HR heads doubt effectiveness of Murthy's ‘70-hour week’ work suggestion

HR managers are grappling with the feasibility of implementing Murthy's recommendation for a 70-hour workweek, particularly in sectors where the nature of the work inherently dictates its hours.

In the fast-paced world of today, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy's call for the youth to work 70 hours a week has found surprisingly few takers. While the notion of hard work and dedication is deeply ingrained in Indian society, human resources or HR heads of domestic companies say the current era emphasises the critical importance of achieving a balance between work, mental and physical well-being, personal life and social connections.

While appearing on the first episode of 3one4 Capital’s podcast ‘The Record’, which was released on October 26, Murthy has said that youngsters should work 70 hours a week if India wants to compete with economies that have made tremendous progress in the last two to three decades.

However, other executives say the youth today are more purpose-driven and seek to find meaning in their work.

“When the passion and purpose align with the choice of work, the hours flow seamlessly. The growth of the individual and the organisation is determined more by the quality of work delivered than by the number of hours worked,” Soonu Wadewala, Head of HR, Axis Securities, the brokerage and trading services arm of Axis Bank, told Moneycontrol.

She added that building a supportive work culture that allows the youth to strike a work-life balance while pursuing their goals should be the goal for organisations and leaders alike.

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HR managers are grappling with the feasibility of implementing Murthy's recommendation for a 70-hour workweek, particularly in sectors where the nature of the work inherently dictates its hours. While dedication and hard work are valued, certain industries, such as healthcare and emergency services, often require round-the-clock availability but there are compensatory breaks.

“To dive deeper, in sectors dominated by manual tasks like manufacturing, stretching the workday can pose real safety risks and physical health concerns. Yet, in creative domains or R&D, flexibility might be more appreciated than rigid timelines,” said Saras Malik, chief people officer at Artemis Hospitals, which runs the eponymous Gurugram-based multi-speciality treatment centre.

From an operational standpoint, she said the challenges are multifaceted—maintaining consistent productivity levels, increasing operational costs like overtime compensations and a higher attrition rate if not managed carefully.

Various industries, including information technology, are infamous for not paying employees performing duties beyond office hours and sometimes even on weekends.

"Employees in specific sectors like IT may never be able to adjust to this work model in the current context unless all organisations adopt this work model and employees are left with no other option. The times of counting hours and ignoring value-addition are over," said Ankur Sharma, CHRO, of fintech platform Aye Finance, adding, "That ship has sailed."

Times have changed

There are at the same time some takers, from startups, for this suggestion, albeit as a short-term method to quickly make up ground lost to other developing nations.

In a broader sense, the Indian youth as a whole given the ambition and potential must exert greater effort, said Kamlesh Dangi, Group Head of HR at financial services group InCred.

He views this within the context of increased work hours, which can lead to "heightened productivity, ultimately resulting in more job opportunities being relocated to India".

“The need for hours seems to be more income opportunities for the population by sustaining India’s GDP growth and therefore a higher number of work hours seems like an answer at least in the short to medium term,” Dangi said.

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of the diversified JSW Group, has a different opinion. Endorsing Murthy’s suggestions, he said in a statement issued today, “Our circumstances are unique and the challenges we face are distinct from the developed nations. They are working 4 or 5 days a week because their earlier generations clocked longer & more productive hours,” he said.

“We can't let shorter workweeks elsewhere become our standard!” the statement added.