'8-8-8' rule is utopian; harmony needed between work and life: Neerja Birla

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The '8-8-8' rule of equally splitting time between work, sleep and leisure for eight hours on each in a day is "utopian" and is next to impossible to practice, philanthropist Neerja Birla has said.

Birla, the wife of billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla and also a mental health champion, has advocated that we need to focus on harmonising work and life in a balanced way.

"...getting the work-life balance, exact 8-8-8 hours, is next to impossible. So, that is a utopian concept. But how we bring about harmony in that (is important)," Birla told PTI Videos in an interview on Wednesday.

The remarks came amid a raging debate triggered by comments from a few C-suite executives or founders, calling employees to put in up to 90 hours of work per week and prioritise work over family commitments on weekends. Some executives have spoken in support of shorter work-days while others are pushing to gauge it by the output rather than hours put in.

"...what we really need to work on is having harmony in working life. How we harmonize that is very important, ultimately it is all about balance," Birla said.

Meanwhile, reacting to the controversy triggered by certain remarks made on 'India's Got Latent' show, Birla underscored the need for educational institutions and also families to ensure that kids speak "right language".

She believes that generally, stress levels have increased a lot and there is loneliness and a lot of anxiety among students.

"A lot needs to be done in that space," she said, adding that under the Mpower initiative, efforts are on to create awareness and capacity building.