Indian-American CEO Calls For Longer Work Hours, Asks Employees To Blend Work With Life

Niraj Shah, Indian-American Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of online furniture firm Wayfair, curated a special message for his employees after the company yielded profitable results. According to CNN, in his note to employees, Mr Shah not only encouraged employees to work hard and be ambitious but also asked them to do more work and blend “work with life”. He told them to not shy away from working long hours and added that there was no historical evidence which showed laziness led to success. 

“Winning requires hard work. I believe that most of us, being ambitious individuals, find fulfilment in the joy of seeing our efforts materialize into tangible results,” the CEO said in a note to employees earlier this month, as per CNN. “Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from. There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success,” he added. 

According to Fortune, Mr Shah also added that the idea staff should not work was “laughably false”. “Hard work is essential for success, and a key part of getting things done,” the CEO said, adding, “Everyone deserves to have a great personal life – everyone manages that in their own way – ambitious people find ways to blend and balance the two”. 

In his letter, Mr Shah also encouraged Wayfair employees to think of the company money they spend as their own and negotiate prices. “Would you spend money on that, would you spend that much money for that thing, does that price seem reasonable, and lastly – have you negotiated the price?” he wrote. 

The Indian-American CEO told employees in his email that the company is back to being profitable. “Together we can win much faster than we are winning now if we all row in this direction together. Let’s be aggressive, pragmatic, frugal, agile, customer-oriented, and smart,” he said. 

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Meanwhile, on the internet, users called Mr Shah’s note “toxic”. “He’s basically saying if you don’t work late then you’re lazy. Long hours don’t prove anything about productivity. It just means you worked long hours!” wrote one Reddit user. “I love when these CEOs talk about ‘winning’ as if the employees get absolutely anything out of the company’s profitability,” said another. 

“If you’re actually being compensated for your time, sure. If you’re making an average salary but dealing with corporate BS, move on,” expressed a third. “I’ll sacrifice the life in work-life balance when the paycheck reflects that it is worth it. I doubt it is for anyone he is giving this lecture to (that he probably thinks is SO inspirational).,” added another. 

Notably, Mr Shah is not the first CEO to glamourise overworking. Earlier, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy said that India’s work culture needs to change and youngsters should be prepared to work for 70 hours a week if the country has to compete effectively on the global stage. He stated that India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world and asked the youth the contribute towards building the culture so that India can compete effectively on the global stage. He also drew parallels with Japan and Germany, two countries that implemented extended working hours after the Second World War.