L&T chairman’s 90-hour work week remark: Do long hours mean more productivity?

Larsen & Toubro’s chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s remarks about a 90-hour work week have created furore online. In a video that has gone viral on social media, Subrahmanyan can be heard saying he ‘regretted’ not being able to make his employees work on Sundays.

Doubling down on the comments, he further said, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? Come on, get to the office and start working.”

His comments drew flak from several quarters, with even Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone condemning the remarks.

As the controversy snowballed, L&T released a statement defending the comments of its chairman. This is not the first time a business leader has advocated long working hours. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Infosys founder Narayana Murthy have made similar remarks in the past, stirring a debate on work-life balance, mental health and productivity.

Many studies have shown that longer working hours do not mean more productivity.

Let’s take a closer look.

How 40-hour work week come to be

People used to work 10-16 hours every day in the late 18th century to run the factories 24/7.
However, these hours were inhumane and unsustainable. As a result, more factory workers started joining trade unions and holding protests to demand higher wages, reduced work hours, and better working conditions.

In 1926, the US industrialist Henry Ford introduced a five-day 40-hour week for automotive workers at his factories. This resulted in increased productivity and boosted profits for Ford Motor Company.

In the 1930s, shorter work hours reduced accidents by 41 per cent at Kellogg’s, as per The Guardian. 

Eventually, a 40-hour work week was widely adopted. In the past century, average working time has fallen in major economies. However, in the 70s, this decline stagnated despite an increase in productivity.

With the advent of digital technology, office workers have started feeling the pressure to always remain contactable.

Now, some business leaders are again promoting longer work hours .

Long hours, poor performance

People work for long hours for various reasons. For some, it could be personal ambition, while for others, it might be the authoritative figures in their companies who do not let them have a work-life balance.

Whatever the reason, overwork is bad news for both the employee and the employer.
Many studies have shown long hours hamper an individual’s performance.

In 2023, a survey by Slack, a workplace messaging app, of 10,000 desk workers found that employees who logged off at the end of the workday reported 20 per cent higher productivity scores than those who feel obligated to work after hours.

These people who felt the need to stay logged on after hours also complained of twice the work-related stress and burnout levels than their peers who logged off on time.

“The conventional wisdom for productivity has always been if you want to produce more, just work more,” Christina Janzer, senior vice president of research and analytics, told Forbes at the time. “This is our opportunity to myth-bust. More hours don’t necessarily mean better productivity.”

A 2014 study found that employee output declines sharply after a 50-hour work-week, and falls steeply after 55 hours.

According to a Boston University study of consultants, managers could not distinguish between those who actually worked 80 hours a week and those who only pretended to do so.

“When you look at all the evidence, anything over 40 hours, it can mean that there’s less productivity,” Jennifer Moss said on an episode of The 80 Percent podcast. “We start to get really fatigued at about 50 hours. And basically at 60 hours, you might as well have not added that last 10 because it really just does make us so exhausted and burned out.”

A 2023 research from the business-to-business marketplace Expert Market revealed that countries with fewer working hours produced more amount of money per person, per hour than those with more hours.

Longer hours have also been linked to absenteeism and employee turnover.

Health impact of overwork

Overworking employees do not benefit the company. Research shows that working long hours leads to stress and burnout, triggering several health problems including impaired sleep and depression.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

A WHO research warns that working 55 or more hours per week enhances the risk of stroke by 35 per cent and the risk of dying from heart disease by 17 per cent.

Working for long hours is counterproductive.

“The simple reality is that work, both mental and physical, results in fatigue that limits the cognitive and bodily resources people have to put towards their work,” Ken Matos, senior director of research at the Families and Work Institute think tank, told CNBC in 2015. “When they are not thinking clearly or moving as quickly or precisely they must work more slowly to maintain quality and safety requirements.”

Ideal work hours

While some want employees to work long hours, many developed countries are experimenting with a four-day workweek. Belgium has already introduced it, while countries like the United Kingdom and Germany are testing the concept.

Some countries have already found work-life balance.

According to a study by time management expert Laura Vanderkam, employees who work 7.6 hours per day feel they have the most time. This translates to a 38-hour workweek, which is similar to Denmark’s 37-hour official workweek. Notably, Denmark is one of the happiest countries in the world.

“When it comes to your work, try to work part-time, 30–35 hours a week on average,” happiness expert Dan Buettner says.

Managers and employees have to join forces to ensure a work-life balance. No one will gain if you work yourself into an early grave.

With input from agencies