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‘When I joined L&T in 1983, my boss said, if you are from Chennai, you go to Delhi and work. Today, if I take a guy from Chennai and tell him to go to Delhi and work, he says bye,’ says L&T Chairman S N…Read More
L&T Chairman S N Subrahmanyan says the reluctance to relocate is even more pronounced in the IT sector, where employees prefer remote work over returning to office setups.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Chairman S N Subrahmanyan, who faced huge criticism over his 90-hour work week remark, has now made a remark on work from home, especially in the tech industry. He said if you tell an IT employee to come to the office and work, he says bye.
Subrahmanyan, while speaking at the CII’s Mystic South Global Linkages Summit 2025 in Chennai on Tuesday, said, “When I joined L&T in 1983, my boss said, if you are from Chennai, you go to Delhi and work. Today, if I take a guy from Chennai and tell him to go to Delhi and work, he says bye.”
He said the reluctance to relocate is even more pronounced in the IT sector, where employees prefer remote work over returning to office setups.
“If you tell him (IT employee) to come to the office and work, he says bye. And that’s a different world altogether. Therefore, it is a funny world which we are trying to live in and many of us wearing slightly more white hair are trying to understand it. We have to see how to live with this world and have policies which are flexible to understand all this and take it forward,” the L&T chief said, according to an ET report.
He also said labour is not willing to move for opportunities.
“Labour is not willing to move for opportunities. Maybe their local economy is doing well, maybe it is due to the various government schemes,” he said, adding that the shortage of labour would impact the building of India’s infrastructure.
He added that it is difficult to get workers for the construction industry as they are reluctant to travel from their hometown due to a preference for comfort.
Schemes like MGNREGA, JAN DHAN accounts, and direct benefit transfers have likely affected labour mobilisation, Subrahmanyan.
The L&T chief recently faced huge public outcry after his 90-hour work week remark, highlighting a growing concern among the workforce about the sustainability of such demands and the impact on personal life.
He suggested a 90-hour workweek proposal for workers, including Sundays.
His comments, first circulated in a video on Reddit, had suggested that employees should prioritise work over home life, questioning, “How long can you stare at your wife?” Subrahmanyan expressed regret over the inability to mandate Sunday work, stating, “If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy because I work on Sundays.”
In October 2023, Murthy first advocated for the 70-hour work week. He said that for India to compete with the fastest-growing countries like China and Japan, the youth must commit to working 70 hours a week.
