The Work Life Balance Conundrum

Do you work 70 hours in a week?

Do you work 40 hours in a week?

Is work life balance not the key to wellbeing and success?

These are some questions which have been pondering over every employee’s head in India and statements by well known business leaders in India is only adding spark to the fire. Back in 2023, Infosys founder, Narayana Murthy claimed that 70-hour week is the secret ingredient for success, and he was disappointed that India had moved to 5 day working weeks vs 6 day working weeks earlier. There was intense debate over this, and internet memes continue to fly out for the same remarks. To add further fuel to the fire, last week, L&T (Larsen & Toubro) Chairman, SN Subrahmanyan, claimed that he was a big advocate of 90 hour working weeks. He disregarded the concept of work life balance and mentioned that he regretted that he cannot make people work on Sundays like him. All this has rekindled the debate on what really is the work life balance the world sees and what is the work life balance viewed in India?

Work life balance is a term hanging in the balance across the corporate sphere and it has picked up a lot in the past decade in India. More and more employees are valuing their own time instead of spending majority of their weeks’ time working for an organization. They understand the importance of…