Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Chairman SN Subrahmanyan has sent social media into a frenzy after a video of him at a company meeting telling employees to work 90 hours a week, including Sundays, to stay competitive made headlines and went viral. “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? Come on get to the office and start working. If I can make you work on Sundays, I’ll be happier. Because I work on Sundays also,” he said. Immense backlash followed, including from actor Deepika Padukone, who called the comments "shocking", propelling "90-hour-week" into a top trend. Discussions on work-life balance have been rife recently with two sides facing off – those who advocate for the hustle culture and others who prioritise personal well-being over work. Subrahmanyan is not the first to suggest longer work hours in India, where a 48-hour work week is standard and any time put in beyond this is considered overtime, according to the country's labour laws. Here are other industry leaders who support longer work hours: 1. Elon Musk: The world's richest man advocated for long working hours and halted remote work at all his companies last year. "You just have to put in 80 to 100-hour weeks every week. A lot of work improves the odds of success. If others are putting in 40-hour work weeks and you're putting in 100-hour work weeks, then you'll achieve more," the Tesla CEO said. He also tweeted: "There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week." There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 26, 2018 2. NR Narayana Murthy: The Infosys founder in a 2023 interview said that youngsters should work 70 hours a week if India wants to compete with economies that have made tremendous progress in the last two to three decades. "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.” The 78-year-old also said that he used to work 85-90 hours a week till he retired. “So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week.’” 3. Bhavish Aggarwal: Ola CEO Bhavish Aggawal too supported Narayana Murthy's 70-hour work week pitch saying that he doesn't "agree with the work-life balance concept" and called it a "Western concept". Speaking about the backlash he faced for supporting Murthy, Aggarwal had then said in a podcast: "When Mr Murthy said that, I was publicly in support of that and I got trolled on social media for that. But, I don’t care because I have a strong belief that one generation will have to do tapasya… so that we can build the number 1 country in the world, the largest economy." 4. Aadit Palicha: Quick commerce giant Zepto's 22-year-old co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha last year said his team works 80-100 hours a week. "Candidly, working 80-100 hours a week, we could have probably worked half of that with a lot less stress. At a certain point, money becomes inconsequential." He said his team is driven by the excitement to build Zepto and hence put in the taxing hours. 5. Shantanu Deshpande: Bombay Shaving Company CEO received backlash over his comments on longer work hours, after which he apologised. In a LinkedIn post, Deshpande had written: “When you are 22 and new in your job, throw yourself into it. Eat well and stay fit, but put in the 18 hour days for at least 4-5 years. I see a LOT of youngsters who watch random content all over and convince themselves that 'work life balance, spending time with family, rejuvenation bla bla' is important. It is, but not that early. That early, worship your work… Don't do random rona-dhona. Take it on the chin and be relentless. You will be way better for it." He then apologised saying, "To those who were hurt by my post - apologies for the same. I recognise the need for nuance and context." RPG Group's Harsh Goenka and Emcure Pharmaceuticals' Namita Thapar are among industry leaders who have advocated for work-life balance and criticised such comments.
