Sanjiv Puri, chairman of the cigarettes-to-consumer goods conglomerate ITC, has also weighed in on the ongoing 90-hour work week debate. Puri said in a recent interview that rather that the number of hours, it is important for employees to be aligned to the company’s grander vision.
His remarks come amid the raging debate around L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s remarks that employees should work 90-hour long weeks.
“If you ask a mason what he is doing, he might say he is laying a brick, another might say he is building a wall but some might say he is building a castle. It is that vision that workers should have,” he told PTI in an interview.Â
When asked whether this means he would rather not put a number of hours, Puri said: “We would not do that.”
Furthermore, Puri explained that empowering employees with the company’s vision and goal is important.Â
“We use a part of the vision and want to contribute to making the vision a reality. And we enable vitality by our processes, by the resources we provide, by the freedom to act, that we provide, the empowerment that we provide, which are very different and very clear goals for individuals to achieve, and these are the primary things that we look at.”
To make matters worse, Subrahmanyan said that he regrets that he is not able to make employees work on Sundays. An undated video wherein the chairman can be heard making these remarks went viral on social media.Â
He also questioned employees’ need to spend time at home. “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife, and how long can the wife stare at the husband.”Â
Commmenting on the viral video, Puri said:Â “I know that he (Subrahmanyan) has been debated a lot, but let me tell you the philosophy with which you look at it.”