Bengaluru :– Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy recently stirred up a hornet’s nest when he advocated 70 hours work weeks for youngsters so that India can compete with economies that progressed in the last two to three decades. Murthy said while speaking to former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai for a podcast, The Record, “India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world, So therefore, my request is that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country. I’d like to work 70 hours a week,” adding that this is exactly what the Germans and Japanese did after the Second World War. “They made sure that every German worked extra hours for a certain number of years.” He added.
Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge giving opinion on muthy’s statement said, Companies cannot force individuals to work extra hours and “cannot run seat shops”, Kharge who appreciated Murthy contribution to the IT industry and his ‘wisdom ‘, said instead of stipulating the number of hous put it by an individual, companies should see how productive they are in their professional assignments.
Murthy’s comments drew critical reactions from netizens, although several industry leaders such as JSW Group CMD Sajjan Jindal, Ola Cabs Co-Founder Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola, and Pai supported his view. While IT employees said, “ will we ever find time for family, mental health?,
When it comes to returning to office, soem IT companies wield the stick, otheroffers carrots. Infosys has asked select employees at the junior and mid-level to return to office ten days in a month beginning November 20. Breaking away from some of its peers who are enforcing a five-day work week. Its internal communication comes days after Infosys founder NR Narayana murthy comment on youngsters should be prepared to work 70 hours a week if India must compete with other global economics. Infosys has maintained its stance to allow employees to have the flexibility to work remotely and in physical offices. Infosys, for instance, has set up a plug-and-play facility in yelahanka office in Bengaluru to encourage employees to work from this facility that became operation in June.
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said, “We are seeing more and more employees back into the campus and we believe this will continue. There are some instances, for example, with specific client work or specific type of engagement where we feel it is better that everyone is working together in the office for that employees are back anyway”.
TCS, on the other hand, is asking employees to return to office on all five days of the week. Work from home has ended for some teams. Cognizant is not mandating its employees to return to office any time soon.
