90 Hour Week: Don’t Take It Seriously; Probably Said Without Thinking

90 Hour Week: Don’t Take It Seriously; Probably Said Without Thinking – Naushad Forbes

4 months ago 58

90 hour week: don't take it seriously; probably said without thinking: Naushad Forbes, Co-Chairman Forbes Marshall and former President CII, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. .......................................... The Co-Chairman of Forbes Marshall and a former President of the Confederation of Indian Industry has said that comments made by the Chairman of Larsen and Toubro, S. N. Subrahmanyan, advocating a 90-hour week, including Sundays, should not be taken seriously and were made without thinking. “Many of these comments, we take them more seriously than they deserve. They are made probably without the greatest of thought”, said Naushad Forbes. In a 15-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Mr. Forbes made clear that holidays and time-off is essential to ‘re-charge’ and for good ideas to fructify and develop. He said it’s important for people to do things that they cannot do at work. Mr. Forbes defended the concept of a 2-day weekend, which was introduced by his company over 50 years ago and has not had any adverse impact on productivity and the company’s work ethic. Here are a few important details. The Chairman of Larsen & Toubro has told his employees that he wishes he could make them work 90 hours a week which means 13 hours a day, 7 days a week. He’s also said of Sundays: “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? How long can wives stare at their husbands?” So today we ask does India need a new work ethic? Is leisure time a waste of time? And does the progress of the nation depend upon ceaseless slog and hard work? Or is the Chairman of L&T terribly mistaken? To help you follow this interview I give below the list of questions asked. Here they are: 1) Last week in a video the Chairman of L & T, S. N. Subrahmanyan said to his employees: “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays, to be honest. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy because I work on Sundays also.” He added: “If you have got to be on top of the world you have to work 90 hours a week”, which is 13 hours a day, 7 days a week. How do you respond to that? 2) Later L&T clarified Mr. Subrahmanyan’s statement by saying: “We believe this is India’s decade, a time demanding collective dedication and effort to drive progress … extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary effort.” Does India require people to work 90 hours a week? 3) Let me go one step further and ask if there is a fallacy in this viewpoint. If people work 90 hours a week, which is 13 hours a day and presumably sleep for 7 hours do they have time to shop, eat in restaurants, see movies, visit theme parks, etc. and, as a result, won’t the entertainment and leisure industry and many services suffer badly? 4) There is another assumption Mr. Subrahmanyan is making: that men don’t need to help with the household chores and they have no real role to play bringing up their children. Because if a man works 90 hours a week he has no time for either. Is that assumption correct? 5) Mr. Subrahmanyan went one step further. He said: “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? How long can wives stare at their husbands?” The suggestion is Sundays are an unnecessary waste of time. Do you agree? 6) Do we need a two-day weekend? Or is one day off enough? 7) Let me broaden the discussion. How important is time off? How important is relaxation? How important is it to switch your mind off work and do other things? 8) The truth is Mr. Subrahmanyan is neither the first nor will he be the last person to have spoken along these lines. Elon Musk, Jack Ma and our own Narayana Murthy have also stressed the need to work for long hours. Are they all wrong? Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWtJey46brNr7qHQpN6KLQ/join

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