Narayana Murthy Pitches For 70-Hour Work Week: What Global CEOs Have Said

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy sparked a huge debate online when he advocated for a 70-hour work week. Appearing on a podcast, Mr Narayana Murthy said India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world and asked the youth the contribute towards building the culture so that India can compete effectively on the global stage. He also drew parallels with Japan and Germany, two countries that implemented the extended working hours after the Second World War. But he is not the first corporate leader to have suggested a similar thing.

Bhavish Aggarwal, the CEO of Ola, endorsed Mr Narayana Murthy's advice, saying on X (formerly Twitter) that it is "our moment to go all in and build in 1 generation what other countries have built over many generations".

Mr Narayana Murthy had made a similar call for professionals to work long hours in 2020, when he said that Indians should work 60 hours a week for the next two to three years to revive the post-pandemic economy.

A few years ago, Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba, endorsed the controversial "996" rule in China's tech industry, saying in a blog post that employees who worked longer hours will get the "rewards of hard work".

The number refers to working from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week and is said to be common among the country's big technology companies and start-ups.

The entrepreneur's comments prompted criticism from Chinese social media users. They said the controversial rule will affect the family life, and no one will have children because of lack of time.

Elon Musk, world's richest man and CEO of many companies, had asked the staff at Twitter, which he acquired in October last year, to work for more than 100 hours in a week.

In November 2022, Mr Musk sent an email to the staff in which he said that Twitter "will need to be extremely hardcore" in order to succeed, reported The Guardian. Outlining his work day, the Twitter owner said he sometimes sleeps in the office and expected the staff to do the same.

Similarly, Shantanu Deshpande, the CEO of Bombay Shaving Company, had said in a LinkedIn post that freshers should work 18 hours per day. "Eat well and stay fit, but put in the 18-hour days for at least 4-5 years," he said.

A survey done by Harvard Business Review in 2018 said that CEOs in the US work 9.7 hours per weekday, and another 3.9 hours per weekend day. They also put in extra work during the weekend and vacations.

Another survey of 357 Indian CEOs of listed Indian manufacturing firms by economic research outfit International Growth Centre revealed that the average Indian CEO works 39 hours a week. This meant most bosses are on the job for close to 8-9 hours a weekday.