HOW NOT TO FRAME WORK-HOURS DEBATE

A rather intriguing controversy has blown up in recent months regarding the number of hours each person should work for the benefit of the country and their own well-being.

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It began with NR Narayana Murthy, the doyen of the Indian IT industry, proclaiming that everyone must work 70 hours a week. He had made similar statements earlier. In October 2023, he stated, "I request that our youngsters must say, 'This is my country. I'd like to work 70 hours a week."" He obviously believes that anyone who works as he did from 6:20 in the morning to 8 at night would create more institutions like Infosys in the country.

Social media, for the most part, did not react kindly to his remarks. One Reddit user commented, "The man has equity in his company. Its success is his success. If you want your employees to work similar hours, then they need similar incentives give them equity in the company or pay them for the additional hours."

Another pointed out that shopkeepers, petrol station operators and others often work well beyond 70 hours, earning far less than he does.

During the Kilachand Memorial Lecture in Mumbai, Murthy partly retracted his statement. He said, "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." He then talked of "compassionate capitalism" and the necessity of respecting individual preferences. S N Subrahmanyan, chairman of Larsen and Toubro, took it a step further than Murthy, suggesting working 90 hours a week, even on Sundays, saying, "If you go to the office and work on Sundays, you can escape looking at your wife. She will also be spared the onerous task of looking at you."