While the need for work-life balance has been there for quite a long time, debates about it have intensified in the past few months. In 2023, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy sparked the debate with his comment on youngsters working 70 hours per week. In 2024, L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s remarks suggesting employees to work 90 hours per week including on Sundays, added more fuel to the fire. People not only condemned Subrahmanyan’s comments but also questioned Murthy and Subrahmanyan’s unrealistic ideas of long work weeks. More recently, billionaire Elon Musk also shared on X that people at DOGE work 120 hours per week, which shocked many. However, an Indian company is now challenging this norm of long workweeks by slashing its working hours by half!
In a recent podcast, Veeba’s Founder and Managing Director Viraj Bahl dismissed the idea of working 70 or 90 hours per week. Talking about the need for work-life balance, Bahl said that such long work hours are outdated and unfair to workers. And so, at his company they have reduced its workweek to 40 hours. Bahl was speaking to Chitrangada Singh on the podcast The Rockford Circle. Bahl also shared that forcing people to work for such long hours without giving them an equity stake or substantial financial gains in return is an unsustainable approach for a company in the long run.
Bahl also spoke against the hustle and grind culture, which is often glorified. While he agreed that new businesses need extra efforts in the early stages, in the long run the hustle culture becomes counterproductive for both the employees and the company. He also emphasised on the need for balance in all spheres of life.
All about Viraj Bahl
It was at his father, Rajiv Bahl’s company Fun Foods where Viraj Bahl developed an interest in food manufacturing. However, Viraj Bahl studied marine engineering at Singapore Polytechnic and later worked in merchant navy. After being financially stable, Bahl quit his high-paying job and switched to his family business where he helped expand Fun Foods till it was sold in 2008.
Varun Bahl then ventured into the restaurant business in 2009, however it was not successful. Later in 2013, he started Veeba Foods which has now grown into a successful business and has a revenue of INR 1000 Crore.
