Recently, L&T Chairman SN Subramanyan sparked a widespread controversy advocating for a 90-hour work week, including working on Sundays. He is not the first one to recommend longer working hours in the corporate and industry. People like NR Narayana Murty, former Infosys Chairman, Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola CEO, Aadit Palicha, CEO Zepto etc. have proposed anywhere between 70–80-hour work week. The debate over the extended work week has been ridiculed in the social media and many jokes have come up, largely making fun of the idea. With my 39 years of experience in uniform, I thought of sharing my views on the work culture necessary for new India.
India follows 48-hour work week as per the current labour laws and any time beyond it, is considered overtime, for which the employees have to be paid overtime pay compensation. India also observes much more public holidays, both at the centre and state level. In addition, an employee is authorised paid and unpaid leave, medical leave, maternity/paternity leave etc. Then there is disruption in work because of death of national/state leaders, frequent elections right from municipal election upwards to Lok Sabha elections. In short, continuity of a worker or an officer or an executive towards the core charter of duties gets interrupted frequently.
In India, five-day week culture (from Monday to Friday) started in Delhi with effect from June 1985 under Rajiv Gandhi regime. A five-day week was a western model where the dynamics of work culture and productivity are so very different from that of India. Slowly this work culture was adopted by the corporate world but the industry still functioned on six-day work model. Even schools and colleges shifted to five-day week. Unfortunately, most of the state government offices and business offices like banks still continued on six-day week routine. The disconnect between Delhi type work culture of five days and six days work routine elsewhere is clearly evident.
The five-day week brought in another concept of longer weekends. The employees, particularly in the government sector started taking longer weekends by taking leave on Friday or Monday. Many times, the offices and schools in Delhi remain closed for three days at a stretch because of closed holiday on Friday or Monday. One example of such work culture was felt in metros during the parliamentary and assembly elections held on Friday/Saturday/Monday where the voter turnout was abysmally low. Clearly, such five-day work culture is not making responsible citizens where they prefer to even skip constitutional responsibility of voting.
Bulk of India comprises of farming, fishing and daily wages community, who have to work almost seven days a week to earn their living. Then there is business community and a huge unorganised sector who also work seven days a week. The malls in every city also remains open for all seven days of the week. Thus, the magnitude and complexity of varying work culture in India is immense. Therefore, a discussion on the work culture in India has to cater for the interests of the majority of Indians. Then, there is issue of work timings. For example, when the office hours begin at 10.00 am in the northern part of India, it is already a delayed time in the eastern part of India. In the eastern part of India, it gets dark around 5.00 pm. Therefore, India may need two timelines, instead of the single Indian Standard Time (IST).
Then there is the concept of work-life balance, another term picked up from the western way of life. Indians always had a better work-life balance because of our family values, rich traditions, festivals and religious culture. Our forefathers worked and toiled hard to build the nation. It is the duty of the current and future generation to take the country forward with their selfless devotion to hard work and sincerity of purpose. Even with longer working hours, Indians would still have better work-life balance as compared to western world. I agree with Elon Musk when he says that no nation can become great with just 40 plus hours per week work culture.
About 74 per cent of India’s population is below 40 years of age, with almost half of India is below 30 years young. This is a huge demographic dividend waiting to be capitalised for ensuring fast paced development of India. Unfortunately, I have noticed that the youth of India is less inclined to the rigours of hard work. A lot of it has to do with their obsession for the social media through smart phones. In Army, we keep soldiers away from phones so that they are not distracted by unnecessary phone calls and messages. In addition, a large section of the youth is less skilled or semi-skilled and their output & productivity is below par. Therefore, we need to look at work culture in India afresh, with focus on quality of work and maximum output.
My service experience in the military tells me that the work culture and dedication towards duty has to do a lot with the right training, imparting moral values and enforcing strict discipline, particularly self-discipline. There are multiple occasions when the soldiers and officers have to work, 72 hours at a stretch. It is the self- motivation and under the leadership which sets personal example that no one minds longer work hours. I have never ever found soldiers complaining about the rigours and hardship of training. Most of the soldiers stay away from the families in border areas and thus a good regimentation takes care of their emotional requirements. We need to imbibe similar work ethics right from the school days.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ushered many revolutionary changes in India in the past one decade. He puts in long hours at work and does not take any break or holidays. Under his leadership, time has come to study and analyse the existing work culture and suggest work ethics most suited for India. I strongly recommend that a committee to study and recommend the work culture most suited to develop India into Viksit Bharat@2047 be constituted. To make a beginning, the nation as a whole should revert to six-day week routine. Other reforms about the proposed work culture should follow suit with broader public consensus.
