The Chairperson of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Mr SN Subrahmanyan, recently opposed the weekend off, saying he wished he could make his employees work on Sunday and proposed a 90-hour working week. His words have provoked significant global anger from politicians, executives and the general public on social media, most of whom have vehemently condemned the idea. Harsh Goenka also talked about the same.
When asked about his thoughts on the ‘New World of Work’ during a video posted on X (previously Twitter), Subrahmanyan was upset at how companies have deemed it fit to load employees with unrealistic expectations. Many people have criticized him for coming up with Sundays should not be a day of rest, which is considered counterproductive to people’s working conditions. They opined that such demands would result in stress and not productivity and asked what would happen to the employees.
Amidst the response, Harsh Goenka, the Chairman of RPG Group, posted on his Twitter handle criticism of Subrahmanyan for his suggestion. Concerning work-life balance, Goenka was even more assertive, saying it is not a privilege or a fancy but a right for everyone and part of a healthy organization.
He posted a video of Subrahmanyan’s statement joking about the possibility of renaming Sundays to ‘Sun-duty’ and making ‘day off’ an unrealistic idea. To further support this viewpoint, Goenka said, “Of course, I know the importance of hard work and working smart but to turn life into a shift at work.” Well, they said that is the formula for producing burnout, not excellence.
He concluded his post with a strong message: “Choices: Work-life balance is not a luxury, and it is a necessity,” the comment section in the post read with the hashtag #WorkSmartNotSlave. Goenka’s response has generated positive responses from people who opine that there is a need for one to balance work and personal life in order to be more productive and healthy.
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