The chief honcho of one of India’s largest corporate entities, S.N. Subrahmanyan of Larsen & Toubro, has riled a whole lot of people for making a couple of ill-advised statements recently. At the outset, I wish to make it abundantly clear that, notwithstanding that he spells his surname the same way as I do, we are in no way related or connected. He has been reported as saying two things that got the goat of many observers. Firstly, that all companies should make their staff slog for 90 hours every week, Sundays presumably being optional, or even included. It is not clear from the reports if public holidays such as Holi, Deepavali, Christmas and Id, as per Chairman Subrahmanyan’s diktat, should also be barred from his employees’ enjoying a bit of R & R with their families and friends.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s slave driver, Simon Legree of Uncle Tom’s Cabin notoriety, comes irresistibly to mind. As if cracking the whip all year round was not bad enough, the company’s chief whip (a serendipitously apposite description) went on to question the dubious pleasure of sitting at home and staring at his wife all the livelong day. To be fair to the man, he added that this will be equally tiresome for the wife who might wish for nothing more than for her hubby to leave her alone to take out their second chauffeur-driven limousine, indulge in a bit of luxury shopping and live it up at a gossipy hen party with other happily marooned ladies. Closely reasoned, but his pronouncements did not sit well with the public at large.
As usually happens when such quotes, perhaps given in a hasty and irreflective moment get wide traction, the author of said quote is likely to claim that that was not what he meant and that he has been quoted out of context. A standard, anodyne response. Pull the other one, say I. Things said on the spur of the moment are often to be repented at leisure. Anyhow, a clutch of other top-notch executives around the country joined the fray and, for the most part, decided to play safe and delivered Subrahmanyan a broadside for making unsustainable demands on an already overburdened work force. Be that as it may, speaking for myself, I am happily retired with no personal stake in matters concerning an employee’s working hours. During my working days, weekends were sacrosanct, when bosses and their ambitious underlings headed for the golf links at the crack of dawn, played 9 holes and headed straight for the bar, leaving their golf widows at home. A rarest of rare ‘hole in one’ earned you free drinks from your colleagues for as long as your liver would allow. We live in far more straitened times. This is based on reliable hearsay as I was not remotely interested in golf and was, for the most part, abstemious.
The newspapers, social media and most television channels have already covered this corporate contretemps with varying observations, some deadly serious and others, trying to look at the lighter side of things. As an irrelevant aside, a former friend and colleague of mine who had worked briefly at Larsen & Toubro, told me that the company employed so many Sindhis and Tamilians that they code-named it Larsani and Toubrohmanyan! True story, which inspired the headline to this piece.
The fact that the wife-staring utterance attracted far more media attention than the ‘90-hour week’ remark, speaks for itself. For myself, I thought it might be a good idea to talk to a few people from different walks of life and see what they had to say about the idea of employees working round the clock, in a manner of speaking, till they are ready to drop. I was privy to a few interesting responses. All names have been changed lest they face the almighty wrath of other workaholic bosses, who are already in a foul mood thanks to their self-imposed, near-suicidal work schedules. I kept the wife-staring bit out as it would have been a needless, frivolous diversion, many of them unmarried or in live-in relationships. My question to all the respondents was the same. ‘It is being mooted that 90-hour workweeks, 7 days a week, should be the way to go if companies are to perform to their optimal potential. How do you react to this idea?’
Sheela (IT Group Head) – ‘The idea, as you so fancifully put it, is not compatible with live brain activity. As it is, in the IT industry, we work our backsides off speaking to people with indecipherable accents in Texas, Ohio, Manchester, Warsaw and many other cities with punishing time-zone differences. Punsishing for us, that is. Frankly, I have no idea how many hours a week my team puts in, even allowing for Sundays off. If it is not more than 90 hours, I will change my name, from the changed name you have already given me. Good night. Or is it good morning?’
Walter (Ad Agency Creative Consultant) – ‘Clients always want to look at everything for approval, from press ad layouts to film storyboards, instantly. Wanted yesterday, as we say in the agency. Which leaves us with no option but to burn the candle at both ends, rum and pizzas supplied on the house and billed as part of creative fees to client. Workaholism feeds on alcoholism. Next morning, bleary-eyed, we make the presentation to the client who rejects the whole damn thing, asks us to come up with a fresh iteration, this time wanted (you guessed it) the day before yesterday. 90 hours, did you say? Piece of cake. After this, we are all hotfooting it to Sri Lanka, Goa being too crowded – for plenty of rum and to sleep like so many logs and work off our giant hangover.’
Ramachandran (Bank Manager) – ‘The order just came in from H.O. 90 hours to be logged each week. I have decided to keep the branch open till 11 pm every day. That way, at least the customers will benefit by taking advantage of the extended banking hours. I have put in a requisition for a sanction of free dinner for all the branch employees. Many of them will then go to sleep, including the security guards. Particularly the security guards, who sit all day long oiling their rifles with no bullets in them. That will put anyone to sleep. The neighbourhood thugs are already planning a big heist. See if I care.’
Avantika (Travel Agency Executive) – ‘As it is everyone is booking their flight tickets online and we have very little work to do. Hardly anyone comes to us for domestic or international bookings. I spend all my time with a group of IT nerds, specially hired for the purpose, to try and virally infect the computer programmes of all the online travel companies, thus forcing customers to come to our office for help. So far, no luck. Brick and mortar will lose out to digital space. We will be lucky if some of us are not apprehended by the cops sooner than later. Can you blame us? If we are forced to work for 90 hours a week, we have to keep ourselves busy. By hook or by crook.’
Banerjee (Retired MNC Director) – ’90 hours? What does that even mean? See my young friend. Back in the day, we clocked in at our office at 9 am sharp. Some good-natured flirting with the secretary, followed by going through some files, dictating a few letters when the tea service arrives. Discuss office politics with a colleague, attend an internal meeting on sales targets, kick some butt, then it’s time for lunch. A short drive home for a bite, a quick gin and tonic and a few drags on my pipe. Followed by a catnap on the heirloom chaise-longue, and back in the office at 3 pm. Somehow the time passes and it’s back home by 5.30 pm, all set to go to the club for a round of bridge with plenty of liquid nourishment. Care for a small one for the road?’
There you have it. You have heard the voice of the people. They are being asked to work for almost 55% of their week hours, all because the man at the corner office has had his fill of staring at his better half with little to show for it. I can do no better than quote the opening lines from Welsh poet William Henry Davies’ Leisure, ‘What is this life if, full of care / We have no time to stand and stare.’
Published with permission from Mr. Suresh Subrahmanyan. He blogs at –https://sureshsubrahmanyan.blog/
