Akash Ambani joins debate over work-life balance, says 'I don't think about it...'

Reliance Jio Infocomm chairman Akash Ambani has joined the debate around work-life balance, emphasising that it is the quality of work that matters rather than the number of hours you put into it. 

"I don’t think about it (timing at work) in terms of timings and the amount of hours. It’s about the quality of work that you do on a daily basis,” Akash Ambani said while addressing the Mumbai Tech Week event.

The Ambani scion was responding to a question raised by Harsh Jain, CEO of Dream 11, on whether he would prefer to work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. 

"I don't think about it in terms of timings and the amount of hours. It's about the quality of work that you do on a daily basis. And I think one of the growth is life is. I know it's supposed to be rapid fire, but I feel very strongly about this answer," he said.

Akash Ambani highlighted that while growth is the motto of Reliance, it is also applicable to one's personal life. "Growth is life is a motto of Reliance, but it also applies to your personal life. So you have to grow with every single day that is passing. You know, go into areas that you're uncomfortable with and grow from there," he stated. 

Debate around work-life balance 

The endless debate around work-life balance was triggered with Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy's advocacy of 70-hour-workweek. Later, the discussion was further fueled with L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyan batting for a 90-hour-workweek.

Moreover, the L&T chairman stated that "he had regretted not making his employees work on Sundays". His remarks were criticised by his fellow industry partners such as Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, Mahindra & Mahindra chairperson Anand Mahindra, Emcure Pharmaceutical executive director Namita Thapar, and more.