Amid Narayana Murthy's 70-Hour Work Per Week Remark, How Happy Are Infosys Employees

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy's recent remark about how Indian's should work for 70 long hours a week has initiated debate not only amongst younger professionals but also top corporates, some of who believe that there will be a significant impact on work life balance if anyone spends so much time working.

What is interesting here is 'work' in several organisations is measured by hours spent and not by the outcome. Still, the comment from Infosys founder triggered humongous debate among social media users. Some important names in the industry spoke about impact on mental health of workers if they are forced to work for longer hours.

A physician from Bengaluru in response to Murthy's statement, spoke about rising heart attacks amongst young professionals due to high pressure at work.

Amid the intense debate over the 70-hour work week comment with many pointing out the unreasonability of it, TV Mohandas Pai, the ex-CFO of Infosys, in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) showed data of how many hours urban men work in each state and said Narayana Murthy's advice was for youngsters, people below 30.

How Happy are Infosys Employees

Infosys total number of employees has declined in the past few quarters, the latest would be a decline of 7,530 employees on quarter-on-quarter basis, totaling to 3,28,764 as of September 2023-end. On year-on-year basis, Infosys has let go of a massive 16,454 employees compared to 3,45,218 headcount as of September 30, 2022. However, Infosys headcount drop is more than its biggest rival TCS who registered net decline of 6,333 jobs in Q2FY24. TCS continues to be the largest hirer in IT sector with a total headcount of 608,985 as of September 30, 2023.

Infosys just like its peers struggle with trifecta conundrum of slower growth, challenging macro conditions and weakening in tech spending from clients.

While the attrition is also high, Infosys reportedly gives one of the least amount of hikes to its employees. Surprisingly, Infosys attrition rate has dipped drastically in Q2FY24 to 14.6% in Q2FY24 versus 17.3% in Q1FY24. The company's attrition has contracted by a steeply 1,250 basis points as against an attrition rate of 27.1% in Q2FY23.

Nevertheless, it is being said that Infosys gives one of the lowest salary hikes to its employees. Nearly, 80,000 employees left Infosys last year, according to Quora. The website also mentions testimonials of former employees who said that the annual hike were very less in India at around 5-6 percent for the past few years.

Employees who are sent abroad on H1B or L1 or European work visa received a maximum of 2% appraisal, according to various sources who didnt wish to be named. At a time when inflation around the world is sky rocketing, Infosys, over the years have given its employees far lesser appraisal that its peers.

Reportedly, the IT giant did not give any hike during the pandemic, according to some ex-employees. So an increasing number of workers left the organisation and some moved to startups who usually give their employees higher salaries.

All in all, more number of employees have left the company compared to TCS in the quarter gone by. However, after dry remunerations since pandemic, Infosys recently announced to hike salaries of employees with effect from November 1, 2023. But it has also announced its plan to skipping campus hiring this financial year.

While these indicates the work culture and temperament of the company, it is still debatable whether 70 hour week will do any good or not for people who are already under pressure to finish their work on time.