Disbelief, was my first reaction on hearing about Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy’s encouragement to pursue a 70 hour work week. For a well-respected gentleman with a wide perspective and intelligence, it seemed odd that he’d say such things. Having been through a crippling burnout and authoring The Real Cure for Eye Strain, I was glad people vehemently opposed the proposal of a 70 hour work-week. However, I also wondered what the context was.
The Context
These are some of the main points he mentioned in the interview, which puts things into perspective:
- Compassionate capitalism: He mentions how pre-1991 economics was socialistic. Although the institution-building at that time created a foundation that is useful today, India’s GDP improved only with the reforms in 1991. Mr. Murthy’s views on socialism crumbled when he saw the development in European nations and obtained a better understanding of economics. He believes it is not the government’s job to create jobs. Instead, the government should create public facilities like roads, schools, hospitals, etc. without corruption, and remove obstacles to allow entrepreneurs to create jobs. In the past 20 years, many such obstacles have been removed.
- Opportunity and upliftment: He mentions that although urban India improved, rural India and the urban poor have not leveraged the benefits of globalization. Opening India to foreign investment, creating whatever incentive they want, and creating jobs for rural semi-literate and illiterate Indians. The jobs would create confidence in people when they can earn and take care of their family, rather than relying on subsidies. This can also make us the most competitive nation in manufacturing and sale of low-tech equipment. Else, countries like Vietnam and others will “eat our lunch”.
- Opinions for the youth and government: He encouraged considering policy decisions of countries that had tremendous growth in the past 25 years. He believes India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. So we need to improve productivity and reduce corruption and delays in the government. He wants youngsters to say “this is my country. I want to work 70 hours a week”, and wants corporate leaders to encourage youngsters with the message that for the first time, India has received certain respect in the eyes of the committee of Nations, and this is the time for us to consolidate and accelerate the progress many-fold. For doing it, we need to work very hard, be disciplined and improve work productivity. Unless we do that, what can the government do? Every government is as good as the culture of the people. Our culture has to change to be highly determined, extremely disciplined, and extremely hardworking people. Performance leads to recognition, which leads to respect, which leads to power.
- Uplifting all Indians: He requests the youth of India to work 12 hour days for the next 20 or 50 years, so that even India becomes a top nation in terms of GDP. However, all this progress will come to nothing, if people in the remotest village do not have reasonable access to healthcare, education, nutrition and shelter. Most importantly they need to have the hope that their progeny will have a better future than them. The responsibility for this progress is on the shoulders of our youth. It needs a lot of hard-work, aspiration and teamwork.
The Takeaway
Do you realize that the interview would have been viewed as inspirational, if he didn’t mention the “70 hours” and “12 hours”? Given the way other industrialists chimed in, we are perhaps seeing only the tip of the iceberg. I wouldn’t be surprised if an artificial scarcity of jobs is created, or inflation gets worse to “encourage” long work-hours, or economically disadvantaged people are brought into the world of burnout, or medical insurance is misused as a tool to keep people employed.
In my opinion, it’s not the “70 hours” we need to focus on. The spirit of what Mr. Murthy said, was in needing to take ownership in improving our country, working diligently, being responsible citizens and living a life of integrity. That part is true, but that’s true for every human. Besides, we’ve already been taught all that in school and we tried following it too. But then we grew up to see various elders blatantly ignoring the ideals of being responsible citizens. So what example/impression has the older and current generation created, to be worthy of asking the younger generation to work harder? Receiving a skeptical reaction is natural.
In most people, there is an inherent sense of belonging, helpfulness, integrity and a willingness to be of value. However, such characteristics need to be nurtured, and they shine best in a healthy environment which is created when …
- … people know they aren’t being cheated.
- … they know that people in positions of authority are there to help them, rather than intimidate.
- … they know that decisions are made sensibly, transparently and that they have a say in the decision-making process.
- … true scientific thought, intelligence and merit are valued and actively encouraged.
- … critique is met with introspection, rather than egoistic insecurity.
- … people know that they can truly live to enjoy life.
Have “leaders” worldwide up-skilled themselves to be capable of creating healthy environments and quality products? So many businesses today have shoddy workers, sub-standard products, apathy, and a practice of charging people based on how gullible they are, and then gaslighting them. If such capitalism creates a society that appears rich but is rotting inside, is it worth being capitalistic? How can people take pride in what they do, or work diligently when pushed by inexperienced, incompetent, hustler bosses, who focus on quick delivery and revenue, rather than on quality? Even academia is corrupted by a hustle-culture: the “publish or perish” nonsense.
Poor Timing
Good leaders know to check for morale. The right time to motivate people to work hard, is when people have hope about the outcome, knowledge of the team’s capability, and trust in the leadership.
The backlash on social media clearly shows how badly people have been treated. I’ve encountered skepticism even from illiterate people (about other systemic issues). A cardiologist highlighted one aspect of the health issues that come with long working hours, and even I want to caution the youth on safeguarding their health.
These are some memes I saw on the internet, which should make leaders worldwide wake up and think about what kind of a culture they created, and why people’s trust was betrayed. (if you are the meme creator and would like me to mention an attribution, please mention it in the comments with a link to the original source).
It’s not yet time to push hard. It’s time to usher in reforms that build trust, allows for healing, provides knowledge on how to lead, and improves morale. Once people know that the foundation of a healthy work culture is built, the trust and willingness to work hard will come automatically. Before asking the next generation to work hard, let’s first fix the issues created by prior generations.
We Need a Solid Foundation Before Scaling-up
I know I’m a nobody for saying this. There are massive systemic issues which couldn’t possibly be fixed in a generation, and that’s what our leaders are struggling with. Perhaps that’s why our leaders are pushing onward, trying to do the best they can, with what they’ve got. But there are some things that can be done to improve morale:
- Far lesser corruption: I heard of a person who received a followup call, asking whether the police officer who did their passport verification asked for a bribe. I could do a large part of my vehicle fitness renewal online, and did the entire process without needing to paying a bribe. Automating with tech, having followups and robust reporting mechanisms, are commendable steps in the right direction. I salute honest officers in the bureaucracy.
- Focus on health: We need access to a wide variety of consumables without harmful chemicals or restrictions on what can be eaten. I’ve had to give up some vegetables, some fruits, meat, eggs and milk, because consuming it sometimes pushed my kidney and bladder into overdrive for a week. I can only assume it’s due to various chemicals used. Being forced to give up major sources of nutrition, leads to a severe dip in productivity. Expensive healthcare, and/or being forced to depend on insurance is another issue. We need healthy agricultural practices and affordable healthcare, to have a healthy workforce. The poorly cooked food served in many canteens, restaurants, bakeries and stalls are another area that needs improvement, to safeguard health. Sufficient time for leisure and vacations also plays a role in health.
- Better teachers: To fix issues at grassroot levels, it’s necessary to help children who have been raised in toxic family environments (else they would end up creating toxic environments for others), to learn to have healthy interactions with people and to learn to collaborate well. Collaboration is such a fundamental concept that schools aren’t really teaching well. Teachers need to be made capable of teaching. Essential life-skills like cooking, research-skills, scientific thinking, financial investment and a lot more needs to be taught in college.
- Freelancing: The hypocrisy of companies “caring” for the environment, was evident when they were ok with everyone polluting the environment with commutes, when forced to stop working from home. Not everyone can work from office. As people age, or need to take care of a family member, it’s necessary to provide more remote work options that can keep people engaged and give the peace-of-mind of being self-sufficient.
- Sufficient workers and pay: In the private and public sector, the number of workers needs to match the workload. The pay needs to match the value added.
- Time to upskill and improve: A common complaint among employees is about how immature and unskilled their managers are. People need to be given the right amount of time, practice and an apprenticeship under an experienced leader, to learn healthy leadership practices. Rushing them into positions of authority is wrong. Even workers need to be given time during work-hours, to upskill and to reduce technical debt. Asking people to upskill during their personal time is an unhealthy practice. I’ve worked in two companies where it was perfectly normal to upskill during work hours.
There’s a popular anecdote about how a boss is a person who expects nine women to produce a child in one month. In the pressure-cooker environment of today, it seems like bosses expect one woman to produce a child in one month. Isn’t this a result of higher management lacking the experience and backbone to rein-in over-enthusiastic managers who humiliate and overwork their subordinates to put up a show of “look how fast I got the task completed”? We can still be productive, efficient and strive for excellence in healthy, understanding work environments. Let’s strive to create happiness and well-being.
There’s of course more that can be done to improve morale. Feel free to mention it in the comments.
Can global leaders become more knowledgeable and cooperative?
We are no longer in the middle-ages. Territories are well-defined. Information exchange is terrific. It’s hard for me to understand why countries are still fighting each other and creating chaos, when they know innocents are being harmed in these conflicts. Do leaders of various countries actually study anything about managing a country peacefully and efficiently? Sure, there are advisors, and there’s pressure from lobbyists, and super-rich families, etc. But don’t you think the world has reached a stage where we can indeed do research and build knowledge on scaling up or scaling down an economy based on need? Also, to build knowledge on how best every country can cooperate to build a heaven-on-earth? Isn’t that what we should be striving for?
Modern-day parenting and political leadership are such high positions of power and impact, that it’s shocking that people across the globe are allowed to take up such massive responsibilities without going through a formal education that instills a deep understanding of how they can perform their duties well.
Isn’t it these global pressures that permeate into corporate environments and people’s daily lives, driving them to work longer, and pushing their financial independence a bit more out of reach? Couldn’t we make better use of technology to assess skills and distribute workloads in a totally different way, instead of relying on conventional practices? Countries shouldn’t be put in a situation where they worry that some other country is going to “eat our lunch” or invade. Remember that it was considered fair to place restrictions on e-commerce product prices, when the survival of brick-and-mortar businesses were in danger. Don’t just compete. Cooperate.
To conclude
The right to rest and leisure is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. People have the right to demand healthy work conditions. Else, corporations will gleefully exploit people with lousy excuses and a call for dedication, similar to what the pigs did in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. I’m happy to see at least some companies and governments taking the right steps in improving life for everyone (except maybe the Sentinelese). Remember that some people are happy as workaholics in a busy city, and some are happy with a simple, slow-paced life in a village. Others wish that we never evolved beyond the care-free lives of amoeba, or wish they were never born. Hard-work has it’s place in society. But so does peace-of-mind, happiness and fulfillment. The ambition of a few, shouldn’t trample a comfortably-paced way of life of others.
Anyone would be happy to work hard for their country to prosper. That’s not where the problem is. The problem is with corporate leaders not having an inkling of knowledge on how to create healthy work environments (for example, they don’t know the importance of closing the eyes for 5 minutes after every 20 minutes of eye strain). I’d first like to see governments and corporates work extra hard to take care of the health and well-being of their people, and help them be productive in the long-run. Companies have a deplorable history in creating a healthy workplace. Let’s identify people’s aspirations, their capabilities, and how they want to contribute. When a strong foundation is built, capable leaders will be able to take these individual strands and weave together a strong fabric of happy and prosperous Nations. There is much that we are yet to achieve and explore. The best way to do it, is together.
Update: Given that the answers on this page spoke of lower working hours and better working conditions (specifically for a capitalist society), I can only assume that the people recommending long working hours are wrong.
