Naukri.com boss Sanjeev Bikhchandani supports Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour work week concept

Ever since Infosys founder Narayana Murthy spoke about '70-hour work week', a debate has started in India with for and against camps being equally vocal with their opinions and reasoning. The debate has now seen the entry of one of India Inc's top names. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the chairman of Naukri.com, a major job-search platform in India, has weighed in favour of Murthy. Bikhchandani emphasised that in India, you will have to put in the hours if you wantto succeed.

"You can't push off at 5 pm and say 'ab ho gaya' [now I am done]. You can't say 'Saturday, Sunday main kaam nahi karta' [I don't work on weekends]. Apko karna padega [you will have to], if you want to succeed," Mr Bikhchandani said as he spoke on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast.

He stressed that an entrepreneur absolutely has to put in that extra effort in the initial years when he or she is building their startup.

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"Ek kamyab entrepreneur dikha do [show me one successful entrepreneur] who in the first 5-10 years did not have this work ethic and succeeded. It doesn't happen. So, nobody is saying work 70 hours by the clock, but you may have to," he said.

'Work-life integration'

Bikhchandani said that it is extremely tough in the initial years to achieve work-life balance. He opined that in initial years, one should look at what he called 'work-life integration'.

"If you look at any entrepreneur in India right now who has succeeded, ask 'tune kitni mehnat ki' [how hard have you worked?]. He will say 'maine bahot mehnat ki' [I have worked very hard']. Because to make something work in India you got to put in the hours. The truth is if you're doing a startup, there is no work-life balance. There's only work-life integration. You live for your work for the first few years," said Bikhchandani.

"70 hours a week is not religion. I think the concept was to be prepared to work as hard as required and that may be much harder than you're working right now. Aapko mehnat karni padegi [you will have to work hard]. Hopefully, you won't mind doing it, because you want to build that startup. This is not a lecture, this is reality,” he added.

Narayana Murthy said a few months ago that he used to work for 85-90 hours a week till he retired. He opined that professionals should look at working at least 70 hours a week.

He later clarified that the specific number of hours was not the focus of his comment but a push towards working hard and being productive was.

(With inputs from agencies)