‘Utter nonsense’: Shark Tank India 4’s Viraj Bahl shares his take on 90-hour work week

Viraj Bahl, Veeba Foods founder and managing director and Shark Tank India season 4 judge, recently shared his take on the 90-hour work week debate. Bahl said that making people work for such long hours is “utter nonsense”. 

He said that he himself works more than that because he is the biggest beneficiary of Veeba’s success. 

“I think this 90-hour work hour, 90-hour work week, and 70-hour weeks is utter nonsense. I mean it is so wrong, I work more than that, but I am also the biggest commercial beneficiary of the success of Veeba.” Bahl said at an event earlier this month. 

He added that it only makes sense to make people work this hard if business owners and/or companies share the same level of commercial benefit with their employees. 

“Either I share the same commercial benefit with all the 2,500 employees that I have or do not expect them to work for 70 hours. I am very clear about that.”

His take concurs with that of his fellow Shark Tank India judge and Emcure Pharmaceuticals executive director Namita Thapar. She said that expecting employees to invest excessive work hours is a “crock of bull***”. 

Thapar mentioned that while founders and high-level stakeholders have a huge financial incentive to put in long work hours but expecting the same from employees is not only unreasonable but also harmful. She also mentioned that when Emcure went public, the company was valued at $3 billion.

“Obviously, we could work 20 hours a day, which is what we all do. But the employee? Emcure has 10,000 employees. My accountant, for instance, is making a salary. He doesn’t have the same financial upside of putting in that kind of hours. Instead, he’ll face serious physical and mental health issues,” she said. 

Some of India’s corporate giants have advocated for long working hours to boost productivity and growth. While Infosys’ Narayana Murthy suggested a 70-hour work week, Larsen & Toubro chairman SN Subrahamanyan went a step ahead and suggested a 90-hour work week to employees including working on Sundays. 

Last year, Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal supported 70-hour work week and said the concept of holidays on Saturdays and Sundays was brought from the West and should not be there in India.