Quantity or quality? China’s ‘996’ work culture comes under scrutiny
- China’s mobile internet population more than doubled from around 300 million in 2010 to 788 million last year
- Chinese software engineers are resisting attempts to make tech workers to adhere to a ‘996’ work schedule – 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
During the internet boom of the 1990s, Silicon Valley tech workers clocked up long hours to keep their start-ups afloat amid fierce competition and rapidly changing technology trends. When the dot-com bubble burst at the end of the decade, working hours were cut back as people sought a better work-life balance.
Chinese tech workers have been in a similar high growth phase where long hours are expected on the job. Now, with internet growth slowing, venture capital funding harder to find, and lay-offs happening, will they follow Silicon Valley with a shorter work week?
A recent posting on Microsoft’s Github, a global code-sharing and collaboration platform, has triggered a wider resistance from Chinese software engineers against companies forcing tech workers to adhere to a “996” work schedule – 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
The complaints have spiralled into a broader debate on productivity and work-life balance in a country that last year marked the 40th anniversary of adopting free-market reforms.
In neighbouring Japan, a new law came into effect this month capping overtime to 45 hours a month. South Korea last year cut its maximum working hours from 68 hours a week to 52 hours.
The movement in China gained more publicity earlier this month after Katt Gu, a US-trained tech industry lawyer, and Suji Yan, CEO of Shanghai-based digital privacy start-up Dimension, launched the Anti-996 License on Github.
