Does L&T Chairman know that his employees do more important work at home than staring at their spouse at Home

                                                                                      

By

S. Prabhakar

The L&T Chairman and Managing Director,  Mr. S N Subrahmayan, is caught in `the eye of the storm’ by his `foot in mouth’ statement' that `I am sorry that I am not able to make you work on Sundays’.  Speaking at a corporate event,  he advocated a 90-hour working week and urged the employees to consider working on Sundays. What has really triggered a backlash in social media in an unprecedented manner is his bizarre statement `What do you do sitting at Home?’  `How long can you stare at your wife?   How long can wives stare at their husbands,? Get to the office and start working.”

Such a misogynistic statement coming from L&T C&MD, which position was held dignifiedly for over two decades by Mr. Naik, is extremely indignified and bad in taste, to say the least and doesn’t behove the respectable position he is holding.

Does long working hours translate into higher productivity

Definitely not, but unfortunately we find many middle-level managers in many corporates, and now a couple of top guns like Mr. Narayana Murthy and Mr. Subhramanyan feel so.  Not only employees at all levels are expected to work for long hours, much beyond the designated working hours, but those who sit late and work on holidays from the office or home are treated to be more sincere, hard-working and making better contributions for the growth of the company and to the nation (going by the statement released by L&T).   Many times, gender inequality and gender discrimination also creep in as female employees who are married and who have children are not treated at par with their male colleagues only because of their inability to sit late and put in longer hours as expected by organisations like L&T.  

It is not uncommon in organisations whose managers and owners believe in long working hours, that employees are relaxed and laid back during working hours as they know that in any case they will be expected to sit late beyond office hours and they will be called on Sundays and holidays and working during this extra hours gets better recognition and reward.    An organisation loses in many ways in such situations, they end up paying more than what they should, and the smart and quality performers leave the organisation due to lack of recognition and reward as they lag in the race for putting up long hours of work.  

Does Indian really work less?

Surely not.  Various studies have shown that Indian employees work for longer hours and under a very stressful and toxic atmosphere.   Added to the long working hours in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad 2-3 hours in travelling to and fro to office bracing huge traffic jams and pollution.  

In most countries, the working hours per week are decreasing giving more stress to higher productivity.   The following are some of the countries with the shortest weekly working hours

Name of                            No. of hours 

the country                        per week            

Netherlands                              30

Denmark                                  33

Norway                                    34

Germany                                  34

Austria                                      35

Belgium                                    35

Finland                                      35

Ireland                                       35

Switzerland                                36

 

Many companies in countries like Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland and Ireland have gone for 4 days a week

In India, the labour legislation prescribes a 48-hour working week which most of the corporates follow, though many factories in small cities and unorganised sectors flout these labour legislations.   The IT industry and Construction industry, to which L&T belong, are infamous for making the employees slog for long hours round the clock in very punishing and odd work schedules to suit the global clients.  

                                                                                                                  

Even at 48 hours per week, Indian employees work more than the employees in the top 10 longest working week countries:

Name of the country        No. of hours 

                                           per week

Colombia                                47

Turkey                                    46

Maxico                                   45

Costorica                               45

Chile                                      43

Portugal                                 40

Isreal                                     40

USA                                      39

Latvia                                   39

Slovak Republic                  39

 

The backlash

Mr. Subrahmanyan's statement specially the part `staring at spouse’ has received the sharpest criticism in recent times.  Right from L&T employees, common people to industry leaders have reacted to it and most of them are critical of what he said and suggested a balance between the demands of an organisation and work-life balance.  

\   

·        RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka expressed his disapproval on X, stating, “90 hours a week? Why not rename Sunday to 'Sun-duty' and make 'day off' a mythical concept?   He criticised the concept of a 90-hour workweek, warning of the dangers of burnout. “We need to work hard and smart, but turning work into a perpetual office shift isn’t the answer”

·       Anand Mahindra said  “long work hours - is in the wrong direction because it emphasises on quantity of working hours”.   My point is we have to focus on the quality of work, not on the quantity of work.    "What output are you doing even if it's 10 hours? You can change the world in 10 hours."   In a way he had a huge swipe on Mr. Subrahmanyan when he said wittily  “ My wife is wonderful, I love staring at her”

·       Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto said “Number of hours of work doesn’t matter, quality of work does. We need a kinder, gentler world more than ever before.”

      TMC MP Mahua Moitra urged SN Subrahmanyan to ‘get a life’ “Danish engineers Larsen & Toubro founded L&T in 1938. Today Denmark ranks 3rd globally in work life balance, 9th in GDP/capita & averages 34 hrs worked/week.

·       Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shivsena MP, wrote on X, “Besides being misogynistic, this statement reeks of wanting to be the new age slave drivers of India.”

·       Richa Singh, Co-founder and CEO – Yourdost   “The narrative that longer hours automatically translate to greater success is not just outdated—it's dangerous,” 

·       Deepika Padukone said, “it's shocking to see people in such senior positions make such statements.” 

      The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said Mr. Subrahmanyan’s statement was similar to the “satanic statement” earlier made by the Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, urging an increase in working hours to 70 hours per week through statutory measures. “It seems that there is a rogue competition among the corporate messiahs to rinse the blood and sweat of Indian workers

Taking Family responsibility is beyond `staring at spouse’

Every employee, apart from his job/professional responsibilities has family and family responsibilities to discharge which are equally important as office duties.  Ask any average employee including L&T employees, whatever they do and most importantly whatever they earn is more for the family than for themselves.   A Happy family and growing up children are great motivators for any person to do well in every walk of life including at the workplace.  

It was reported that in the financial year 2023-24, Mr. Subrahmanyan earned ₹51 crore,   This figure is 534 times higher than L&T’s median employee salary, which stood at ₹9.55 lakh in the same period.   With this salary, Mr. Subramanyan could engage dozens of domestic helps to take care of many of the household chores and tutors to take care of the education of his children.    However the majority of the L&T employees may not be able to afford domestic helps and high cost tutors and would like to rush back home to help their spouse and children and take great pleasure in it.   So Mr. Subrahmanian should be conscious of the fact that his employees have much more than `staring at their wife’ after going back home or staying at home on a Sunday.  

In every corporate, you have a bunch of people at every level, especially in the management cadre,  who boast themselves of as being `workaholics’ and may spend 70 hours or 90 hours and more than that and quite possibly they may be on a fast track in their progress to top positions.   But that should be a matter of choice left to the employees, depending on their family composition, the support they get the way they would like to manage their family responsibilities.    What works for someone like Mr. Subhramanyan or such a breed of people may not work for all the employees across the board and it is too much to expect it from all the employees.  Majority of the employees would be happy giving their best during the normal working hours and be happy with normal progress at the work place.     Any effort to implement such long working hours may prove to be counterproductive and damage the wonderful brand of L&T, which has already become but of jokes and memes on social media                                                                                 

               
                                                                          

Work-life balance

Research shows that long working hours lead to burnout, decreased productivity, and serious mental health challenges.  Overworking increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke, as well as affecting mental health. The physical and mental strain of the overworked people can start from acute physiological responses such as fatigue, stress, impaired sleep, and unhealthy lifestyle changes in response to the stress.  As per the Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury (WHO/ILO Joint Estimates), report of WHO and the International Labour Organization (ILO), 488 million people worldwide had long working hours, and more than 7,45,000 people died in 2016 from heart disease and stroke related to working more than 55 hours per week. These figures make long working hours one of the biggest occupational health hazards.   As against this if our industry leaders Mr. Narayana Murthy and Mr. Subhramanyan prescribe 70 hours and 90 hours per week is extremely harmful to the well-being of the employees.    Recently a 26-year-old young CA of EY died due to cardiac arrest within 4 months of joining the job which was attributed to work-related stress due to additional work during non-office times.   Many young entrepreneurs have died in their late 30s or early 40s due to cardiac arrest. 

Work-life balance is a key part of a healthy and productive work environment.  These days most corporates strive hard and make sincere efforts to motivate their employees to maintain a work-life balance so that their productivity increases and they make qualitative contributions.   Not only Government offices but most of the corporates have gone in for five days a week as against L&T which is still working six days a week.   But strangely the L&T C&MD is not finding it enough and aspiring to become the first Indian company that works a seven-days-and 90 hours a week.   

These are some of the benefits that can be derived from maintaining a good work-life balance:

·       Maintaining good mental health

·       Improves physical health

·       Ability to manage work-related stress

·       Increases productivity

·       Improves relationships

·       Improves creativity

·       Becomes well well-rounded personality

·       Greater job satisfaction

·       Becomes more successful

 

The firefighting exercise by L& T

Though no further statement has come from the C&MD of L&T, the company has made some firefighting efforts.   In a statement released the company tried to defend what their C&MD said, that it reflects the company's larger vision for nation-building.   “At L&T, nation-building is at the core of our mandate. For over eight decades, we have been shaping India's infrastructure, industries, and technological capabilities. We believe this is India’s decade, a time demanding collective dedication and effort to drive progress and realise our shared vision of becoming a developed nation.  The company clarified that Subrahmanyan’s comments were intended to emphasise that “extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary effort” and reaffirmed its commitment to fostering a culture driven by “passion, purpose, and performance.”

That may not cut much ace as a country's development is not directly proportion to the number of hours its people put at their workplace.    That is demonstrated by the number of working hours per week the top 4 world economies have

Name of the country      No. of hours 

                                          per week

USA                                     39

China                                   40

Germany                             34

Japan                                   40

So whatever targets the present Government has made to make India the world's 3rd richest economy and L&T reaffirmation to this nation-building exercise, increasing the number of working hours per week to 70 as suggested by Mr Narayana Murthy of Infosys or 90 hours by L&T C&MD, Mr Subrahmanyam is not the only solution.  

So, Mr. Chairman, `Live and Let Live’ and let us not break our grand family system in India.

                     ***                                                        ***                                               ***

S Prabhakar

14th January, 2025