90-hour work week debate: Ad guru Piyush Pandey advises L&T to rename company to Lynch & Torment

Piyush Pandey, Chief Advisor at Ogilvy Advertising, suggested that L&T rename the company to “Lynch & Torment” in response to Chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s controversial comments about a 90-hour work week, which have sparked social media outrage.

Pandey believes the name change would better reflect the company’s approach, which he describes as “lynch and torment thinking.”

Pandey said, “To my mind, the quality of work is not number of hours. It’s not work-life balance, it’s heart-and-mind balance. And if you have to appeal to the heart and minds of people to get the best work out of them, it’s not because number of hours. I am sorry, it is completely incorrect. If I am in advertising, yes, I can have weird hours. That doesn’t mean that I work for 90 hours a week, there will be moments when all of us need to get into the thing and do something else said.”

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Devina Mehra, Founder of First Global, stated that studies show it’s not possible to work productively for 70 or 90 hours a week consistently, as humans are not capable of such a workload.

She described the notion as “complete bunkum” and stressed the importance of prioritising what is important. While acknowledging that long hours are sometimes necessary early in one’s career, she does not believe in promoting such a culture in her organisation.

Mehra also pointed out that those advocating for 70, 84, or 90-hour workweeks are typically married with children, implying a privilege where someone else manages home and child care.

She argued that no nation has progressed to a middle-income stage without female labour participation and highlighted the need for greater involvement of women in the workforce.

She further noted that unless there is a social revolution where men share domestic responsibilities, such a perspective remains biased.

Neeti Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital, expressed concern that this approach would be detrimental to increasing women’s participation in the workforce. She acknowledged the notion of privilege but emphasised that in India, the primary caregiver in any family is still a woman, a role that is unlikely to change soon.

While there may be some shift in urban areas, it remains unchanged in tier-two and tier-three cities. Even with help at home, the primary responsibility falls on women.

Sharma pointed out that expecting both male and female colleagues to work 90-hour weeks would disproportionately impact female colleagues, as they would not be able to dedicate that much time, ultimately working against them.

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