A while back Infosys founder Narayana Murthy mentioned that he was disappointed when companies moved to a 5 day work week. He had also said youth should work for 70 hours instead of 40 a week. The simple question is “why..?”
Our body & organs have to work 24 hours a day. It stops life stops. If we need our body to work properly we need 8 hours of sleep. Which is 56 hours a week. Remaining 168-56 = 112 hours. Take the 70 hours out. That leaves us with 42 hours.
It is said we need 1 hour exercise a day which is 7 hours a week. Remaining we have 5 hours left a day. Oops we have to commute as well. Can I put 1 hour daily. People have to drive & don’t have chauffeurs. I know folks who commute 1-2 hours & more one way daily. Let us for the time ignore them.
So we have 4 hours remaining per day. Let me list a few things human beings want to do in order to be human & make this life meaningful.
1. Take time to eat (slowly savoring)
2. Cook (everyone should)
3. Love (near, dear & strangers)
4. Make love (we don’t enough 😁)
5. Spend time with friends
6. Read (extensively)
8. Be creative (in all ways)
9. Enjoy others creativity (all type)
10. Ponder about life (and meaning)
11. Grieve on our losses
12. Exercise Parenting
13. Volunteer for causes
14. Read and understand news
15. Be involved in society and politics
16. Have coffee or drinks or just water
17. Learn in order to improve
18. Enjoy life (is that ok sir)
19. Travel ? ( to see places)
20. Listen to people patiently
I can go on. But if someone can’t do the above 20 why should someone work for 70 hours ?
If your work life is 55 yrs 20-75 yrs when we have skill & health, we have 475k hrs and according to your ask of 70 Hr weeks & if we want to keep our body functioning for 24 Hr a day we are left with 99K hours to live. 20%
Do something for 80% of our life to maintain life for 100% of time so we can truly live for 20%. Why…? The math does not add up.
I am not saying we should not work. In fact I love to work and many people do. They find purpose in creating value. But we need to talk about making things easier, reducing waste, making meetings effective & so on. Prioritizing where our time is spent.
We have a long way to go in our journey to be efficient. Let us go forward & not backward. But yes social media is a big productivity killer. Can we help people how to make a 40 hour week effective and efficient. Your statement itself is a big productivity killer.
My post is a man‘s view on this, so maybe ask a few women; as biologically women need more time off in a year 🙏
To put in context I don’t work 70 hours a week… I work around 100 hours I think… that includes the time I spend with my friends when I even dabble on poetry that time. It makes me a better employee, colleague and a better human being… I think so… Again it is my opinion…
I am no authority on workweeks. nor on human beings… I just help teams and organizations create value… and make some of my colleagues feel better being at work…. some of them… not all I am sure…
Our mom died on Oct-23 and both me and my sister were at work on Nov 5th because we love the people we work with… people matter… their happiness matter… their life matter…. their perspective matter.. and companies that take care of their people
matter a lot…
When I left India both me and my sister wanted to get back to our colleagues.. and our work… and we love them both…
I still remember my sister talking of her interaction with her manager after our mom‘s passing. I shared the same experience with her about my manager.
We work with people who understand people… that is what matters.. then every waking hour is productive… 👍
Dear Corporates and Leaders…
You don‘t take life from us…
We give our life to you..
Get good managers and train them to be really good compassionate considerate understanding human beings 🥰
Wish you all a great 2025 ahead where you enjoy your work and deliver value and not lame hours behind a desk.
Penpositive 
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