Work-life balance has been a topic of discussion in recent times. There are some who believe that work-life balance cannot bring any achievement while others are of the opinion that it is important to maintain a healthy balance and relation between work and personal life. Most of the fintech leaders feel work-life balance will not help India grow and develop at a rapid pace.
The debate on maintaining work-life balance started when the co-founder of Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy said that youngsters of the country should work for 70 hours a week. On a podcast with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai, Murthy had stated that in order to make the country catch up with the economies that have seen a rapid growth in the past 2-3 decades, youngsters in India will have to work 12 hours a day, according to a report by Business Today.
He further added that youngsters must put in extra work hours like Japan and Germany post World War II to compete with countries like China. Murthy was also backed by Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal, as he asked to put not 70 but 140 hours of work in a week and no weekends. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he wrote, “Putting in the hours. Not just 70, more like 140! Only fun, no weekends!”
Kunal Shah, founder of CRED, said that he believes before becoming a developed nation, India has imbibed the Western concepts of a ‘chill life’ and no big achievement can come from “work-life balance”, according to a report by Business Today. “I am not saying it is not a choice you should not make – it is a personal choice. But as a country, we have to go a long way,” he said in a podcast hosted by Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal, the report added.
The CRED founder also stated, “We see an extraordinary execution (in China). It’s called 9-9-6 culture – 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. And you see that progress. We cannot have the ambition of being a 10-20 trillion dollar economy and still expect that life should be chill.”
With fintech leaders supporting the long working hours, and youngsters demanding more work-life balance along with a decent pay package, the debate seems to go on.
