This Indian CEO champions the 70-hour grind, dismisses work-life balance as "Western" concept

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What just happened? Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder of Indian tech companies Ola Cabs, Ola Electric, and Krutrim Cloud, is courting controversy with his views on work-life balance – or lack thereof. In a recent interview with ANI News, the CEO doubled down on his support for grueling 70-hour work weeks, claiming he clocks an astonishing 20 hours a day, seven days a week.

"If you have honesty of purpose and clarity of purpose, then you can have the resolve to take it in your stride," Aggarwal reasoned.

"The younger generation today wants a little bit off – I don't agree with this work-life balance concept," he continued in the interview, looking surprisingly well-rested for someone who supposedly sleeps just four hours a night.

This "hustle-harder" ethos isn't new for the Indian billionaire class, with Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy – who happens to be the father-in-law of former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – previously promoting similar views. Even Indian PM Narendra Modi is claimed to have consistently worked 18 hours a day for the past 20 years by party workers.

Aggarwal went on to proudly recount being trolled on social media last year for agreeing with Murthy's stance, asserting that he doesn't mind the backlash because he believes "a generation will have to do penance."

This isn't the first time Aggarwal has stoked controversy with his statements. In May, he threw a massive rant after LinkedIn's AI bot referred to him with gender-neutral pronouns, calling "wokeness" a "Western illness" that doesn't align with Indian culture.

Merely a day later, he announced that Ola would be migrating from Azure – since it's owned by Microsoft which also owns LinkedIn – to its own Krutrim cloud. And on July 6, Ola announced it had ditched Google Maps for Ola Maps for cab operations, claiming that the move is saving the company nearly Rs 100 crore (around $11.9 million) a year.

Indian tech companies riding the recent nationalist wave in the country to sell their products isn't a new phenomenon. Back in 2020, social media app Koo was launched as an indigenous Twitter alternative. The app gained popularity in 2021 due to Twitter's non-removal of some content, which many viewed as "anti-nationalist." But the app was shut down last week with its founders citing high cost of operations.

Aggarwal's disdain for Western influences extends beyond social issues to the tech realm as well. During the interview, he lambasted India's reliance on "techno colonialism" from Western tech giants, lamenting that 90% of the country's digital data is processed and monetized by foreign companies like Microsoft and Google.

While Aggarwal's anti-Western rhetoric is strong, his admiration for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs ironically remains unwavering.

"I use all Apple products and genuinely believe that they are very well-engineered and designed products," he proclaimed on the same podcast, hailing Jobs as "one of the core inspirations" he grew up with.

Masthead credit: Bhavish Aggarwal

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This Indian CEO champions the 70-hour grind, dismisses work-life balance as "Western" concept

 
Good. Time to wake up the snowflake community and get them back to work. People nowadays are getting spoilt with too much pampering and social media arm-chair human rights sympathizers.

**Gets ready the popcorn bucket..**
 
So, if he dies in mid-40-s from heart attack, he should get "Last week not finished" on his tombstone, and a schedule for the next week.

Somehow, prickly wealthy always hurry to impose their wicked views on society, believing their wealth entitles them, no matter how moronic it is.
 
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I find it very hypocritical when someone tries to motivate his employees to do more but does not reimburse them appropriately.
It is like trying to save on food for a cow while motivating it to give more milk. Come on, we can dow it, cow, you just need to believe there is more milk in you.

"calling "wokeness" a "Western illness" that doesn't align with Indian culture"
It does not just align with Indian culture, it does not align with sanity.
I thought, it was very telling when American woke community started very openly showing disdain toward jews, lately.
It proved that it was not about goodness or changing the world for the better, it was about kneeling to a new religion. So, did we really change much from the time we had inquisition and state mandated religion?
 
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VitalyT said:
So if he dies in mid-40-s from heart attack, he should get "Last week not finished" on his tombstone, and a sheedule for the net week.

Somehow, prickly weathy hurry to impose their wicked views on society, believeing their welth entitles them, no matter how moronic it is.
Click to expand...

He's the CEO: none of them are actually there to work long hours, they're there to take credit for those 70 hour weeks for themselves and is probably rewarded with a juicy bonus but actually doing anything productive? Don't think so.

He means he's totally ok with most of his key employees dropping dead in their 40s that's for sure, and like all CEOs he'll talk a great deal about how he came from dirt, from nothing and have an entire PR story about his hard work and ethics but we know it's all bull: CEOs don't get there by working they get there by stepping over people and being ruthless at office (And probably actual government) politics and taking credit for stuff to eventually get paid for other people's work.
 
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Dimitriid said:
He's the CEO: none of them are actually there to work long hours, they're there to take credit for those 70 hour weeks for themselves and is probably rewarded with a juicy bonus but actually doing anything productive? Don't think so.

He means he's totally ok with most of his key employees dropping dead in their 40s that's for sure, and like all CEOs he'll talk a great deal about how he came from dirt, from nothing and have an entire PR story about his hard work and ethics but we know it's all bull: CEOs don't get there by working they get there by stepping over people and being ruthless at office (And probably actual government) politics and taking credit for stuff to eventually get paid for other people's work.
Click to expand...

He also forgets that everything house-holdish is being done for him, and that he probably has no family life. If he has a partner and/or children, they will be eternally thankful for the latter, I guess.
 
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VitalyT said:
So, if he dies in mid-40-s from heart attack, he should get "Last week not finished" on his tombstone, and a schedule for the next week.

Somehow, prickly wealthy always hurry to impose their wicked views on society, believing their wealth entitles them, no matter how moronic it is.
Click to expand...

Sounds about right. My father worked in a lumber mill and one day there was a blizzard that had swept through the area. Barely anyone was able to show up for work and they were going to call it off because they were missing an essential worker to operate a key piece of machinery. Just when management was going to close the mill that day, this one guy who could operate it showed up having made it through the awful conditions to get there. Thanks to him they were able to do some work that day and didn't have to be closed that day, but the guy showed up late so management still docked his pay for being late for work.
 
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"The CEO doubled down on his support for grueling 70-hour work weeks, claiming he clocks an astonishing 20 hours a day, seven days a week."

I call that bullshit. I don't care how much clarity and purpose you have, working 20 hours a day with only 4 hours or less of sleep would affect you mentally and physically. Do we have a problem with people wanting to work? Absolutely. Working a few extra hours when needed is one thing but killing yourself is another.
 
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Hahaha,
"claiming he clocks an astonishing 20 hours a day, seven days a week."
I guess his family (if he has one) is very happy with his 20 hours working day :)

I'm Dutch, and I'm so glad living in a country where the work-life balance is excellent.
Live to work, or work to live... That is the question.

But hey.... to each their own
 
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“The CEO doubled down on his support for grueling 70-hour work weeks, claiming he clocks an astonishing 20 hours a day, seven days a week."

That actually explains a lot. He’s not just another billionaire m0r0n, he’s also a sleep deprived one as well.

I also call horse…radish on his 20h workday. I’ve pulled 14-15h shifts 10 days at the time installing and commissioning production lines in sweltering heat in Texas a few years back. I was much younger and I was still spent after just a few months of doing this, on and off.

He’s probably counting his hours of Bollywood drama bringing in the comfort of his climate controlled mansion as research work or something.
 
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toooooot said:
I find it very hypocritical when someone tries to motivate his employees to do more but does not reimburse them appropriately.
It is like trying to save on food for a cow while motivating it to give more milk. Come on, we can dow it, cow, you just need to believe there is more milk in you.

"calling "wokeness" a "Western illness" that doesn't align with Indian culture"
It does not just align with Indian culture, it does not align with sanity.
I thought, it was very telling when American woke community started very openly showing disdain toward jews, lately.
It proved that it was not about goodness or changing the world for the better, it was about kneeling to a new religion. So, did we really change much from the time we had inquisition and state mandated religion?
Click to expand...
"When you become fanatical about the enemy, you become the enemy." Commander Sinclair, Babylon 5 episode "Infection"
 
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Like "Ultra" sports people can suffer from over training syndrome, I would not be surprised if there is something similar that happens when you work such long and grueling hours. There are cases of people literally working themselves to death. Perhaps this guy is gunning for a Darwin Award.
 
Dimitriid said:
He's the CEO: none of them are actually there to work long hours, they're there to take credit for those 70 hour weeks for themselves and is probably rewarded with a juicy bonus but actually doing anything productive? Don't think so.
Click to expand...
I had an owner of a company tell me he worked 50 hr weeks, M-Sa ten hour days. Guy never once showed up on a friday for work, when he was in the office he was surfing ebay motors looking for parts for his cars. We went to a conference together in CO and bailed two days in to go skiing (his only reason to even go).

This southern end of a north bound donkey can go clean houses for 70 hours per week, than he can call work -life balance being BS.
 
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Guy has just re-invented slavery, but now, he coats this with a nice speech, voluntarily forgetting that people work to live, not the other way round!
He works 20 hours a day? Well, suits him, but he has no right whatsoever to impose his views to others!
A colleague of mine, who recently switched jobs to become a headmaster in a French secondary school, died of a brain stroke 2 weeks ago, because of overwork and stress. He was in his mid-forties...
Maybe he wants to gamble his health because of, but not only, lack of sleep, but that's *his* choice alone!
 
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GreyOmega said:
Sounds about right. My father worked in a lumber mill and one day there was a blizzard that had swept through the area. Barely anyone was able to show up for work and they were going to call it off because they were missing an essential worker to operate a key piece of machinery. Just when management was going to close the mill that day, this one guy who could operate it showed up having made it through the awful conditions to get there. Thanks to him they were able to do some work that day and didn't have to be closed that day, but the guy showed up late so management still docked his pay for being late for work.
Click to expand...

It's all sounding very 'Sixteen Tons' to me, from the subject of the article to the responses and your story about your father. And y'know, my take on that is the kind of language that'd get me banned around here.
It's not a condition I can say I've lived exactly but I got to the same potential end result by other means.
Fwiw, I got a progressive chronic autoimmune illness going by 18. But due to doctors failing (far more by malpractice than lack of knowledge) to diagnose anything for some 21 years I just had to keep on keeping on as hard as I could... and increasingly falling flat. Without a solid diagnosis everybody just gets to seeing you as lazy, worthless and bad times follow. By the time I got one I'd crashed and burned out one time too many, was too far gone on this road to ever be back to full fitness and health again but, man... do they ever quibble over it to this day. Anyway, no surprise I'm an absolute believer in a good work/life balance and the idea that any limits to an ability to maintain oneself can quickly make one no damn good for anything, whether themselves, their kin or an employer. Man cannot live on bread alone and all that.

As for your father, hats off. Sounds very much like my dad and how he'd do... we don't get on so well but I could never fault his work ethic or dedication to his jobs (nearly 50 yrs in building and landscaping, he's 66 now and still going up on roofs!) and he's been poorly served in much the same way tbh.
 
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In an economy that is at the stage where it is focused on production and can mostly afford low wages people need to work more in order to have a bit more than what is needed to survive. Once people have a bit of extra money services and entertainment start to evolve. In a more mature economy where people have a lot more available money it makes more economic sense for people to work less and be able to spend on services and entertainment which becomes a bigger part of the economy than production. In a global economy the problem is that people with low wages aspire to the life of those in more mature economies. Also the production facilities in mature economies become less competitive because of the higher costs that at some point can't be offset by productivity increases.
 
Is it also a western concept to pay employees time and a half or bonus pay past the full time weekly or daily hours threshold to insentify the hours worked? Payment is king if you just want your workers to work insain amount of hours with fair compensation because of culture this is pure BS talk!
You have one life, either you balance it with your family/personal life and work or your just a cog in the corporation wheel that seeps all the benefits. Even the overtime is not worth it I just lost a colleague who was picking up extra hours upstate NY to crash and lose his life at 32 while driving home.
Update even though I have never personally worked full time (>40hrs/wk) since I graduated 16 years ago and am picking up extra hours although it's like 1 or 2 shifts nothing like this.
 
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