90-hour workweek Flexibility, employee empowerment more important: ITC Chairman

 

 

 

WEIGHING in on the 90-hour workweek controversy, ITC Ltd Chairman Sanjiv Puri said empowering employees to realise their potential and accomplish their jobs well was more important than the number of hours put in. “We would not do that,” he said on not asking employees to put in a particular number of hours at work. We would rather like people to be part of the journey (of the company) and feel passionately involved and kind of feel the urge amongst themselves to make a difference to the enterprise. That’s how we look at it”.

 

The cigarettes-to-consumer goods conglomerate allows a flexible work environment, including work from home on two days every week, he said. ITC, he said, provides a lot of flexibility in working. “Also two days a week, you can work from home,” he said. “So it’s not so much about, you know, really monitoring each individual’s number of hours. It’s more about enabling individuals, helping them to actualise their potential, and then reviewing what goals people have achieved. His comments follow a controversy S N Subrahmanyan, Chairman and Managing Director of India’s largest engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro Ltd, sparked on social media when he said employees should work 90-hour a week including on Sundays rather than sit at home. “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays,” Subrahmanyan said in an undated video of his discussion with staff.