The Real Cost Of 12-Hour Workday

It’s getting dark, too dark, for techies in India’s snazzy Silicon Valley to see a life beyond logged in.

Karnataka’s plan to slap a 10-hour work regime that can be extended up to 12 hours a day has flared up fresh controversies with the IT professionals slamming it as modern day slavery. If theory calls it a way to ramp up productivity, then reality describes it as a blow to the fragile work-life balance of the employees.

“There’s a big difference between working for long hours occasionally and being told to do so every day,” said Shruti, a Bengaluru-based software engineer, refusing to be identified by the full name. “If this becomes mandatory, it will be exhausting, not empowering.”

In India’s rush to outshine peer economies, is the ease of doing business causing major unease among the workforce, souring its demographic sweet spot?

Karnataka, which is governed by the BJP that leads the ruling coalition at the Centre, followed neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where the BJP’s alliance partner TDP thrashed out a 10-hour mandatory work schedule for IT employees just a week back.

The developments come close on the heels of India beating Japan to be the fourth-largest economy in the world, although Japan’s per-capita income of $33,955 continued to remain 12 times that of $2,878 for an average Indian, an IMF report showed.

“When you work extra, your income will rise,” Andhra Pradesh information and public relations minister K Parthasarathy said after the state extended the work hours.

Policy Conundrum Stirs Up A Hornet’s Nest

Andhra and Karnataka are not the first to propose longer working hours. The Union labour ministry had in the Draft Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Codes, 2020, proposed that the maximum hours of working in a day be fixed at 12, but it had capped the weekly schedule at 48 hours. It received a lot of criticism because Parliament had passed a limit of eight hours of work per day.

In the draft amendment to the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961, floated on June 19, the state labour department proposed to extend the work day from nine to 10 hours, keeping the 48-hour weekly limit in place, but added that the top daily hours that can be worked, including overtime, would extend up to 12 hours from 10. It also raised the overtime cap from 50 hours to 144 hours over a three-month period.

The amendment will be imposed on industries such as IT and IT-enabled services, restaurants, hotels, pubs, bars, and offices that fall under the Factories Act, essentially covering the core of Karnataka’s commercial workforce. It also proposed to exempt smaller enterprises with less than 10 employees.

For the government, the move is being framed as pro-business, aimed at providing operational flexibility and drawing investments. “These changes are intended to make Karnataka a more competitive location for businesses to expand,” a labour department spokesperson reasoned.

But the workforce is not buying it. “We’re already overworked with deadlines and meetings running over into nights. What are we trying to prove by putting in one extra hour?” wondered Debayan Bose, a software engineer at IBM.

He wasn’t alone. The proposal has attracted the wrath of thousands working in Karnataka’s thriving IT services industry. The Karnataka IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU), according to media reports, has asked all workers to come together against the change, pointing out how it would impact their work-life balance and job security.

KITU said the proposed change would legalise 12-hour shifts and a two-shift system, which could cause the loss of one-third of the existing jobs.

In the wake of the uproar, the Karnataka government issued a clarification on June 21. “We want to state unequivocally that the proposal does not, in any way, alter the maximum weekly working hours, which remain capped at 48 hours,” it said. “This is in full compliance with the standards set by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and foundational domestic laws. There is no violation of any international convention or standard.”

Productivity Paradox In Longer Work Hours

The backers of long work hours went by the simple law of productivity, which is defined as the amount of real GDP produced by one hour of labour in an economy. Longer hours will, therefore, deliver higher productivity that will, in turn, speed up India’s journey to be a developed economy when it turns 100.

However, a recent Stanford University study pointed out the factor of diminishing marginal returns in the correlation between productivity and working hours. “After a point and with other things unchanged, in the typical workplace one more hour of work after having worked 30 hours generates more output than one more hour of work after having worked 40 hours,” it said.

Over a third of workers around the world regularly put in more than 48 hours a week, while a fifth is at the opposite end of the spectrum, working less than 35 hours per week, an ILO report said. The OECD productivity data for 2024 also showed that countries with some of the shortest work weeks, such as Germany and the Netherlands, consistently rank among the most productive economies.

Indians work the hardest, according to a British Safety Council India report, claiming that the average hours per week per employed person in India is 46.7. It also found that 51% of those employed work 49 hours or more each week.

“But piling up more hours won’t make individuals more productive by magic,” said the visibly disgruntled cofounder of a Bengaluru SaaS startup. “It is not the hours that create companies, it is the energy and creativity that individuals bring into those hours.”

Slack’s Workforce Lab Survey supports his views, citing a negative correlation between working beyond standard hours and productivity. Employees who log off at the end of the workday, which is typically 9 AM to 5 PM in India, report 20% higher productivity scores compared to those who feel obligated to work beyond their scheduled hours.

For those like Shruti, the issue isn’t time alone – it’s also about a balance and having the mental bandwidth to clock off and recharge. “If I wanted to simply clock hours, I could work for anybody. I went to a startup because I did not want timecards, but ownership,” the marketing executive at a Bengaluru-based logistics unicorn said.

The Karnataka move has pushed startups and IT service providers to the razor’s edge. They need to protect productivity while also retaining talent, maintaining a healthy work culture, and ensuring sustainability. Startups may not have to overhaul their day-to-day operations, though, since most young companies function in a fluid work environment where working hours naturally flex based on project urgency and team bandwidth.

But, they worry that it could set a rigid precedent across states, driving top talent away from startup hubs like Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

How Much Is Too Much At Work

“I wanted to be a computer engineer. I didn’t expect a smooth, nine-to-five format at work. But I also didn’t expect it to be only work and no life,” rued a software engineer handling some major multinational clients for an Indian IT company. He refused to identify himself in fear of a backlash.

Employees at IBM and Cognizant argue that time is their primary input, and many companies still operate on billing models where clients are charged significantly more than what employees are paid. The concern is that if companies are now allowed to legally extend work hours, they may simply bill clients for more hours without proportionately hiking the compensation.

There is also a growing fear that managers may quietly escalate the workload without formally extending working hours, effectively bypassing the intent of the regulation. In many cases, this could institutionalise practices that toxic workplaces enforce unofficially. Even with legal caps, employees believe that enforcement will remain weak, leaving room for workplace exploitation to continue under the radar.

“I think nobody is going to count the hours. It’s a good marketing move by the government, but practically, companies that already have toxic cultures will simply find ways to bypass it. If anyone tries to complain, they will terminate them. And they have this option of saying, ‘you can work here if you like, but we need you for 10 or 12 hours a day’. And there will always be people who need jobs and companies that are hiring,” Aman Goel, founder of early stage AI startup GreyLabs AI, said.

As Karnataka’s move gains attention, the larger question resurfaces: Are we still chasing growth by counting hours, or is it time to count outcomes?

“If a company expects people to work longer, it can’t just be about time – it must also rethink how it rewards that time,” said an HR consultant advising several mid-sized tech companies in Bengaluru. “But even then, whether increasing the work day by two hours would actually bring any real gains is debatable.”

If implemented, it would call for a formal recalibration of HR policies, restructuring of overtime compensation, and reworking the employee engagement strategies. The practical challenge for companies, especially those with a national presence like Accenture, lies in the fragmented nature of implementation.

“Work and productivity in India are often misunderstood concepts. People think increasing work hours will automatically increase productivity, but that’s not always true. In India, especially compared to some European countries, this practical understanding is missing. Here, the trade-off is often ignored,” said Avilash Bhowmick, HR consultant at Accenture Strategy.

While industry associations like NASSCOM are said to be meeting the Karnataka government to request sectoral exemptions and relaxed enforcement, the larger concern is that the harm is already done. Staff and potential recruits are likely to view India’s tech centres as falling back on traditional, time-bound style of management.

Mandating longer hours, even if legally permitted, could make it harder for companies to ensure a happy workplace. Voluntary attrition typically spikes when employees feel burnt out without proportional benefits, a founder at a Bengaluru-based fast fashion startup said.

“My belief is simple: Yes, you should work longer hours if you get the financial upside. If you don’t, it’s pointless,” Goel said. “Employees who know that if they work long hours, they will get promoted next year, or they have equity and if the company succeeds, they will also make good money. Those people would naturally want to put in those hours.”

Although the Andhra Pradesh minister assured of higher income from longer working hours, reality remains beyond his control.

Beyond The Over-Time Vs Time-Off Debate

The latest push for longer work hours finds its trail from Infosys founder Narayana Murthy’s controversial suggestion that India’s youth should work for 70 hours a week to fast-track the nation’s progress.

Karnataka’s move has provoked, evoked and invoked the controversy, no longer restricting it as a state issue. It may create a disturbing trend for the nation as a whole in a domino effect and paint India’s image as a more stratified, less flexible work culture in stark contrast with the rest of the world which is going just the other way.

Compare the Karnataka issue with Britain’s move to the four-day work week format. Two hundred UK companies signed up for a permanent four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay earlier this year. More than 15 countries are experimenting with the four-day work week system with the weekly cap at 40 hours to help workers in their work-life balance.

“When nations are headed towards four-day weeks and remote-first structures, why are we attempting to turn the clock back to hours rather than outcomes?” questioned a Bengaluru-based founder.

Will Karnataka favour Jack the dull boy, or stub out the raging debate on over-time and time-off to foster a smarter school of wizards? Techies await a glimmer of hope beyond the darkness.

[Edited by Kumar Chatterjee]

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