Months ago, Infosys founder Narayan Murthy had come under scrutiny for proposing an 80 hour work week in India. Now, another tycoon wants to increase the working hours of his employees.
Larsen and Turbo chairman SN Subhramanyan was recently heard asking an employee to report for work on a Sunday. “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy, because I work on Sundays,” he told the employee on the phone.
He went on to say, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife?” the chairman of Larsen & Toubro asked. “Come on, get to the office and start working,” he added.
A video of the conversation has been shared on Reddit.
To support his argument, Subhramanyan explained how a Chinese man, whom he had met said that China could surpass the United States because the Chinese work 90 hours a week.
The video was shared on Reddit where SN Subrahmanyan came under fire for his comments. Many people in the comments section compared him to Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, who earlier faced massive backlash for saying the youth must work 70 hours a week for nation-building.
Users asked why low-paid employees were expected to put in the same hours as a CEO.
“I don’t care about competing with China. Let China become number one; it doesn’t make any difference to me. I just want to sit with my family and enjoy the limited amount of time I have here on Earth with my loved ones,” wrote one Reddit user.
“I was in that speech yesterday. Someone asked in L&T (if) sick leave Is approved only if you fall sick (for) two days, why and how come we can fall sick (for) only (one) day? He said ‘then don’t fall sick’,” another claimed.
“That’s why the craze for government jobs is at its peak in India. The private sector is only good at harassing employees,” a Reddit user said.
“Even Narayan Murthy was saying 70 hours. This man is saying 90 hours..” read one among dozens of such comments.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Mohammed Baleegh | 
