at around 10:15 am.
Bala Panneerselvam, founder of Applied AI Studio and the Applied AI Club, shared a picture of the office on LinkedIn showing several vacant desks. He argued that the issue was not employees’ willingness to work but the difficulty of getting to the workplace on time.
Panneerselvam said even a four-kilometre journey in HSR can take about 20 minutes on a scooter and around 30 minutes by car. During busy hours, the commute can become even longer, leaving people tired before their workday begins.
He also pointed to the evening rush. According to him, employees leaving after 6 pm may spend twice as long travelling home, while those leaving earlier can still reach home exhausted.
The founder shared his own experience of taking nearly two hours to cover 17 km from Whitefield to HSR at around 4 pm, despite there being no rain or major disruption.
His post received strong reactions from Bengaluru residents, with many saying they could relate to the stress and uncertainty of daily commuting.
The discussion has renewed attention on how Bengaluru’s traffic affects productivity, work-life balance and employees’ daily routines.