Narayan Murthy, founder of Infosys, created quite a stir with his recent comments stating that the Indian youth should aim to work at least 70 hours every week to propagate the country’s development.
His comments received immense backlash, especially after Dr Deepak Krishnamurthy, Interventional Cardiologist, Sakra World Hospital, Bengaluru, opinionated on X, “Companies expect people to answer emails and calls after work hours also. Then wonder why young people are getting #Heartattacks?!”
In light of this controversy, Murthy’s wife, Sudha Murthy, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation, in an attempt to reason Murthy’s comments, shared in an interview, “He has worked 80 to 90 hours a week, so he does not know what less than that is." However, her attempts are being met with another wave of backlash, with experts citing the detriments of long working hours, with a recent study claiming that work stress doubles the risk of heart disease in men.
Work Stress Causes Heart Diseases
The study was published in the journal ‘Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes,’ which is on behalf of the American Heart Association (AHA). The study began with the introduction that ‘psychosocial stressors at work, like job strain and Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI), can increase Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) risk.’
Defending Narayan Murthy, Sudha Murthy said, “People have different ways of expression. But he lived like that, he had walked the talk. So, he has shared his experience,” Sudha Murthy added.
However, there is a big difference between ‘wanting to work,’ and ‘being made to work.’
The results of the AHA study are a perfect example of this. The research revealed that experiencing one of these psychological stressors increases the risk of CHD by 49%, and combined psychological stressors increase the risk by 103%. The study found that the risk of CHD is far higher in men than women due to work-related stress.
Also Read: Pepperfry CEO Dies of Cardiac Arrest: Can Work Stress Be the Cause?
Being cognizant of the hustle culture, the statements made by the Murthy couple seem increasingly dangerous, as their harmless recommendations are being made out to be a stern method that is being perceived as a comment against people who do not believe in working themselves to death. The AHA study concluded that early interventions for work stress in men are an effective prevention strategy to reduce the burden of heart disease.
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