Why do CEOs and employees Not share the same workday?

A reflection on the widening gap between CEO ideals and employee realities in the race for longer work hours

Tired Worker

It is a Monday morning in a bustling city. A company CEO is chauffeured to work in a luxury car, his phone buzzing incessantly. Eventually, he picks up a couple of calls, finalises a strategy, and listens to the day’s agenda from his secretary—all while comfortably seated in the back of his car. At a signal, next to his car, on a two-wheeler, is an employee of the same company who anxiously tries to attend a call from home but cannot hear anything over the traffic noise. It is a call to inform about the toddler at home who is running a fever, and the family needs guidance on whether to see a doctor. Time stands still at the red light, but the difference in how this time is accounted for is stark. While the CEO’s wait can be added to his productive work hours, the employee’s strenuous time spent commuting to the office is considered a mere logistical necessity that cannot be accounted for in any work done log.

This description illustrates the contrast between the nature of “work” for bosses and employees. When Indian CEOs like Narayana Murthy suggest working 70 hours a week, or L&T Chairman S.N. Subrahmanyan casually mentions enjoying working on Sundays and expecting his employees to do the same, it is time to stop and think. Similarly, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal dismisses the concept of weekends as a “Western import” that should be done away with, conveniently forgetting that automobile technology and the very word ‘Ola’ stem from the Spanish word ‘Hola’ are all Western imports. Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani remarks that spending eight hours with family might result in one’s spouse leaving the relationship. These statements demand scrutiny, not just for their tone but for the disconnection between those at the top and the realities of the workforce below. At this point, we also appreciate and thank the business leaders and celebrities who have called out against the statements made by the above-mentioned business tycoons, emphasising more work. 

The Nature of Work: Boss vs. Employee

For a CEO, work is often a seamless blend of decision-making, networking, and strategising—activities that can happen anywhere, from the back of a car to a five-star hotel. For their employees, however, work is defined by rigid hours, physical presence, and often mundane, repetitive tasks. While a boss may count a coffee meeting as part of their “workday,” an employee spends hours waiting outside the boss’s cabin for a signature, approvals or troubleshooting office technology late into the evening, none of which factors into their formal work hours.

When Narayana Murthy advocates a 70-hour work week or Bhavish Aggarwal questions the legitimacy of weekends, they fail to consider the sheer logistics of the average employee’s life. The 8-8-8 principle—8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest, and 8 hours of personal time—is a utopian ideal even in an 8-hour workday culture. Add in daily commutes, the demands of household responsibilities, and the emotional labour of planning and organising family life, and you quickly see how this principle crumbles under the weight of reality.

The Invisible Labor of the Working Class

Unlike CEOs, many employees juggle dual responsibilities. In a progressive world where partners share household chores, the day does not end after leaving the office. Cooking, cleaning, managing children’s education, and even small but essential tasks like drying the laundry or grocery shopping fill the hours that should ideally belong to rest. CEOs who prescribe longer working weeks usually have the advantage of employing several housekeepers, nannies and personal assistants to manage their “less productive” household chores and work-related clerical tasks, offering them more time and space to focus solely on their professional pursuits. Hence, they may not realise what it takes to bring up a baby, choose the best school, follow up on their mental and physical well-being, their career pursuits and, more importantly, meet financial needs to ensure a smooth completion of these responsibilities. The luxury of having service personnel at one’s disposal to take care of their daily activities may make the bosses believe that their employees being at home is a ‘happy time’ to make merry, stay idol or stare at your spouse.

However, life is more of an intricate balancing act for an average working couple.

Several families cannot afford to engage domestic helpers due to financial and other logistical reasons. I know of couples who are, quite literally, “maids for each other,” splitting household chores in the few hours they have after work. And beyond physical labour lies emotional labour: the constant mental checklist for each day of what needs to be done at work, at home, for the children, and for the future. These unaccounted hard working hours create a cycle of stress and exhaustion that no motivational speech from CEOs can repair or rejuvenate.

Interestingly, I am writing this article during a midnight juggling between supporting my partner in feeding and putting our baby to sleep and completing my academic tasks as a teacher at a university. Moreover, it was at this juncture that I was compelled to reflect and respond to the flurry of comments on “hard work” made by these corporate kingpins in India. 

The Cost of “Hard Work”

The CEOs voicing for longer work hours in a week should be empathetic to realise the ripple effects of their insistence. Longer work hours mean families spend less time together, reaching home late from work results in escalation in ordering food online, the surge in dependency on online learning platforms to complement their children’s learning process, and a larger sense of disconnection. Ironically, most CEOs and Chairpersons benefit from these trends, as their businesses often cater to the carefully created needs of the overworked middle class. It, in turn, kindles speculation that the emphasis on more work is a calculated trap for the working class to spend their hard-earned money on services they acquire because of their lack of time for household responsibilities. 

Besides, imposing one’s ambitions and way of life on others, especially in the name of passion for work and productivity, is fundamentally flawed. We are different people, and our priorities are diverse. It is not everybody’s cup of tea to possess a relentless spirit in pursuit of wealth or success. Even though every employee understands that the world does not belong to those who do not possess material, as stated by Thiruvalluvar in Thirukkural 246, not everyone is ready to make the material by “any means” as they are constantly checked by their middle-class morality that tempers ambition, echoing a sentiment also stated in the second half the same kural that the other world(the world within) with inner peace is not for those do not possess kindness.

A Call for Empathy and Balance

This discourse in the favour of employees does not reject the notion of hard work per se. It is a call for empathy and understanding. Business leaders should realise that their lifestyles and social privileges are not universal. For their workers, labour is often a means to an end, not an end itself. Fostering an inclusive, flexible and balanced work culture that acknowledges individual hardships and priorities, leaders can envision productive workspaces and happier ones. 

The quest for happiness should not be secondary to the pursuit of productivity. A nation’s pride should not be measured in the number of hours its citizens work but in the quality of life they lead. A shift in focus from visualising a “hardworking India” to building a “happy India” should be the preliminary step to achieving a healthy work-life balance. 


Yes, hard work brings success—but we must ask: Whose hard work, and for whom? Reflecting on this should lead to more crucial deliberations on what brings happiness rather than what brings success.

J. Jehoson Jiresh is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies, Christ Deemed to be University, Bengaluru Yeshwanthpur Campus, Bengaluru 560073. The author can be contacted at [email protected] 

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