In a world where billionaires casually dispense advice as if life were a board game with preloaded cheat codes, Narayana Murthy's recent 70-hour workweek declaration has stirred a pot of opinions. Enter Namita Thapar, a “founder” who champions the cause of work-life balance for the everyday employee. Of course, it's easy to have this epiphany when you’ve inherited a business empire.
Namita made headlines by asserting that “founders like myself” can handle long hours because they have significant financial stakes. True, it’s much easier to burn the midnight oil when there’s a cushy safety net beneath you—one woven from the profits of your parents’ hard work.
But let’s talk about the real founders, the scrappy entrepreneurs who start from ground zero. You know, the ones who max out their credit cards, live off instant noodles, and hope their landlord doesn’t notice the rent is late. For these folks, a 70-hour workweek would be a luxury. They're putting in 12–15 hours daily, not because they’re chasing “tons of money,” but because anything less means their fledgling business goes under faster than an influencer's career after a twitter scandal.
Namita’s comments suggest a bizarre dichotomy: work-life balance for employees and marathon workweeks for founders. But let’s be honest, most startup founders would kill for the financial stability that regular employees enjoy. Imagine trying to hire someone for your startup, offering them shares in your company (worth approximately zero rupees), and then explaining, “Oh, by the way, we work 100-hour weeks, but it’s all part of the dream!” Spoiler alert: they don’t stay long.
Meanwhile, employees at large companies—where founders like Namita sip artisanal lattes and discuss "stakeholder synergy"—are often shielded from these demands. And rightly so! After all, why should they sacrifice their weekends to build someone else’s empire when they won’t see a cent of the wealth it generates?
Murthy’s advice also seems hilariously disconnected from reality. In an era where quiet quitting is trending and burnout is a badge of dishonor, the notion of working 70 hours a week is about as appealing as using dial-up internet in 2024. Maybe it worked in the 1980s, but back then, a two-bedroom house didn’t cost 12 lifetimes of salary either.
So here’s the truth no one talks about: Work-life balance isn’t a privilege of the rich; it’s the endgame. For many startup founders, there’s no such thing as balance. There’s only survival. And for employees, the idea of working overtime to fulfill a billionaire’s vision is losing its charm.
So, next time someone with a trust fund and a family business lectures the masses about hustle culture, remember this: The view from the top is nice, but only if you didn’t have to climb the mountain with your bare hands.
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