The year 2024 had its noise about work-life balance more so because of Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour workweek suggestions. Here is the San Francisco-based CEO who asserted such a thing.
The work-life balance became the greatest topic of discussion on social media in 2024. The discussion actually even went globally public in 2023 when Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys, suggested a 70-hour work-week. Within no time, this discussion became eventful in online communities as well. Already in 2024, many business magnates are now voicing in favour of a personal-public divide.
Work-life balance: A discussion
Bhavish Aggarwal, the CEO of Ola, was one among the many who cited Narayana Murthy’s remarks on extending the working hours. He was not alone in believing that the employees should work more hours for the cause of the nation; there were quite a few others who chimed in on this aspect this year.
Both Murthy and Aggarwal stated in terms of national interest that there is a strong need to work for longer hours as that would make people contribute to nation-building. But the critics questioned why they should suck up the sleep of underpaid employees so that their employers could fatten their pockets further.
Murthy and Aggarwal presented their case for longer workdays within the framework of nation-building and national interest, which critics took to imply that low-paid employees should lose sleep and work extra hard just to line their employers’ pockets.
There were calls from employees for more compassion and better labour laws, while CEOs like Daksh Gupta kept calling for more hours to be worked, even though he was already on a backlash after revealing that the Indian-origin CEO hired his employees to work for 14 hours a day.
CEO’s controversial call for 14-hour workdays
The CEO of Greptile an AI startup, Daksh Gupta has Indian Origins. He has become the target of online hate, especially in November when he posted on the social media platform about no work-life balance at his company.
“There is just no balance between work and life at Greptile; the typical work day starts at 9 in the morning, usually closes around 11 at night, most often later than that, and most Saturdays ‘I work- and sometimes Sundays too’,” he posted.
“I am saying that it is a high-stress environment with no tolerance for bad work,” declares the San Francisco-based CEO.
In a later interview, he compared the work culture at his company to “rocket launch” intensity.
“It’s a rocket launch in some ways,” said the 23-year-old to NBC Bay Area, adding, “If you care about work-life balance, I think that’s great. There are definitely places that function that way they’re all very successful.”