After Narayana Murthy, L&T chairman pitches for 90-hr work week: ‘If I can make you work on Sundays…’

After Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyam went viral on social media for his suggestion that employees should work 90 hours a week. His suggestion came during an employee interaction where he was asked why L&T- continues to have its employees work on Saturdays.

To this he replied that he regretted that he could not force the workers to work on Sunday as well.

“I’m sorry I can’t make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I’ll be happier because I work on Sundays,” Subrahmanian’s undated video said.

He then asked the employees what they were doing when they were at home. He also said: “Come, get to the office and start working.”

To further substantiate his point, Subrahmanyam cited an interaction he had with a Chinese man who claimed that China could defeat the United States.

As for this person, the Chinese work 90 hours a week, while Americans only work 50 hours a week. So that’s the answer for you. If you want to be on top of the world… you have to work 90 hours a week. Come on, guys.

Needless to say, social media users were totally taken aback by this work-life balance attitude.Subrahmanyam’s remarks earned him comparisons with Narayana Murthy.

Not only this, users also pointed out that the chairman of L&T would never say such a thing in relation to employees working in geographies other than India.

“And here I think L&T is a good company, everyone seems to be following Narayana Murthy’s footsteps,” commented a user. “I was there yesterday in this town hall. *** wants us to work 90 hours a week. NEXT NARAYAN MURTI!!!”

“It’s so sad that we have business leaders like this. I think we should call them ‘diaper leaders.'” I had some close friends who worked at L&T Madras about the work culture, I felt it was like a kindergarten for adults (sic),” commented a third user.

Another user commented: “The problem is that India has one of the worst conditions when it comes to proper labor laws. None of these ‘business leaders’ will be able to say such things even in a capitalist country like the US and get away with it.” !!!”

One of the users of social networks jokingly asked. Bit, what should I do to someone else’s wife? One user commented: “70 se 90 ghante hogya ab. Bas ab 120 ghante bolna hi bacha hai (sic)”.

Another user said: “This is why the craze for government jobs is at its peak in India. The private sector is only good at harassing workers.”

The co-founder of Infosys advocated a 70-hour work week for India’s youth, saying that the youth must understand that “we have to work hard and work hard to make India number one.”