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Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy has once again called for longer working weeks has returned, this time with an emphasis on schedules like the 996-pattern used in parts of China.

Murthy's comments revive a debate which began in 2024, when he argued that Indian employees should work 70 hours a week.

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[-] Avicenna@programming.dev 24 points 4 months ago

"Infosys co-founder suggested slavery could be brought back with updated terms and conditions"

This is how this news should be titled

[-] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 18 points 4 months ago

If you follow the standard 5 day business week, that is 70 hours worked for every 50 hours not worked. Account for 8 hours of sleep a night and you have 2 hours a day to commute to your job. Literally zero time for any other needs. And that's ONLY if you are generous enough to give everyone the weekend to recharge.

For a 7 day work week with no days off, allowing for 8 hours of sleep per day and 2 hours of commute time, that is 4 hours a day to do anything else. I also would assume that part of the day would still be considered off hours for lunch. As well. Call it 3 hours a day for anything not work related.

This man should be hanged for even suggesting this as a reasonable productivity schedule for any living being.

[-] pseudonaut@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

No joke, I really do think in a just society he would be hanged.

[-] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 4 months ago

Crunching does not work!

Instead, it reduces productivity to a fraction (often 10% of normal), countering any time added.

You want to improve your productivity, you make your workers happy. Make sure they can eat, have good healthcare, have adequate family life, etc.

We now have studies that counter the crunching myths and time theft myths.

[-] Rooster326@programming.dev 9 points 4 months ago
[-] jali67@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

They’re not invincible. We’re not our ancestors. Look at this little dweeb. Is anyone really intimidated by him?

[-] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 months ago

Is maxxing the productivity top priority?

They might value control over their workforce above productivity.

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[-] theparadox@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

If the workforce makes a pittance and is too exhausted to rebel, the bosses win.

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[-] echo@lemmings.world 18 points 4 months ago

Oh fuck off, asshole... you need to be thrown in prison.

[-] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

He needs to take a long walk, on a short pier.

[-] oxideseven@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

Needs to be shot into the sun. Return his atoms to the foundry

[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

There is a large body of research out there regarding 12h shift work in healthcare. I’m only linking 1 article, a quick search will yield more, easily.

A TLDR on it: 12h shifts decrease performance. Stacking them decreases safety and performance, cumulatively. Car accidents pick up significantly on day 4.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4629843/

[-] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 4 months ago

It’s utter madness that healthcare professionals are allowed to work (in many countries) longer than truck drivers. It’s even more ridiculous that many countries have a medical doctor internship program that is designed by an absolute cocaine fiend assigning 30 hour days - and see nothing wrong with it.

[-] frizzo@piefed.social 6 points 4 months ago

It's almost like the collective bargaining of a union works.

[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 5 points 4 months ago

There’s less errors overall in having consistency in who healthcare reports off to between shifts. The 17% is balanced out by that (math wise). The errors in having 3 people reporting around an 8hr clock are significantly higher than with the 12hr clock.

But a 4th shift? Staying over to 16hrs? The 36hr week, I feel, is the extent to which you can safely take the 12h shift.

Additional madness is in that, in 26 states, the administrators of hospitals can hold shift workers over into double shifts. I don’t know about you, but I lose the capacity to read words around hour 18. Yet, this practice is engaged routinely in health care, without regard to sleep patterns. Maybe it is an 8h shift. Maybe that person spent day shift in school then went to work for an evening shift. Now is being held on their license to stay a night shift. And expected to drive home after more than 24hrs awake. Maybe their babysitter leaves at midnight. How good and safe is that patient care going to be?

[-] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Capitalism protects the capital (goods, and equipment, on a truck), and values human lives at approx $3 million (based on financial cost for the company when a life is lost).

The value of the truck and the contents of the trailer are frequently greater than the value of the driver for a given trip, and therefore justify more caution and care than any given patient in a doctor's office.

[-] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 months ago

US: Truck driver crashing causes property damage, patients dieing causes the bed to open up for another paying customer.

Rest of the world: Shortages due to cost of education along with not enough spots available for said education.

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

CEO: has lunch and answers a phone call. “I’m working!” Writes a proposal from a yacht “I’m working!” Goes golfing with industry buddies. “I’m working!” Paid tens of millions not including stock options. Spends time in the c-suite. Actually is working. Writes a letter about his cubicle slaves who are chained to their cubicle at work, their phone at home, unable to actually use PTO due to fear of negative performance reviews, working 50+ hours on the clock and uncounted hours off the clock “You need to work more!!” With their pay and benefits constantly under assault by managers.

[-] switcheroo@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Go fuck yourself, parasite. Signed, the world.

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 months ago

And management will lead by example right?

...right?

[-] kautau@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

“You worked really hard this year. 60 hour weeks. Impressive but you can do more. See that rolls Royce in the parking lot? If you work 80 hour weeks next year and everything works out, I’ll be able to buy a second one.”

[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Put his ass out there in the field for 70 hrs and see if he keeps preaching it

[-] jali67@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

These people really think they’re invincible. It makes me laugh. There’s nothing special about them. I love how they think money makes them bulletproof or from an angry mob having their way with them.

[-] coffee_nutcase207@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

It's for thee not for me. He knows he will never have too.

[-] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 6 points 4 months ago

Japan has a habit of doing this. The birth rate cratered, productivity is not that great and economic growth is famously low. Most workers do a form of performance theater, an actual "we pretend to work".

[-] filcuk@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 months ago

So stupid. Wasting potential personal time for such theatrics.
They should take inspiration from my coworkers, who don't even bother to pretend.

[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago

A form of wage theft that's common in the US (and elsewhere) is that workers are expected to still do work when they have already clocked out (such as closing up the shop).

I have a Japanese friend who told me that it's not uncommon that if your work colleagues are going to the bar after work, you are expected to go along. If you don't, it shows a lack of commitment to your job. As it's not a formal requirement, of course you don't get paid for this, despite it being functionally mandatory. What's worse is that you can't just stick around for one drink and then head home — you are expected to stick around at least as long as your boss, even if he (let's face it, the boss is probably male) is still drinking long into the night. I consider this to be an especially egregious form of the wage theft I described above.

It sounds so exhausting that I would likely be unable to do anything besides pretend to work, and even that would lead to inevitable burn out. I had heard that the work culture in Japan was bad, but I had no idea how bad until my friend shared some first hand experiences with me.

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

can someone kidnap this motherfucker and make him work normal labor job for 80 hours a week, for a year, and see how much he likes this stupid fucking pants on head idea after that

[-] Knightfox@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

That's the thing, looking at the company they don't work "normal labor" jobs. Infosys is into info tech, consulting, and outsourcing services and looking at their acquisition history I get the impression they buy up smaller companies and consolidate their work into their product. Basically they make websites and tools that your company buys for $100k to analyze and optimize workflow, but the site doesn't work well and they never fix it. After 2 years enough time has passed that the higher ups don't feel embarrassed retiring the software and buying something else. Also, rather than just coding themselves they code with AI or buy other companies that already wrote the code and put it into their own product.

At the end of the day they aren't "working," they are being available. They are the shitty guy who is answering a work call on a Saturday while they are supposed to be watching their kid's ball game. They are the person who has to step out of the movie theater because they are getting an urgent work call at 10 pm on Friday. They are the person who flies back from their vacation two days early because the boss wants to ask about sales numbers. This is how Executive suite types say they work 16 hour days 7 days a week, they count every hour of the day as work because they are available, not because they were being productive that entire time.

[-] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 months ago

Hmm time for the real Indian Revolution for fuck sake. These parasites gotta go.

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[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

Shit like this should be shown to people who argue against unionization.

Remember, the parasites will take everything they can, even if it means their eventual demise.

[-] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

The ultimate goal of capitalism is to have an infinite pool of workers, working infinite hours, for $0.

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[-] __lone_eagle___@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

To be Frank guys this is the sick reality of Indian workers in India. The Labour and Workers are always exploited as much as Possible. Indian Labour Law is mostly in Favor of the Corporate Crooks, even its harder to start a WORKER UNION in Service based sectors like IT and Non coding Jobs. Normal working hours is 8 hrs but most Indian worker in such sectors their minimum working hour is 10hr (Personal experience), even the work environment it evolved into is one Most Sick and Selfish environment you could ever Imagine. Yes, sadly many Indians Lack Civic sense I don't object and we too are being discriminated in a stereotypical way for that. But I must say that many Indians who leave for On-site is not just for higher payroll but for better Work environment and to embrace their basic Work-Life Balance which is a JOKE in India.

~ Random Comrade

[-] Somecall_metim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 months ago

He doesn't work that hard, so why the fuck should we?

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago

He probably thinks he works 80 hour weeks because he is including schmoozing with clients and company paid lunches and dinners as "work"

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[-] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

I do not understand his logic.

Paying someone 70 hours has the same cost as paying two persons 35 hours, right? (In my country technically no, because higher base taxation)

Someone working 70 hours is a mindless drone. This is how you get 13" iPads accidentally sold for 15€ "because the computer said so" (happened in a big box retailer in my country, no human involved in the process objected the price until WEEKS after the sale, when accounting noticed it, and they had to beg customers "pwease return our €1000 iPads and we give you a €25 gift card as a token of gratitude" and everyone just laughed about that)

Especially for developers, for the same price is better to get two that can do tasks with full attention rather than a single one that after 12 hours of job is just mindlessly clicking on "accept" on whatever a LLM is spitting out or half assing solutions because don't have the right state of mind to think for a proper one.

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[-] veeesix@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago

So 6 days of 12-hour shifts? Sounds like a pretty novel way to tank your economy because no one’ll have the time to spend money or raise a family.

[-] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 4 months ago

“Why aren’t the proles making babies? I specifically requested it!”

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 2 points 4 months ago

I learned that China had basically made this shit illegal years ago, but work hours in China are still insane. I am willing to bet that they will still have incredible growth and prosperity even if those workhours are strictly enforced.

People like this dipshit need to be stripped of all possessions and wealth and immured alive.

[-] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yes they are illegal but companies will use workarounds to get people to put in more time. it's a fake law basically

[-] Darkness343@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

70 hours a week? What? So we can just stare at our screens pretending to work for half that time, if not more?

Go to hell.

[-] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

These are the people that own the GIF image format. Pronounced like Giraffe. Not known to many of you. This is the company that twice threatened to sue or sued multiple companies over the use of GIF. The first time was at the birth of the web and the last time was when their patent was expiring. Its the only thing the company has ever really done with a worldwide impact and they shit on it every chance they got.

[-] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Infosys is a shitty boss that would contract for 2 resources but only assign 1 to do the work. That's why he wants 80 hours per headcount.

This is why I'm somewhat happy that AI would render extinct companies like Infosys, Wipro, etc.

[-] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

So what I'm hearing from that headline alone is that he's a psychopath who doesn't work more than 5 hours a week, and what little """work""" he does consists of getting drunk at lunch and moaning to other CEOs about how lazy his workers are.

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this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
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