The question of 90 hour work week

Is 90 hour work- week sustainable?

It will enhance the crony capitalism and damage the democracy.

The 90 hour work-week is highly debate able after the L&T Chairman's statement. Many Chairmans and CEOs of the top institutions give their responses. Some employees also give reactions on social media. Maximum top executives favour longer hours week and almost all employees wants five days work week. Both have their own point of view. But let's analyse what is good for the country. First take the top executives view that there must be 90 hour work week. They give logic that India is a developing country and if we want to make it developed by 2047, we have to work more and more. They are citing the national agenda of being a developed country by 2047.  Working 90 hour a week means working 15 hours a day from Monday to Saturday. It raises many questions like - Can one work for 15 hours a day countinue for whole week and so on? Can the employees will be paid for these 15 hours, means Is overtime will be paid? Now, let's answer the these questions taking employees point of view - yes, it is possible to work for 15 hours a day but there must be some motivation and willingness to do that. Is there any motivation for the employees? The answer is No. Why ?  Because in  90% of the country's institutes whether private or government, the overtime is not paid. The overtime is unpaid and the unpaid overtime is exploitation. The top executives can work for even 18 hours a day because their nature of work is different from that of an employee's. The top executives' nature of work is more social like meeting, discussion, visits etc. Where as the nature of job of an employee is monotonous and less social. Second thing is that the employees are also not willing to work 15 hours a day. The answer is same because they are not paid for it. So the employees have neither any willingness nor any motivation to work for 15 hours a day. Thus, as a holistic point of view, we can say that the environment is not conducive for it. Here one can easily think that motivation should be there for making the country developed by mixing the patriotism in it. Then, I will say that is it really a patriotism question or something else is there? Even if there is a patriotism aspect, then it must be for everyone not for employees only, means if employees work for longer hours, company get profit and even more profit as it saves by not paying the overtime to the employees and on the other hand the executives get promotion, salary hike and incentives. What a employee get? He/she gets nothing. So the real motive is not patriotism but self intrest of the top executives. Actually these top executives are not bothering about India to be a developed country but the real motivation which ignites their willingness to work 15 hours a day is their promotion, pay and perk hike. Actually, they are riding on the political and economic vision of the country to fulfill their personal materialistic intrest.

Thus, we have understand that why there is a different point of view of the top executives and employees regarding 90 hours work week. Now, let's talk about some other dimensions of the debate. As the top executives give examples of China and Japan's longer work hours to reach at the present economic level. So, I am of the view that Japan worked hard after second world war in 1960-70s. China worked in 1970-80s. This is the time to work hard because the technology was not so advanced. Even India also worked hard from 1990s to 2010. After 2010 their is a huge technological advancements. So, no need to copy the mannual hard work of some countries but need is to work smarter. Now, need to change the mindset that working for longer hours means working more. Working for longer hours is inefficiency. In today's technological era working for 15 hours is inefficiency. Need to improve the working conditions and work life balance. And even if the top executives say that we are talking about working 15 hours a day in a smarter way, then, I would like to say that then create the conducive environment and motivation which can ignites willingness in the employees like you have. 

What happened if the employees work for 12-15 hours a day as they are doing in many institutions and that is even without any pay for overtime. The company will get profit. The top executives will get promotion and incentives. The owners of such institutions will become more wealthy. And the employees will only keep working for their bread and butter. It will only widen the rich and poor gap which is already very high in India. It will strengthen the gap between the two classes rich and poor. Workers will work for making the company owner more rich and they will be more poor. The richest 1% of Indians own 58% of wealth, while the richest 10% of Indians own 80% of the wealth. This trend is increasing consistently, meaning the rich are getting richer much faster than the poor, widening the income gap. Thus, it is going to increase income inequality more in India. Thus capitalism will be strengthened and it will be crony capitalism. Furthermore, this crony capitalism will acts against the democratic values and weaken the democracy. Democracy which gives voice to poor people  and middle-class will be weaken and capitalism will get hold. The weakening of democracy further deteriorates the situation for the employees which are poor, lower class and middle class. So, working for longer hours by the employees without the conducive environment is not patriotism but undemocratic and self exploitative.

Every country have a different economic structure. India's economic structure is much differ than China and Japan's economic structure. So, from India point of view need to ensure technological advancements and adoption, need to work smarter not longer. Need to provide conducive working environment by maintaining dignity and freedom of the employees and better work life balance is necessary for everyone happiness. Only a happy and healthy employees can work with efficiency. The efficiency, not the longer working hours, will move the economic wheel and pave the way for India to be a developed country even before 2047.