Davos 2025: Huge believer in work-life balance, says Wipro chairman Rishad Premji on 70/90-hour work week debate

File photo of Wipro executive chairman RIshad Premji

Wipro Executive Chairman Rishad Premji said he is a huge believer in work-life balance, reacting to the heated debate on how many hours an individual is supposed to work in a week.

“So, the balance you may want is being able to do something at work and just sort of cool off your mind and not sort of be there only for 10/20/30 or 70 hours, whatever that may be. So, I'm a huge believer in work-life balance,” Premji told Moneycontrol at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 23.

After Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour work week statement, recently Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Chairman SN Subrahmanyan received widespread criticism for suggesting a 90-hour work week and asking “How long can you stare at your wife? How long can the wives stare at their husbands?”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of India’s fourth-largest information technology services company believes that we should not underestimate the need to recharge and to show up well for work.

Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji with Moneycontrol's Chandra R Srikanth at WEF 2025 in Davos

Adding that work-life balance is something that an individual defines for themselves.

“I think you need to find enough time to do what is important for work and show up well for work. So, you need to be well-rested,” Premji said.

He further said that the concept of defining work-life balance is very personal. “I've spoken about this before, it's about hours, it's actually about also the balance you want.”

He shared that Wipro has rephrased “sick leaves” to “wellness days” and Premji is proud of it.

“So, giving people the time to rest and to recover and to energize, I think is going to be important,” he further said.

Also, read: SN Subrahmanyan's words were taken out of context, says L&T HR head

Nonetheless, another big voice from India Inc., Anand Mahindra, Chairperson of Mahindra Group, recently said that it should be about the quality of work and not quantity of work.

“If you are not spending time at home or with friends and if you are not reading and don’t have time to reflect, how will you bring the inputs into making the right decisions?” Mahindra said at Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue 2025 in New Delhi.

Taking a dig at Subrahmanyan's comments, Mahindra said "My wife is wonderful, I love staring at her."