Info Edge Founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani took a nuanced view of L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s 90-hour work week remark that has now gone viral, and said that while the comments was meant to 'motivate' his employees, he does not think it is a 'sustainable' way to work.
"Seven-day work week with 12 hours a day- you can do it for a week or two if there is a crisis or there is a deadline to meet at work, but I don’t think it is sustainable… I am pretty sure Subrahmanyan didn’t mean it to be an all-time work structure. He was motivating his employees, asking them to work harder and that's is par for course," Bikhchandani said during a discussion on CNBC-TV18 on January 10.
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"I started my career in advertising. I know the kind of working hours that there are in advertising, and it is much much more than 40 hours a week. You don’t do it because you are forced to do it, but because you like that job, you do it because you love it, you do it because that is what is required," Bikhchandani added. "I would not be outraged. I would say it is fine, it is part of life."
On the other hand, adman and Ogilvy Advertising Executive Chairman Piyush Pandey did not hesitate to criticize L&T over the chairman's comment, going to the extent that the company should change its name to 'Lynch and Torment'.
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"The quality of work [is not dependent on the] number of hours. It is not work life balance, it’s heart-mind balance… Even in advertising, I can have weird hours, but that doesn’t mean I work 90 hours a week. There will be moments when we need to put in extra hours. But [a permanent 90-hour work week] is savage thinking… If the person is in a better state of mind, you get a better work," he said.
Pandey was harsh in this criticism of Subrahmanyan's 'How long can you stare at your wife' jibe. "Are you mad? What kind of thinking is that? A nation is built on hard working people, not slaves," he said.
In an undated video that since now gone viral, L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan had responded to an employee's question over mandated working on Saturdays. "I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays, to be honest. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy because I work on Sundays also... What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? Come on, get to the office and start working," he had said.
Subrahmanyan's comment has received severe backlash from a cross-section of society. Actress Deepika Padukone took to Instagram to write, "Shocking to see people in such senior positions make such statements. #mentalhealthmatters"
Billionaire Harsh Goenka and Marico Founder Harsh Mariwala too have voiced their criticism of the comment.
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