After facing strong backlash over its Chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s suggestion to employees to work 90 hours a week — including Sundays, the L&T said on Friday that the Chairman’s remarks reflect the larger ambition of nation-building, “emphasising that extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary effort”.<\/p>\n
In a video message to employees that went viral on social media, Mr Subrahmanyan<\/a> said: “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? How long can wives stare at their husbands? Go to the office and start working”.<\/p>\n “Honestly, I am sorry that I am not able to make you work on Sundays. I will be happier if I can make you work on Sundays, because I work on Sundays too,” said the L&T Chairman.<\/p>\n A company spokesperson said in a statement that for over eight decades, “we have been shaping India’s infrastructure, industries, and technological capabilities”.<\/p>\n “We believe this is India’s decade, a time demanding collective dedication and effort to drive progress and realise our shared vision of becoming a developed nation,” said the spokesperson.<\/p>\n “The Chairman’s remarks reflect this larger ambition, emphasising that extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary effort. At L&T, we remain committed to fostering a culture where passion, purpose, and performance drive us forward,” the spokesperson further stated.<\/p>\n In his video message, Mr Subrahmanyan encouraged L&T employees to work harder. He spoke about a conversation he had with a Chinese man who said that China could overtake the US because of its strong work ethic.<\/p>\n According to Mr Subrahmanyan, the Chinese man said, “Chinese people work 90 hours a week, while Americans work only 50 hours a week.”<\/p>\n The video received a backlash from netizens on social media platforms, including online discussion forum Reddit, with many users comparing it to Infosys founder Murthy’s statement about working 70 hours a day.<\/p>\n From Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone to Harsh Goenka, Chairperson of the RPG Group, top celebrities also condemned Mr Subrahmanyan’s remarks.<\/p>\n “90 hours a week? Why not rename Sunday to ‘Sun-duty’ and make ‘day off’ a mythical concept! Working hard and smart is what I believe in, but turning life into a perpetual office shift? That’s a recipe for burnout, not success. Work-life balance isn’t optional, it’s essential. Well, that’s my view! #WorkSmartNotSlave,” Goenka posted on X.<\/p>\n (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n \u200bLarsen & Toubro (L&T) Chairman SN Subrahmanyan has stirred a controversy with his comments suggesting employees should work 90 hours a week and even on Sundays to remain competitive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After facing strong backlash over its Chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s suggestion to employees to work 90 hours a week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":21231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh.jpeg",1200,738,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh-300x185.jpeg",300,185,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh-768x472.jpeg",640,393,true],"large":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh-1024x630.jpeg",640,394,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh.jpeg",1200,738,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh.jpeg",1200,738,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh-825x575.jpeg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/i8mncg4o_sn-subrahmanyan_625x300_10_January_25-ahUagh-590x410.jpeg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/?author=0"},"category_info":"Uncategorized<\/a>","tag_info":"Uncategorized","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alertindianews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}