BharatPe CEO says 90-hour week difficult to clock in, work quality matters

Amid a raging debate in India Inc over 90-hour work week, BharatPe CEO Nalin Negi has said that quality matters more when it comes to measuring outcomes and productivity of employees at workplace, not long hours clocked in, as he emphasised that fintech firm does not have such extreme work hour expectations.

The comment assumes significance as it came at a time when there is a spotlight over gruelling work hour expectations in corporate India, after L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan expressed regret over not being able to make staff work on Sundays.

Negi told PTI in an interview that quality of work is "paramount", not the number of hours.

"Ninety hours is quite a number of hours to put in, and becomes very difficult. So I would say (it is about) quality... quality matters," Negi said.

The BharatPe top honcho said that the debate around work-life balance has always been around, and that as a young organisation, BharatPe aims to provide a comfortable and enabling setting where employees can put in their best.

"Young organisations can foster career trajectory in a very, very different way, because you have different people. Larger companies have built this over a period of time, they have people and attract talent of a similar nature, (in a) cookie-cutter approach," he said.

Six-year old BharatPe is looking to build a culture that is not rigid, he asserted.

"We are six years old, and I would definitely like BharatPe to be known as an employee-friendly company, a company that offers careers to people, not jobs. So our focus is on that," he said.

The company does not believe in a 90-hour work mandate, Negi said, adding "I don't think...90 hours is possible".

"A happy employee will give you a lot... someone who is involved and enjoying his or her job, if they have something (urgent), they will do it. You don't even have to follow it up," he said.

Earlier this month, Larsen & Toubro Ltd chairman sparked off a debate with his suggestion of a 90-hour workweek, including Sundays, to maximise productivity.

A social media outrage followed with many questioning the fairness and ethics of such an extreme and demanding work model. Public figures across sectors waded in on the debate too, with many prominent voices expressing concern on excessive work hour narrative, while some championed hustle culture.

RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka had taken X to express his reservation about the concept. "Working hard and smart is what I believe in, but turning life into a perpetual office shift? That's a recipe for burnout, not success. Work-life balance isn't optional, it's essential. Well, that's my view!" he wrote.

Marico Ltd Chairman Harsh Mariwala too had penned a post on X saying, "Undeniably, hard work is the backbone of success, but it is not about the hours clocked in. It's about the quality and passion one brings to those hours".

ITC Ltd Chairman Sanjiv Puri recently said empowering employees to realise their potential and accomplish their jobs well was more important than the number of hours put in.

Issues such as long work hours and work-life balance have been an intense topic of discussion, resurfacing time and again. Earlier, Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy had suggested that youngsters should be prepared to work for 70 hours a week to boost productivity.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk too has been a believer in tough working hours. "There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week, Musk had said in a post in 2018.