Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy has been in the headlines largely for pushing for a 70-hour work week, requesting the youth of the country to dedicate all their time for the development of the nation. This is a similar ideology he followed when he was in his prime, and his children were quick to notice.
Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy (PTI)
Narayan Murthy and his wife Sudha Murty in their recently published biography ‘An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy’ talked about the struggles of raising a family along with running Infosys, India’s second biggest IT firm.
The book talks about how Narayana Murthy dedicated all his time to rise Infosys to new heights of success, while his wife and educator Sudha Murty cared children Rohan and Akshata Murty, missing his presence at home.
The Times of India published an excerpt of the book, where Infosys founder’s daughter, “the quiet Akshata”, used to miss her father and once confronted him about his work-life balance.
Akshata Murty, wife of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, said years ago that her grandfather was her “real dad” and Narayana Murthy was her “bonus dad”, who showed up in intervals and tried to make up for it through fun activities.
His son Rohan Murty also confronted him once, asking Narayana Murthy, “Who do you love more — me and Akshata, or Infosys?” The Infosys chairman emeritus, taken aback, said “Of course, I love you both the most.”
Narayana Murthy’s 70-hour work week advocacy
Recently, a statement by Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy stoked a controversy in the corporate world, where he was pushing for a 70-hour work week in India, urging the youth of the country to dedicate all their time to build their companies to further develop India as a nation.
Murthy further said that he himself worked over 70 hours every week for 40 years, saying that his hard work didn’t go to waste. “I used to be in the office at 6:20 am and leave office at 8:30 pm and worked six days a week,” the Infosys founder told Economic Times.
However, his opinion on the longer working hours sparked a debates in the corporate world, where employees figured out issues like mental health, low salaries, job cuts and hostile working conditions as reasons behind why a 70-hour work week won’t work.
