L&T boss sparks fury over 90-hour work weeks and ‘wife’ jibe: Is toxic work culture glorified?

Investigative journalists, reporters like me, don’t have a normal calendar. We work whether it’s Christmas, Diwali or even a calamity. I understood this the moment I became a crime reporter, then a television anchor doing one-to-one interviews.

News is news and a breaking story, an interview with a superstar or a juicy flier across page one does not follow any schedule.

But, then journalists on the reporting side also don’t have to follow work shifts so despite not having ever really known sacrosanct weekends in my work life (Sunday duty and late duty are normal in a reporter’s work life) I can still understand the outrage against S N Subrahmanyan, the exceedingly well-paid chief executive officer of Larsen & Toubro, who said that employees should work 90 hours a week including Sunday.

Not content with pitching for near-slave terms, Subrahmanyan also served up a heaped giant-sized portion of misogyny, saying, “how long can you stare at your wife, how long can a wife stare at her husband”.

To add insult to injury, Subrahmanyan, whose share price has been stagnant at ₹3,500 for a year, gets paid ₹51 crores a year (FY 2024) and gave himself a 43 per cent hike. To put it in perspective, Subrahmanyan earns a crore of rupees a week.

A self-goal

Memes flew and huge outrage ensured at the out-of-touch comments but, L&T instead of apologising for an out-of-touch fat cat intervention by their CEO tried to cite “nation building” as the reason for Subrahmanyan’s 90-hour work week. This was quite an own goal public relations exercise as ordinary Indians indignantly called out the callous hypocrisy.

Even India Inc, normally more diplomatic than even professional mandarins, were vocal in calling out and mocking Subrahmanyan. From Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, who said that if you added the two-hour commute most Indians made to work, to Anand Mahindra, Harsh Goenka and Adar Poonawala, billionaire businessmen said they loved staring at their wives on Sunday who were equally reciprocal about spending time with them.

Deepika Padukone, the actor, also called his statement “shocking” in an Instagram story.

It was high time this was called out. Indians are among the most hard-working people in the world, having to cope with a daunting and difficult country and work situation. Even earlier, Narayan Murthy, Infosys’s founder, has repeatedly and publicly batted for a 70-hour work week despite huge public pushback.

You could cite the fact that Subrahmanyan and Murthy come from a generation that has no idea of a sane work-life balance but, younger Indian businessmen including Bombay Shaving Company’s CEO Shantanu Deshpande had proudly advised young people to put an 18-hour workday for at least four or five years.

Last droplet of profitability

Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola was seen on a video dismissing work-life balance as a Western construct. So what’s an Eastern construct? Forcing workers to work like slaves to wring out the last droplet of profitability?

All those advocating for this have millions in the bank and an army of domestic staff, drivers, private jets on call 24/7 with an office stuffed with assistants who make their work week including Sunday work possible.

The employees who they want to work like a cult member get average pay, have a long daily commute, and have to ensure that they can hold the fort domestically. How do you accommodate taking a sick child to the doctor, taking care of them, ensuring they get to school in a 90-hour a week work?

Indian companies seem even more out of touch with civilised norms of a modern world when you see the example of Japan, which has recently introduced the four-day work week for government employees to ensure that they can live a full life. Most companies have actually found that a shorter work week improves productivity and also helps in employee retention and recruitment.

Men or women, family time is crucial, which is why Subrahmanyan’s mockery of marriage makes his remarks cringeworthy. After all, Newton discovered gravity because he had time to sit and stare as an apple fell.

Despite Murthy’s exhortations, what earth-shattering discovery or even innovation has Infosys done? More and more research establishes that happiness and creativity is based on having enough “me time” to allow a person to think.

Companies should be encouraging employees to have hobbies, work on fitness — that would actually be in the national interest in a country which is the heart disease and diabetes capital of the world — instead of sneering at a sane work-life balance.

It’s a truism but, you never actually remember the office, any office, at the end of your life. Only the joy of relationships and love.