Society is at a stage where we consider outrageous statements by political leaders a fact of life and a sad reality of the level to which public perceptions have descended. Chants of ‘goli maro salon ko’ raise only muted protests and appear to be a qualification for ministership. ‘Batenge to katenge’ is looked upon as a clever slogan. Even a politicians’ suggestion to rape victims to address the perpetrator as ‘bhaiya’ to cope with the offense merely arouses passing amusement rather than denouncement. Such warped lines of thought are par for the course for political advancement. However, when someone of the ranking of L&T Chairman, S N Subrahmanyan suggests that employees should work 90 hours a week, and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy’s advocates 70-hour workweeks, this hammers at the boundaries of logic and indeed sanity. The TCS
Managing Director and CEO, K Krithivasans’ defense of the statement only added to the incredulity.
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The L&T top brass immediately came to the rescue of the chairman after his comments raised an uproar in corporate and social media circles. “Extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary efforts” said one. “Nation building is at the core of our mandate,” said another. Issac Asimov termed this “pygmy patriotism.” Contrast this with the Microsoft conference in 2014. Satya Nadella, was responding to a question on how to tackle gender pay disparity that women faced. He dismissively replied that they should ‘trust karma and believe that the system would fix it over time’. An uproar followed, but within hours, he issued a formal apology on the Microsoft website stating that his reply was completely wrong, and proceeded to explain his belief in equal pay for equal work. Neither his apology or explanation were left to underlings. In case of L&T, social media was quick to raise other issues. The Chairman got a 43% increase in his salary which was 543.57 times the average salary of L&T employees. I wonder what the reaction of these employees was to the suggestions of the ‘boss’.
Quite apart from the impracticality of the suggestion, it quite clearly flouts labour laws. But the most serious and often ignored issues pertain to the health impact of what has been proposed.
In 2021, a detailed report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), found that working 55 or more hours per week increases the risk of stroke by 35% and the risk of dying from heart disease by 17%. “According to the above-described criteria for proceeding to estimation, WHO and the ILO have been able to calculate the burdens of disease for the category of exposure to long working hours of ≥ 55 hours per week and the health outcomes of stroke and ischaemic heart disease,” it says. The report had taken into account global disease and injury burden that was linked to jobs from 2000 to 2016. It found that 1.9 million deaths worldwide had been officially linked to work-related causes.
The most common diseases linked to overworking include heart disease, strokes, diabetes, anxiety, depression and more. Let us look at heart disease. The report calculated how working long hours can impact an employee’s heart health. With ≥ 55 hours a week, there was sufficient evidence of the risk of ischemic heart disease. Working overtime can lead to chronic stress, which spikes the body’s cortisol levels, and that can in turn increase blood pressure and heart rate, both of which raise the risk of heart disease.
For employees working over 55 hours a week, the chances of life-altering conditions like strokes become more probable by 35% going by the WHO report’s estimate. Working a 90-hour week roughly amounts to logging in for an approximate 13 hours a day. A study published in BMJ Diabetes Research & Care, and quoted by TIME Magazine, found that “women working more than 45 hours a week had a 51% higher risk of developing diabetes during the study period compared to women working 35 to 40 hours a week. (That was after the scientists adjusted for other potential factors that could affect diabetes risk, including physical activity, BMI and smoking)”. This is due to the fact that working extra-long hours can lead to people skipping meals, which in turn can cause their blood sugar to fluctuate or drop. This results in low energy levels, which is counter-productive in any case, and may even cause unhealthy eating later in the day.
Another effect of persistent high cortisol levels, experienced by those working long hours is a phenomenon referred to as “increased brain fog”, a direct consequence of sleep deprivation. According to the Mayo clinic, during sleep, your immune system releases proteins called cytokines, which your body requires when it has to fight off an infection or inflammation, or deal with stress. “Sleep deprivation may decrease production of these protective cytokines. In addition, infection-fighting antibodies and cells are reduced during periods when you don’t get enough sleep. So, your body needs sleep to fight infectious diseases. Long-term lack of sleep also increases your risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) disease,” the report says.
Research by the National Institutes of Health suggests that a 90-hour week runs the risk of mental health problems that include chronic stress, which leads to irritability, and burnout. Being “in work mode” for such prolonged periods leaves little room for destressing, rest and recovery. The risk of depression and anxiety disorders increase, and can induce negative factors like social isolation, reduced job satisfaction, and a diminished sense of fulfillment; all of which are detrimental to one’s mental well-being.
In short, just “staring at your wife, or the wife staring at her husband” on Sundays has much to recommend it!
(The author is a past IMA Goa State President, a founder member of VHAG and past President, and a past member of the
VHAI Central Executive Committee)
