Ex L&T employee supports chairman’s call for 90-hour week, but says ‘it wasn’t for me’ | Trending

A former employee of Larsen & Toubro has backed chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s call for a 90-hour work week, saying it is in sync with the construction firm’s requirements. Amey Kulkarni spent two years working with Larsen & Toubro.(X/@amey_candor) Amey Kulkarni spent two years with L&T, during which time he was expected to work on Saturdays like other employees. In an X post shared yesterday, Kulkarni acknowledged that working on Saturdays was taxing and irritating. Even so, he backed the chairman’s call for working on not just Saturdays but also Sundays. What L&T chairman saidFor some context, Kulkarni was speaking in the context of the recent controversy generated SN Subrahmanyan’s remarks during an interaction with employees. The chairman of L&T was asked why Larsen & Toubro, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, was still making its employees work on Saturdays. Subrahmanyan replied that he regrets not being able to make his employees work on Sunday too. “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy, because I work on Sundays,” Subrahmanyan said. “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife?” His comments sparked a massive conversation on work-life balance and irresponsible statements from people in power. Several top business leaders like Adar Poonawalla and Anand Mahindra took swipes at Subrahmanyan’s comments, while some like Harsh Goenka straight up criticised him. In support of L&T chairman’s call for 90 hour workweeks However, Subrahmanyan has found support from unlikely quarters – former L&T employee Amey Kulkarni. Kulkarni worked at L&T between 2015 and early 2017, during which time he also interacted with S N Subrahmanyam a few times. The former L&T employee said that Subrahmanyam’s 90-hour call is in sync with what his company requires. For some context, he asked readers to imagine L&T is building a metro in their city. “If L&T works during the night, your metro will get built in half the time. This means metro functional in 5 yrs vs 10 yrs – BIG difference,” he explained. He added that L&T is a “hierarchical organisation like the army,” where knowledge, creativity and brilliance may not matter as much as work ethic and discipline. “For educated, middle class, non-software engineers, Larsen & Toubro is one of the best places to work for life,” he concluded. L&T is best known for its engineering and infrastructure projects, including constructing large-scale buildings, airports, highways, bridges, metro systems, and industrial facilities. Post sparks backlashPeople in the comments section did not buy Kulkarni’s argument. Many people pointed out that there are several organisations, like the Railways, that work 24×7 but don’t expect their employees to put in 90 hour weeks. Instead, these organisations hire more people and implement a roster system so everyone works a reasonable amount of time. Responding to one such comment, Kulkarni said that people who have not built large conglomerates like L&T should not be overly critical of how they run their company. At the same time, he admitted that working 90 hours a week did not suit him. “90 hr workweeks were not for me. It’s my good fortune I am not longer working with L&T and found something more meaningful to do,” he said. Another person asked him why he quit after 2 years if it was such a great place to work. “It was not great. Thank God I found something else to do. (Work and culture were not suitable for me),” Kulkarni replied. (Also read: L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyan paid ₹51 crore as salary in FY24, while median salary of employees was…)