08-07-2025
Indian tech workers face burnout, majority exceed legal 48-hour workweek: Surveys
A Delhi man recently posted on social media about a job opening looking to hire employees who can work for a minimum of 10-12 hours a day for 6 days a week. The work-life balance debate triggers don't seem to be ending since Narayan Murthy's controversial 2023 statement where he said Indians should put in 70 hours per week. It's been almost two years since then and we are still talking about it, with good the reality of India's high-performing tech industry is far more serious than the exterior suggests. A series of recent surveys has exposed a systemic burnout crisis fuelled by overwork, toxic workplace expectations, and an 'always-on' to a March 2025 Blind survey of 1,450 verified IT professionals, 72% reported working more than the legally mandated 48 hours per week, and 25% said they routinely worked over 70 hours CRISIS HITS WORKFORCE STABILITY
The same Blind survey revealed that 83% of IT professionals had experienced some form of burnout. The issue is most acute in companies where extreme working hours are 68% of professionals admitted they felt obligated to respond to work messages outside of office hours, indicating a growing culture of round-the-clock a separate March 2025 survey by Vertex Group, 52% of employees across five Indian states cited poor work-life balance as a cause of burnout. The study also found that 23% of professionals regularly worked beyond official hours, exacerbating mental and physical EXITING IN DROVESHigh attrition is emerging as another critical outcome. A survey by Talent Exodus published by Teamlease Digitalindustry revealed that up to 22 lakh IT professionals may leave their jobs by the end of 57% of respondents said they would not consider returning to IT services in the future, pointing to a growing disillusionment with the report said that 29% of IT professionals experienced burnout in 2024, and 20% were uncertain about their job stability -- another indicator of waning confidence in long-term career 10 COMPANIES WITH LONG WORKING HOURSBased on responses collected via the Blind app and corroborated by media reports, the following companies were identified as having the most extreme workweeks:CiscoAmazonServiceNowWalmartVMwareAdobeUberInMobiSalesforceOracleOthers, including Microsoft, Cohesity, UiPath, Flipkart, Paytm, Cohesity, Freshworks, and Sprinklr also appeared in the list of firms with the longest working hours and high burnout MESSAGES FROM EMPLOYERSWhile some companies, like Infosys, have publicly announced their intention to avoid overtime in favour of productivity through better work-life balance, this sentiment has not been universally recently viral Reddit post about a job listing, explicitly requiring six-day workweeks with 12-hour shifts, sparked widespread concern over unregulated workplace India's digital economy continues to expand, experts argue that without urgent labour reforms, mental health support, and strict enforcement of labour limits, the burnout crisis could derail long-term industry growth.- Ends
