Hyderabad: Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour workweek remark has sparked a huge debate online; a graph posted on the subreddit Hyderabad showing recent data from the Time Use Survey has gained traction, too.
It reveals that men aged 15-59 in urban Telangana work 65.4 hours a week. But that’s not enough. NR Narayana Murthy approves 78.6 hours. Looks like we are already almost there to fulfil his vision.
“Anyway, dude already makes his employees work 12-14 hours,” wrote a commenter on the Hyderabad subreddit post. Another posted, “Another 9 hours, guys, come on, push the average up.”
A curious and concerned Reddit user commented, “A question for someone who works more than 10 hours a week. Do you guys get paid enough?” Another user responded saying, “No sir we don’t get paid well for slaving straight 12 hours per day. Rarely get time to eat proper food and socialize.”
Low as it may seem to netizens, with hybrid work now, there’s more on the plate than ever. Telangana’s figure from 2019 surpasses all south Indian states, with Andhra Pradesh men working 60.9 hours and Karnataka at 60.9 hours, Tamil Nadu at 59.6 and Kerala at 58.4.
Telangana men work nearly 16 hours longer in states in the northeast, like Mizoram and Tripura, report work weeks of 50.3 and 56.2 hours, respectively.
Here’s what Narayana Murthy said on work hours
The controversy began after Infosys founder appeared on the inaugural episode of 3one4 Capital’s podcast, ‘The Record,’ and stated that in order for Indian youth to compete with countries that have made significant progress in the past 25-30 years, they need to work 70 hours a week.
He alleged that India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world and said, ‘Our youth must say, ‘This is my country. I want to work 70 hours a week. This is exactly what Germans and Japanese did after World War II.”
After his statement went viral on social media, people reacted by slamming Narayana Murthy. One individual wrote, “What an elitist take!! I can’t even fathom how he suggests such gruelling work hours. Does he know the time people spend travelling? How tough life can be? Don’t they deserve time with family?”
Another person commented, “Indirectly #Infosys founder Narayana Murthy is saying.. work 12 hours per day spoil your mental health due to NO proper sleep after spoiling ur health, spend lakhs of rupees in hospitals for ur treatment increase the business of Infosys increase profit, revenue of Infosys.”
