Is Narayana Murthy’s Advocacy of a 9-9-6 Work Model the right choice for India?
Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys and one of India’s most respected business leaders, sparked a nationwide debate when he suggested that young Indians should work 72 hours a week. for the economic development of the nation. Ironically, he proposed 70 hours a week and now added extra 2 hours to make it 72 hours based on the China's 9-9-6 model working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.
Mr. Murhy openly said that he did not believe in Work-Life balance, and quoted “I do not believe in work-life balance,” in CNBC Global Leadership Summit.. He further cited that he himself worked 70 hours a week.
Narayana Murthy highlighted how he has lived by the values he promotes. He worked long hours throughout his career, spending up to 14 hours a day, six and a half days a week, on his professional duties. His routine, he said, involved starting at the office by 6:30 a.m. and leaving only around 8:40 p.m., a commitment he takes pride in.
He also gave example of how our PM Modi. is working long hours.
Why is Mr. Murthy promoting so long work hours?
Mr. Murthy strongly believes that everyone should do hard work or do work for long hours, irrespective of how educated or intelligent the person is. He cites a nation able to rise by the virtue of hard work, and it should be one's responsibility. He argues for long working hours, but I did not get a clear idea where he wants Indians to put those long working hours. Most probably his view is influenced by the early years of high-growth nations like Japan had a culture of intense dedication after World War II. South Korea in the 1970s–1990s saw employees working extremely long hours to support rapid industrialization, and China’s 9-9-6 culture drove tech growth during the early 2000s and 2010s.
From this perspective, this looks really nice and sensible thought and ought to be supported.
Why are long working hours cannot be supported?
Most of the population in India lives in the big cities and travelling to workplace and travelling back from the workplace can consume up to 4 hours for the majority of workforce. Due to overcrowding, people do this travel standing, they do not even have a seat while travelling.
India is still a sandwiched generation, where they are supposed to take care of their parents and their children, this is really an emotional toll on them.
Putting stress for more work hour can seriously affect the mental health and the family structures.
On top of it, law enforcement in India is very lax and corruption is very well known. This will lead to further exploitation of work force. Also majority of Indians do not understand the concept of "Dignity of labour" and I am afraid to say that people are employed informally (not providing service to a corporate organization.) are already exploited and doing 70+ hours of work with poor work and living conditions.
India's common man still faces issues with basic amenities.
India has a mix, the places where the basic amenities are available is not affordable for more than 95% of Indians and rest of people will be struggling for the amenities like water and electricity. Expecting someone to willing work for long hours, one need to fix the life of people so that they can happily work long hours.
What Mr. Murthy is missing.
Mr. Murthy is a rich guy, I can bet, he was not travelling to it's workplace standing on a train or a bus for 3+ hours. Location in which he was living is not a rundown place, and he is missing basic amenities. On top of it, he was working on his own company, a company founded by him, where he is reaping all the rewards of his work. So it can be highly debated whether he was working or doing a self-service for himself when he quoted his long working hours.
Personally. I am disappointed with Mr. Murthy.
Instead of identifying the basic problems and working towards their solution, Mr, Murthy chose the easiest way i.e preaching. Unfortunately, in his current stand, I do not see that he is providing any direction or channelization of energy of the people/youth in the right direction.
Also, being himself an entrepreneur, his current advice does not sound like one.
India needs to work hard, but not the Murthy way.
It is no doubt that India needs to work harder but the focus should be on improving skills, systems, and productivity rather than simply increasing hours. Work-life balance, along with mental and physical fitness, is highly required. A sound mind and body can lead to innovations and efficiency that can easily beat working long hours.
Posted Using INLEO
