'Worked 15 hrs a day,' says L&T chairman emeritus AM Naik amid debate over Murthy's '70 hours a week' remark

L&T chairman emeritus A M Naik recently said that he worked 15 hours a day and slept on the office table after long days at work, as he built the engineering giant in over five decades. After putting in 15 hours a day at work, he said he used to go back home and think about L&T for another one hour.

Naik's remarks come at a time when a fierce debate is going on over Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's suggestion that India's youngsters should work for '70 hours a week' to take India to the top in terms of GDP.

Also Read: 'Don't think you need to work so much': Kishore Biyani says number of hours will be same in lifetime

Naik reminisced about his career, starting from how he joined the company, and said he travelled through the night for early morning meetings and spoke about one such meeting in Germany for which he travelled through the night from neighbouring Poland in a car as a 34-year-old.

“When I was a student, I was looking at joining a company which of course gives me an opportunity for technology innovation and engineering excellence, but in parallel, it gives me a platform on a wider scale to help build our nation,” Naik was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Naik also mentioned about certain long days at work which ended well past midnight and his preference to sleep on the office tables on such nights.

Last month, Murthy triggered a debate after he suggested a longer working week, with some endorsing his idea while others disagreeing on the ground that more hours do not mean increased productivity.

In a podcast published earlier this month, Future Group's Kishore Biyani batted for a work-life balance and said one has to elongate the span of working in a very meaningful manner. He said his grandfather had a mindset that whoever came in late after work was good. "Even today, that is happening. These startups don't have to work the entire night and sleep for six hours. I don't think you need to work so much to be successful."

Biyani said his personal belief is that ultimately the number of hours one will put in work over a period of a lifetime is going to be the same. "Aap abhi khatam karo, yaa baad me khatam karo (you finish it now or later)."

What he suggested was that if a person had to work 1,000 hours, that person can do only that much - s/he can do early in the life of later. "Does that mean if I finish those hours now, I won't work later," Shamani asked. To this, Biyani said: "Hoga bhi nhi aap se (you won't be able to do it)".

(With inputs from PTI)