'Love Staring at Wife, She's Wonderful': Anand Mahindra Weighs in 90-Hour Workweek Debate

New Delhi: Joining the ongoing debate on the 90-hour workweek, Mahindra Group Chairperson Anand Mahindra took a subtle jibe at Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s recent comment. Speaking at a media event on Saturday, Mahindra asserted that the focus should be on the quality of work rather than the quantity. During the event, Anand Mahindra also shared how much time he spends on X (formerly Twitter). 

"I often get asked how much time I have to spend on social media. I want to tell people that I am on X or social media not because I am lonely. My wife is wonderful, I love staring at her. So, I am not here to make friends, I am here because social media is an amazing business tool."    

Mahindra also said that the ongoing 90-hour workweek debate was wrong because it emphasises the quantity of working hours. "I have huge respect for Narayana Murthy (founder of Infosys) and others. So let me not get this wrong, of course. But I have to say something, I think this debate is in the wrong direction," Anand Mahindra told the youth.

"My point is we have to focus on the quality of work, not on the quantity of work. So it's not about 48, 40 hours, it's not about 70 hours, it's not about 90 hours," Anand Mahindra said.

He said that it depends on the output of the work. "What output are you doing even if it's 10 hours? You can change the world in 10 hours." 

Notably, several countries are experimenting with or have adopted a four-day workweek. Anand Mahindra said he always believed that one has to have leaders and people in their company who make wise decisions and choices. Expanding onto which kind of mind makes the right choices and right decisions, Anand Mahindra said it is a mind that is exposed to holistic thinking that is open to inputs from around the world.

"That is why I'm for liberal arts. I think even if you are an engineer, even if you're an MBA, you must study art, you must study culture," Anand Mahindra said. "Because I think you make better decisions when you have a whole brain when you are informed about arts and culture, that's when you'll make a good decision."

"If you don't, if you're not spending time at home, if you're not spending time with friends if you're not reading, if you're not, if you don't have time to reflect, how will you bring the right inputs into making a decision?"

Citing an example about his auto manufacturing business, Anand Mahindra said to manufacture a car for a family one must understand the family's needs. "Let's take our business, you make a car. We have to decide what a customer wants in a car. If we are only in the office all the time, we are not with our families, we are not with other families. How are we going to understand what people want to buy? What kind of car do they want to sit in?," he argued.

In the same breath, Anand Mahindra quoted Mahatma Gandhi. "Open your windows, let the air in. You cannot be in a tunnel all the time," Anand Mahindra said, reiterating his support for quality of work instead of quantity.

Anand Mahindra was asked in a quick follow-up about how many hours he puts in. He avoided a direct answer and instead said quality was important.

"This is what I want to avoid. I don't want it to be about the time. I don't want it to be about quantity. Ask me what's the quality of my work. Don't ask me how many hours I work," he said.

Infosys's Narayana Murthy and Larsen & Toubro Chairman SN Subrahmanyan recently advocated for a long workweek. The remarks snowballed into a controversy, with many criticising them over work-life balance.