“Work Till You Drop: India Inc’s Solution to All Problems”
It’s a great time to be an Indian worker—if your dream is to live in your office, stare at your Excel sheets for eternity, and find solace in your boss’s pearls of wisdom. The latest comes from S.N. Subrahmanyan, chairman of L&T, who wants you to work not just 90 hours a week but also on Sundays. His reasoning? “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife, how long can the wife stare at the husband? Come on, get to the office and start working.” Ah, yes, because marriage counseling and career burnout go hand-in-hand, right?
And why stop there? Narayana Murthy, Infosys co-founder, wants a 70-hour workweek. Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola says we should “go all in” for the country. Sajjan Jindal of JSW thinks a five-day week is too luxurious for a “developing nation.” And Nilesh Shah of Kotak believes we should aim for an 84-hour workweek. Clearly, India Inc. has decided that if you’re not collapsing from exhaustion, you’re not patriotic enough. If these suggestions don’t scream “corporate utopia,” what does?
Meanwhile, Japan, the original patron saint of overwork, is actively trying to reduce working hours and shift to a four-day workweek. Even the Japanese, famous for their punishing work culture, have realized that exhausted workers make terrible innovators. But here in India, we are proudly marching backward into a dystopia where working longer hours is seen as patriotism, not exploitation. Bravo, India Inc., for rebranding modern-day slavery as nation-building.
“More Work, Less Life, But Hey, More Taxes!”
Let’s take a moment to admire the logic here. If we work longer hours, what’s the prize? Higher salaries? Nope. Lower stress? Surely not. The big win, ladies and gentlemen, is the chance to pay higher taxes! Yes, you can slog for 84 hours a week, and then the government can use your hard-earned money to build even more toll plazas on roads that are already pothole-ridden. What a deal!
And let’s not forget the health benefits of overwork. Insomnia, hypertension, depression—you name it. Who needs work-life balance when you can have a cardiologist on speed dial? Mental health? That’s for “soft” countries like Finland. In India, we wear our stress like a badge of honor.
The Government’s Role: Silent Spectator or Partner in Crime?
While India Inc. demands longer workweeks, our government watches silently—or perhaps gleefully. Why bother enforcing existing labor laws when you can just ignore them altogether? The Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020, looks great on paper but is rarely implemented. What’s the point of rules when exploitation is the status quo?
And where are the labor-friendly reforms? Forget four-day workweeks; we can’t even implement humane working hours across industries. In countries like New Zealand, companies are experimenting with four-day workweeks to boost productivity and employee happiness. Here, the only thing we’re boosting is blood pressure.
Social Media Speaks Truth
Social media has been merciless in its criticism of this absurdity. “How long can you stare at your wife? Come to the office,” said L&T’s S.N. Subrahmanyan. The internet exploded. One user sarcastically responded, “If my boss lets me stare at my wife for five minutes, that’s already a luxury.” Another joked, “At least at home, my Wi-Fi works properly.”
Dear India Inc., Have You Heard of Efficiency?
Productivity isn’t about working longer; it’s about working smarter. Countries with shorter workweeks consistently outperform us on global productivity indices. But who needs data when we have rhetoric? If working more hours were the secret to success, India would already be a global superpower. Spoiler: we’re not.
The demand for longer hours isn’t about patriotism or progress; it’s about squeezing the last drop of life out of workers to maximize profits. It’s a corporate Ponzi scheme where the rich get richer, and the middle class gets prescriptions for anti-anxiety pills.
A Wake-Up Call
India Inc., here’s a revolutionary idea: instead of blaming workers for the country’s problems, how about investing in better systems, fairer wages, and innovative policies? And dear government, stop being a silent spectator. Enforce labor laws, introduce mental health mandates, and for once, put people over profits.
Until then, workers will continue to slog, corporations will keep profiting, and the government will happily collect its taxes—all while we pretend that overwork is the Indian way. After all, who needs happiness when you have a paycheck?
