Meet Shantanu Deshpande, BSC CEO who says employees should work 18 hours a day

Shantanu Deshpande the founder of Bombay Shaving Company is facing the ire of social media for suggesting that younger workers should work 17-18 hours a day instead of craving work-life balance. "Don't do random rona-dhona (cribbing)," he advised.

Deshpande gave this controversial advice in a LinkedIn post. He said when employees are aged 22, they should put in 18 hours a day at work for at least 4-5 years.

"Eat well and stay fit, but put in the 18 hours days for at least 4-5 years. Don't do random rona-dhona. Take it on the chin and be relentless. You will be way better for it," Deshpande added.

He posted that youngsters consume content on the internet and convince themselves that work-life balance, and spending time with family are important.

"It is, but not that early. That early, worship your work. Whatever it is. The flex you build in the first 5 years of your career carries you for the rest of it," he wrote.

Many youngsters slammed Deshpande for the remark with some blaming people like him for the great exodus in the corporate world. One user wrote that Deshpande and his business deserve to "crash and burn".

"In a generation of knowledge workers, I wonder when we will stop equating hours with output/results. It`s not an industrial revolution anymore with factory workers," another posted.

A Twitter user said: "Why stop at 18? Why not work 24 or 48 hours straight and build even more 'flex'? That way, you won`t even have to take it just on your chin, but on your entire body and mind too."

After facing the criticism, he later wrote that "so much hate for 18-hour days" but "it's a proxy for "giving your all and then some".

With inputs from IANS