PM [1]
Rank : Helper
Status : Super Owner
#1
Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, whose call for a 70-hour work week had sparked a massive row, has now said no one should impose long work hours on another person and stressed that these are issues not for debate, but for introspection.
"I can say that I used to get to the office at 6.20 am and I used to leave at 8.30 pm. That's a fact, I have done it. Nobody can say no, that's wrong. I have done it for 40-odd years. I think these are not issues that should be discussed and debated. These are issues that one can introspect on, one can ingest and one can come to some conclusion and do whatever they want. That's all to it. There's nobody who can say, you should do it, you should not do it, no," Mr Murthy said at the Kilachand Memorial Lecture in Mumbai yesterday.
The 78-year-old former tech boss had earlier said India's young workforce has to embrace hard work if they want the country to realise its full potential on the global stage.
During a podcast in October 2023, Mr Murthy had said, "India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government at some level, because we have been reading, I don't know the truth of it, unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking this decision, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress. So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say 'this is my country. I'd like to work 70 hours a week'." He had cited examples of the Germans and Japanese during World War 2.
The remarks had sparked a massive row as a section of social media users said such a remark from an industry leader will lead to exploitation of employees and stressed on the need for work-life balance. Many pointed out that expecting such work output from entry level employees with low wages was unfair, while others said the focus should be on quality, and not quantity, of work.
The debate over work-life balance was stoked earlier this month when Larsen and Toubro chairman SN Subrahmanyan spoke about a 90-hour workweek. During an internal interaction, Mr Subrahmanyan was asked why L&T required its employees to work on Saturdays. He replied, "I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays, to be honest. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy, because I work on Sundays also."
"What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? How long can the wives stare at their husbands? Get to the office and start working," he added.
The L&T chairman shared an anecdote. He spoke of a conversation with a Chinese person China could surpass the US because of the country's strong work ethics. Quoting the Chinese person, he said, "Chinese people work 90 hours a week, while Americans work only 50 hours a week." Drawing a parallel, he encouraged L&T employees to follow a similar work regimen.
The remarks drew a wave of criticism, prompting L&T's HR head Sonica Muraleedharan to issue a statement. She said it was "truly disheartening" to see how the words Mr Subrahmanyan were taken out of context. "Having been present during the internal address, I can confidently state that SNS never implied or mandated 90-hour work weeks," she said on LinkedIn.
Amid the work-life balance debate, industrialist Gautam Adani shared his take on it. "Your work-life balance should not be imposed on me, and my work-life balance shouldn't be imposed on you. Say, someone spends four hours with family and finds joy in it, or if someone else spends eight hours and enjoys it, that's their balance," he said.
Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj weighed in too. "If you want a 90-hour week, start from the top," he told CNBC-TV18. "Number of hours of work doesn't matter, quality of work does. We need a kinder, gentler world more than ever before," he said.