Harsh Goenka on work-life balance: 'Live fully today. Life's too short to wait for retirement'

Harsh Goenka has been vocal about having a healthy work-life balance and has even suggested companies offer wellness programmes for its employees.

Industrialist Harsh Goenka has recently revealed his take on work-life balance. The RPG group chairperson said that life is too short to work hard all through youth and middle age and to wait until retirement to take a breather.

"You work 8 hours to live 4 hours, you work 5 days to enjoy 2 days, you work 48 weeks to get 4 weeks off.
Life’s too short to wait for retirement. Live fully today, we don’t get enough time as it is," he wrote on X. Goenka's message resonated with several X users; one of them pointed out that people in cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru often have to spend three hours commuting each day.

'Please add three hours of travel every day. Mumbai and Bangalore are the worst for commuting," wrote Dev Chatterjee (@ParagonWorli18). Goenka replied: "True."

Others, however, pointed out that not many among the working-class population have the luxury of choosing a more balanced life.

"That is possible for people who are affluent like you. Labourers and daily wage earners don't have that luxury.
And more than 80 crore people of India don't have that luxury," wrote Rajeev Desai (@rajuidesai). Another X user Suresh Bishnoi (@ISuresh29) commented, "Sir, this is not applicable to 80 percent of Indians. We have to work hard to survive every day and you are talking about retirement. This is applicable to well-settled people like you and other economically stable people."

In September, Goenka had highlighted the importance of employee well-being at work and called for implementation of mental health programmes and manageable workloads. He also encouraged companies to create an environment where employees can raise concerns freely without fear of retaliation, helping to address issues early and improve overall morale.