Forgot to pick up the things your wife asked you to on your way back? Or want to call a colleague over for a quick drink before heading home? Or, say, some peace and quiet while browsing through books and thinking about what you’ll tell your boss at the next meeting?

Start smiling, if you are an IT professional — you are about to be pampered.

If things go according to plan, IT employees can soon have their fill of bytes, books, bites and even a Bollywood film — all at the same place they call office.

The 24X7 nature of work in the information technology and IT-enabled services sectors coupled with high attrition rates has made it imperative to look beyond food courts.

Usually 10 to 15 per cent of a project area is set aside for such lifestyle components.

Several IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Cognizant Technology Solutions and ITC Infotech are looking at campus expansion with everything from a hotel to residential facilities.

“Calcutta has a low attrition rate in the IT sector. And companies, in a bid to even lower the rate, would welcome any kind of innovation which adds to making the workplace more enjoyable and at the same time add value to employees,” says real estate veteran Pradip Chopra, managing director of the PS Group.

So ITC Infotech’s 50-acre campus, being planned in the city, could include an ITC-brand hotel and a development and training centre, while Infosys, which has asked for a 100-acre plot and plans to invest Rs 250 crore in it, did not rule out making the campus residential. The company plans to adopt the model for future campuses.

But steaming ahead with innovations, just to pamper the staff, may not work.

“Its no use having a rooftop swimming pool when an office services store would have made more sense. So one has to closely analyse the needs of employees and the nature of the industry before going ahead with value additions,” says Abhijit Das, regional director of consultants Trammell Crow Meghraj.

But developers aren’t complaining.

Last year, the city consumed 10 lakh square feet of plug-and-play facilities in the IT and ITes sectors. Realty sources say the sky is the limit as the market has the potential to absorb around 15 million square feet by 2010 in IT hub Sector V Salt Lake and Rajarhat combined, though official estimates are a bit lower at 13.3 million square feet.

“For our Globsyn Crystals project of 600,000 square feet, we are looking at standards which will raise the bar higher. We are looking at everything from restaurants to convenience stores, and lounge bars to laundromats,” says Rahul Todi, managing director, Bengal Shrachi Housing Development.

The pamper catalogue includes open piazzas with separate podiums, where employees can plug in their laptops and enjoy the quiet, and oxygen bars where they can recharge their tired brain cells.

Retail chains like Landmark and Crosswords are joining the bandwagon while others like Café Coffee Day and Barista have worked out a format for using up to 500 square feet of space to ensure that techies can’t say productivity fell because there wasn’t enough caffeine in their blood to keep them focussed.

The day is also not far when IT companies would have a mini theatre as part of their office premises.

RDB Organisation, which is engaged in distribution, exhibition and financing of movies and television programmes, has tied up with Adlab Films for a multi-utility, 200,000 square feet, 1,034-seater three-screen multiplex in the heart of Sector V.

So keep smiling techies, work is soon going to be pleasure.