‘Work-life balance is controversial but…’: What Wipro’s Rishad Premji has to say days after Narayana Murthy reiterates 70-hour work week

Rishad Premji’s comments come days after Infosys founder Narayana Murthy reaffirmed his position supporting a 70-hour work-week.

Work-life balance has become a frequently discussed subject lately, with Wipro executive chairman Rishad Premji acknowledging its significance as “incredibly important” whilst recognising it as a “controversial subject”. He maintains that corporate hybrid working arrangements benefit employees.
Rishad Premji’s comments come days after Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy reaffirmed his position supporting a 70-hour work-week and expressed concern about India’s transition from six-day to five-day workweeks in 1986, whilst rejecting the notion of work-life balance.
Post-Covid, whilst Indian IT services companies adopted hybrid working arrangements, organisations like TCS, Infosys and Wipro have increasingly requested office attendance. However, many firms maintain flexibility.
Speaking at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2024, the Wipro group promoter said, “Work-life balance is incredibly important. I learned this very early on in my early days before Covid, which is work life is something that you have to define for yourself, organizations are never going to work at it for you. So you have to define what it means and draw boundaries.”
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Premji noted that the understanding of work-life has evolved significantly. Previously, it centered on office arrival and departure times, whereas now it might involve considerations such as managing “Instagram access at work.”
“The concept of what it means is simply not ours, it is also the freedom of what I can do with my time while at work, but not working,” Premji elaborated.
Premji said, “The one model that IT industry has adopted, and I think the government has been supportive of is a more hybrid model of work. It is a controversial subject. But we, as a company, have said, we won’t be able to come three days a week, but we want you to have the flexibility of having two days on your work place. That certainly helps with the workforce.”
Addressing employee mental health and work-life balance, Premji noted the positive development of companies openly discussing these previously taboo subjects, particularly following the 2020 pandemic.
He highlighted Wipro’s initiative to train managers in recognising signs and conducting open discussions sensitively with staff. “I think are very powerful,” Premji concluded.