A 56-second video of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Chairman SN Subrahmanyan triggered a war of words on social media after he was allegedly heard saying, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife?”

This sparked outrage and raised discussions on work-life balance. The video was recorded while Subrahmanyan was on a video call with another employee.

During an employee interaction, Subrahmanyan was asked why Larsen & Toubro, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, still requires its employees to work on Saturdays. Subrahmanyan replied that he regrets not being able to make his employees work on Sundays as well.

“I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be happier, because I work on Sundays,” Subrahmanyan was heard saying in a video that was widely circulated on Reddit.

“What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife?” the chairman of L&T asked. “Come on, get to the office and start working.”

Subrahmanyan further gave the example of his interaction with a Chinese person who claimed China could beat the United States of America. When asked why, the Chinese man explained that Chinese people work 90 hours a week, while Americans work only 50 hours a week.

“So that’s the answer for you. If you have got to be on top of the world… You have to work 90 hours a week. Get going, guys. Come on,” he said. So unfortunate, we have such business leaders!
I think we must call them “leaders in baby diapers” 🙂 I had a few close friends who worked at L&T Madras. About 10 years ago. Going by what they said about the work culture, I felt it was like an adults’ kindergarten, said a user.

While another wrote, “LnT came to my college for placements and offered a CTC of 6 Lpa and this clown expects us to work 90hrs a week for mere 6lpa. What’s wrong with Indian chairmen and CEOs. This actually shows the pathetic state of labour laws in India.”