Elon Musk calls working on weekends a ‘superpower’

Even as the debate around striking a work-life balance has become mainstream, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on X that working on weekends is a superpower.

His comments were about how bureaucratic workers in the US have never worked on Saturday and Sunday. "Very few in the bureaucracy actually work the weekend, so it’s like the opposing team just leaves the field for 2 days! Working the weekend is a superpower," his post read.



He was responding to a user who said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), of which Musk is in charge, is "speedrunning government reforms".

It was reported recently that Musk has been sleeping at the DOGE headquarters, taking his efficiency and cost-cutting assignment too seriously. DOGE is based in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, steps from the White House.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chairman S N Subrahmanyan came under fire last year by endorsing a 90-hour work week for employees. In a viral video, Subrahmanyan was seen advocating for working Sundays. The undated clip, reportedly from an internal meeting, surfaced on Reddit, drawing sharp criticism from users online.

On Musk's comments, Kotak Mahindra AMC's managing director Nilesh Shah said, "It will be interesting to see how people react to this comment. Will he get memes like NRM (Narayana Murthy) and SNS (Subrahmanyan) or will he get appreciation because he is Elon Musk?" the post read.

Narayana Murthy, the cofounder of Infosys, started the discussion about work-life balance in India when he expressed support for a six-day workweek, even stating that he regrets shifting from a six-day to a five-day workweek back in 1986.

This has sparked a wider conversation about the nature of work in India and the importance of achieving a balance between professional and personal life.