Adar Poonawalla of Serum discusses work-life balance: "No more than eight or nine hours." .

Meeting people and forming relationships for networking or charitable reasons is just as important as office hours, according to the CEO of Serum.

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, emphasized the need for work-life balance and emphasized that human productivity cannot be sustained for more than 8 or 9 hours.

After Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chairman SN Subrahmanyan supported a 90-hour work week and expressed sadness that he couldn't force his staff to work on Sundays as well, Adar Poonawalla made his comments.

Poonawalla emphasized the limits of human endurance in an interview with Business Today. "Humans can't work more than eight or nine hours a day. It's okay to work those hours occasionally, but you can't do that every day.You can't just work in the office Monday through Sunday. That's a little unrealistic," the CEO of Serum stated.

The chairman of L&T faced criticism for his comments regarding workweek hours and for furthering the same point by inquiring about what workers would do if they were seated at home. "How much time can you spend staring at your wife? He had said, "Come on, come to the office, and get to work."

Narayana Murthy supports a workweek of seventy hours.
Narayana Murthy, a co-founder of Infosys, also caused controversy when she supported a 70-hour workweek. He advocated on the country's workers to put in greater hours in order to accelerate India's globalization and help it reach its full potential.

Poonawalla, on the other hand, emphasized the significance of maintaining a work-life balance. "These guys believe that hard effort is crucial; there is no argument or alternative to it. Naturally, though, you must balance your life and have a social life in order to return to work feeling rejuvenated and productive," he stated.

Meeting people and forming relationships—whether with government officials, for charity, or for networking purposes—are just as important as office hours, he said.

Poonawalla did add, though, that the balance varies according on the person's path and stage. "If you are an entrepreneur starting a business, you should put in a lot of effort and go above and beyond.""After that, it's about working smart, working strategically, and producing high-quality work," he continued.

The CEO of Serum also hinted that Subrahmanyan and Murthy might not have meant to work around the clock. "They just meant you have to work hard," he stated.

In the meantime, Narayana Murthy recently clarified his contentious statement regarding a 70-hour workday, stating that it was a "personal choice" and should not be imposed on anyone.

Murthy allegedly stated, "No one can say you should do this, you should not do it."

Gautam Adani, an industrialist, had previously expressed his opinion that work-life balance should be a personal choice rather than a mandate.

Notably, the United Nations reported in 2021 that extended work hours might have detrimental effects on one's physical and emotional well-being.