Narayana Murthy ‘requests’ youngsters to work 70 hrs a week, netizens see red
Remarking that ‘India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world’, Infosys founder requests youngsters to ‘work 70 hours a week’
If India has to compete on the global stage, youngsters should work 70 hours a week, believes Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy. However, netizens are not too happy with this opinion.
Narayana Murthy (77) made the remark while speaking to former Infosys CEO Mohandas Pai in a podcast. He referred to Japan and Germany, which put in place extended working hours after World War II, as examples of discipline and hard work.
He also highlighted the need to sort out government delays to improve productivity in India.
“India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the government at some level…unless we reduce the delays in our bureaucracy in taking this decision, we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress,” he said upon being asked about his vision for the next 10–15 years.
“So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say ‘this is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week’,” he added.
The Infosys founder then emphasised the importance of being disciplined and improving productivity, saying “every government is as good as the culture of the people”. He added that “our culture has to change to that of highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hard-working people”.
Anger on social media
His comment on the 70-hour work week, however, did not go down well with social media users.
“Respectfully, I disagree with Mr. Narayan Murthy’s recent statement on working 70 hours a week. While hard work is important, it’s equally crucial to prioritize work-life balance, mental health, and employee well-being. Quality work, not just quantity, should be our focus,” wrote one X user.
Another miffed user wrote on X: “First ask Narayan Murthy to reduce the 2 hour commute time in traffic daily in Bangalore. Then lets talk about a 70 hr work week (sic).”
Another user wrote: “Law limits work to 48 hours a week, but he wants 70. If we exclude Sundays, that’s a grueling 12 hours a day. Dear Narayan murthy if youngsters work 12 hours daily, who will embrace your technology (sic)?”
Only a few users agreed with him. “My personal opinion, yes Mr.Narayan Murthy is right about working 70 hours a week. Nothing can substitute hard work and it has direct correlation with reward/ knowledge. There is no free lunch in this world,” wrote one.
