Joining the debate on the work-life balance, L&T Chairman S N Subrahmanyan has sparked controversy with his remarks advocating for employees to work 90 hours per week and even consider giving up Sundays. His comments, which emerged during an interaction with employees regarding L&T’s six-day workweek policy, have added fuel to the ongoing debate on work-life balance.

This comes in the wake of similar remarks by Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, who recently suggested that the youth work 70 hours a week to aid in nation-building, a statement that also faced widespread criticism online.
Subrahmanyan, however, took it further by proposing a 90-hour workweek and questioning employees’ time spent at home. “How long can you stare at your wife?" he asked, urging employees to spend less time at home and prioritise work. Addressing why employees are required to work on Saturdays, Subrahmanyan expressed regret that Sundays couldn’t also be mandated as working days.

“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 said in a video now circulating on Reddit.

Subrahmanyan cited a conversation with a Chinese individual to justify his stance. According to him, the person attributed China’s potential to surpass the United States to Chinese workers putting in 90-hour workweeks compared to the 50 hours typically worked by Americans. “If you want to be on top of the world, you have to work 90 hours a week," Subrahmanyan asserted.

The video, first shared on Reddit, has gone viral and drawn significant backlash. Many netizens criticised Subrahmanyan’s remarks as dismissive of personal lives and work-life balance, particularly his comment about “staring at one’s wife." Critics pointed out that such statements trivialize employees’ well-being and perpetuate a culture of overwork.

The uproar mirrors the response to Murthy’s earlier comments, with users questioning the broader implications of such workplace philosophies and their impact on employee health and productivity.