L&T Chairman sparks controversy over job migration, office return, ‘If you tell employee to come to office...’

After 90-hour work week row, SN Subrahmanyan, Chairman of Larsen & Toubro has again stirred another controversy over job migration and reluctance of employees to return to office.

While speaking CII’s Mystic South Global Linkages Summit 2025 in Chennai, the Chairman said that today if you ask any tech employee to come to the office, they would resign.

“If you tell him (IT employee) to come to the office and work, he says bye. And that's a different world altogether," he said

In addition to this, the Chairman observed a similar trend of IT employees' reluctance to relocate for work, unlike previous generations.

During his address at the Summit, the Chairman reflected on the changes in work culture, comparing the time when he joined L&T in 1983 to now. He said that back when his boss asked employees from Chennai to relocate to Delhi for work, or vice versa, they would agree. However, now, if he asked a young employee to do the same, they would resign.

“When I joined L&T in 1983, my boss said, if you are from Chennai, you go to Delhi and work. Today if I take a guy from Chennai and tell him to go to Delhi and work, he says bye” the Chairman said as quoted by ET report.

Calling it a ‘funny world’, the L&T Chairman added that the older generations are trying to understand the changing work culture.

“It is a funny world which we are trying to live in and many of us wearing slightly more white hair are trying to understand it,” he said

Further adding, the Chairman said, "We have to see how to live with this world and have policies which are flexible to understand all this and take it forward.” as quoted by The Economic Times.

90-hour work week debate

Earlier last month, L&T Chairman had sparked an online debate by advocating a 90-hour work week and suggesting employees should even give up Sundays. The clip re-ignited the work-life balance debate wherein the Chairman had said, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife, and how long can the wife stare at the husband? Get to the office and start working. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be happier because I work on Sundays.” His statement had triggered criticism from business leaders, celebrities among others.