Shantanu Deshpande: Bombay Shaving Co CEO criticised for 18-hour workday advice

Shantanu Deshpande, CEO of Bombay Shaving Company Getty Pictures

A good Indian CEO has been criticised on social networking after he recommended that new employees at any job need to work 18 hours a day for the first four to five years of their own career.

Shantanu Deshpande, who is the particular founder of Bombay Shaving Company, asked young workers to “worship your work” and avoid “rona-dhona (cribbing)” in an online posting. Angry reactions on social media said this individual was promoting a “toxic work culture”. While India provides strong labour laws, their implementation is not always strict.

Within 2020, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy had also faced critique for suggesting that will Indians work for quite 64 hours a week for two to 3 years to compensate for the economic slowdown caused by the particular coronavirus lockdown.

The particular LinkedIn Workforce Self-confidence Index released within 2020 said 2 in five functioning professionals in India were experiencing increased stress and anxiety.

In his LinkedIn post on Tuesday, Mr Deshpande stated it was “too early” for young people to think about maintaining a work-life balance at the start of their careers.

One Tweets user said Mr Deshpande was justifying “toxic work culture” at a time when “mass layoffs by Native indian start-ups has become a tradition. ”

Another consumer pointed out that the Mister Deshpande had not mentioned he would “pay extra” to people who work longer hours.

“Companies have a tendency to exploit those who do [work long hours]. In many cases leading to an earlier burnout, ending that individuals jeopardising their career, ” the user had written.

Following the widespread criticism of his feedback, Mr Deshpande additional a caveat in order to his post.

“Yikes, so much detest for 18-hour times. It’s a proxy with regard to ‘giving your every and then some’, ” he wrote.

He also said these wondering about the function culture at their company were welcome to talk to his workers.

Mr Deshpande’s remarks come at a time when the term “quiet quitting” has taken off on social media. The term indicates doing only what your job demands and nothing more. It started with a movie by an American TikTokker who advised “work is not your life”.

The BBC’s Perisha Kudhail wrote that the overall movement may have its origins in China, in which the now-censored hashtag #tangping, meaning “lie flat”, was used in protest against the long-hours tradition.

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