A lot has been said about Narayana Murthy’s advice for youngsters to work 70 hours a week for the betterment of the nation. While some have taken his side and said that the youth must dedicate more hours to their work, others have advocated against it while promoting work-life balance.
Curefit and Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal also weighed in on the topic. He took to LinkedIn to highlight that employees cannot be expected to work 70 hours a week when they get paid for 40 hours.
He listed 5 points in total. In the first one, he explained that working or not working for such long hours is entirely one’s personal choice.
“First of all, it is a personal choice; health is important, family is important, career is important, and peace of mind is important. People need to know what matters in what priority order and then choose accordingly,” he wrote.
He then went on to highlight that it is unfair for companies to make people work for long hours but not pay them enough.
“Companies demanding 70 hours/week need to also create proportional upside. You can’t demand 70 hours of work at 40 hours salary. That’s just not fair.”
Mukesh Bansal then revealed that he too has worked many hours because the end reward was worth it and the journey was exciting. However, he also pointed out that a person can be more productive in less number of hours than a person working 10-12 hours a day.
“But individuals can choose to put in more hours of their own will. Sometimes the learning acceleration and sense of achievement are worth its one reward. I have worked crazy hours for companies in Silicon Valley because I was enjoying it so much and the experience came in very handy later. As my career progressed, I realised that productivity of one hour can vary by a factor of 10 and I would rather focus on how to be effective in each hour, rather than mindlessly putting in more hours.”
He then urged people to not force others to work for that long or shame people who don’t.
Have a look at his full post here:
What are your views about the 70-hour work week advice?