The 90-hour work-week

The L&T chairperson’s recent suggestion about introducing 90-hour a week in offices, is inhuman, anti-people, reflecting a capitalist mindset. The thoughtless limit is significantly higher than even the 70-hour work-week advocated by the Infosys chairperson. Let us look at it dispassionately with a 360 degree perspective.

The suggestion has sparked off a controversy about productivity, work-life balance.life-long consequences and future of corporate culture. Need it hardly be mentioned that the employees working in corporate sector do not get salaries and  perks at par with their founders and top management?Large time is wasted by them for reaching offices due to inadequate transport facilities. In this context, China’s infamous ‘996’ work culture, expecting employees to work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week, was condemned as  modern-day slavery. Countries like Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Japan had once introduced  long working hours. However, this was soon given up due to high social costs.

Worse, working beyond 40 to 50 hours a week, is fraught with diminishing returns leading to mental and physical stress and health issues resulting in negative impact in the form of accidents and even costly mistakes. Is this corporate culture?.Employees have to be treated with dignity and empathy instead of leaving them to die due to over-work at work places. By introducing a 7-day week with no week-ends off, how much time will be left to spend with families? Worse still, nuclear families, with no support services will be the worst-hit.

Having said that, I would urge the business honchos to refrain from making such sweeping statements without considering all relevant facts, unsupported by evidence to get cheap publicity. The government, as the model employer, one is sure, will never allow such top-down imposition of long working hours in office without consulting the stake-holders.

A K Saxena (Former civil servant)