Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy stirred a little storm on X when he said young people should work 70 hours a week to level up the country's productivity. His remarks sparked a national debate and invited both harsh criticism and voices of agreement. Several prominent business leaders are also sharing their two cents on the issue, while some on the internet are busy cracking jokes and making memes on the same. Now, a comedian tried to decode the concept and work out the math to see if the suggestion was possible. In a recent show, comedian Vivek Muralidharan hilariously broke down the intensive work schedule, by calculating the number of hours required for working and other daily life activities.
He started his set by requesting a phone from the audience to calculate the number of hours a person would be working and the time that would be left for ''everything else”. As per his final calculation, a person would just get 24 hours per week of time for himself/herself, which would translate to 52 days per year.
''Work-life balance friends, ''he captioned the video on Instagram.
Watch the video here:
While some users were left amused by his humour, others pointed out that the commute time to the office would further reduce the hours one would get for oneself. One user wrote, ''This is more sad than hilarious.''
Another wrote, ''70 hours a week will be so much beneficial for Millionaires to become Billionaires. Not for the working-class people like us. If we work for 70 hours we will only get the same salary. But for them, it's an extra million every week. So it makes sense.''
A third said, ''Billionaires want people to work overtime till they die! Nothing new. Modern-day slavery.'' A fourth added, ''What about traveling to office up and down per day 2-3 hours. So in a week average 18 hours. The balance we have is 3 hours'' A fifth joked, ''Weekends left the chat.''
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 extended working hours after the Second World War.
However, Dr Deepak Krishnamurthy, a Bengaluru-based cardiologist noted that such inhumane working hours can create a whole generation with a host of heart-related comorbidities.
