After Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy requested youngsters to work for 70 hours a week, human resource professionals say the remark is not just about the number of hours put in the work but the meaningful impact created in the time invested.
Sushil Baveja, chief human resource officer (CHRO), Jindal Stainless, said, “In essence, I believe, it is not just about the hours worked but the meaningful impact created in the time invested. Today’s business landscape offers tremendous opportunities for the youth to excel and unleash potential. As a forward-thinking organisation, we encourage a pragmatic approach that goes beyond the traditional hour benchmarks.”
He added that it’s about the willingness to put in discretionary effort, take initiative, create value, and undertake stretch assignments alongside sustainable work-life integration.
Hemalatha Raghuvanshi, CHRO and co-founder of Sekel Tech, said, “70-hour work week has become a huge debate after the Infosys founder spoke of it. I think we can’t take one sentence in isolation but need to understand what exactly he was implying. I don’t think it was about the number of hours but about proactively, responsibly, and efficiently completing the work to increase your own productivity.”
Raghuvanshi added that proactively initiating tasks that would be beneficial for the company’s growth and to build goodwill. It also helps in the professional development and growth of employees who are proactive and who are responsible for doing the tasks efficiently.
“I think everyone understands work-life balance. We also need to understand that instead of complacency, it is about coming out of our comfort zone and going that extra mile to do things. No company would want to disrupt the work-life balance of its employees,” Raghuvanshi said.
In a podcast ‘The Record’ on 3one4 Capital’s YouTube channel, Narayana Murthy in October in conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai said India’s work productivity is among the lowest globally, and the country’s youth need to put in extra hours of work — like Japan and Germany did after World War 2 — in order to compete with countries like China.
Nivedita Kannan, head of people’s function at Mudrex, said, “A workweek cannot be assessed by virtue of the cumulative number of hours your employees have put in as productivity cannot be directly quantified in this model. This has become an unpopular opinion and is doing its rounds while being taken out of context in some pockets. A well-engaged team may be productive with a lot less number of hours worked in a week if they are equipped with access to the right tools, resources, and network.”
Kannan added that coaching, encouraging, and enabling the team to succeed every day even if just in small baby steps surely compounds efforts to success. This does not go to say that productivity or timelines should be taken lightly to account for opinions and feelings but to be cognizant of the very real possibility of burnout when the overhead of commuting is added to such long days.
Echoing similar views, Shruti Swaroop, founder of Embrace Consultancy, said, “Work-life should be about productivity and output rather than the number of hours we put in. Spending time on building hobbies, with family, on personal interests is as important as spending time at work. Some weeks may be 70 hours, some only 45! Why make it compulsory? People are more productive when they are engaged, happy, and included rather than being forced to let go of their personal life.”
Srinivasa Bharathy, CEO & MD of Adrenalin eSystems, also said, “While there is an ongoing debate surrounding the 70-hour workweek suggestion put forth by Narayana Murthy, we think that the critical factor to improve talent outcomes isn’t simply the number of hours worked by an employee, but the quality and effectiveness of the work being done.”
Bharathy said that today, the pursuit of nation-building has taken a vastly different form compared to the 1940s, when technology hadn’t yet advanced to significantly enhance productivity.
Mayur Mundada, founder of AmbitionBox, said, “Working 70 hours a week can be challenging, but it can also help some people achieve their financial goals. It is definitely not for everyone. Companies should not mandate this or act like making this an unsaid rule because overwork in general leads to anxiety or depression.”
Mundada said that as a short-term fix, even though this might sound enticing, in the long run, workplaces that promote work-life harmony will win any day versus a culture where people are overworked.