不接受996，是今天的年轻人不勤奋吗？| You may end up in ICU with '996' schedule
Have you ever heard of the "996" working schedule?
It is quite easy to guess what it is. According to that schedule, one has to work from 9 am to 9 pm every day, six days a week, something that's rather inhuman even thinking about it.
Yet that has been a common practice among Chinese internet companies. Recently, a programmer shared a project "996.ICU" on github.com, a well-known code-sharing website, as a protest of the 996 working schedule that impairs the employees' health.
The project had a rather simple slogan:
Follow the 996 schedule, and you will end up in ICU.
On the 996.ICU website, programmers working for more than 40 well-known domestic internet companies shared evidence showing their companies asked them to work the long hours, among which are big ones such as e-commerce giants jd.com and Alibaba, as well as electrical appliance giant Suning.
An internal letter of domestic e-commerce giant jd.com was also made public, which shows the company was ready to "sort out three kinds of people", including those who cannot fight or those who get too high salaries and positions.
The company responded they had "context" for the quotes, but did not mention what kind of context they had.
But that's not a surprise because the internet companies' extra hours have never been a secret.
On the contrary, several bosses of internet companies used to praise it as a kind of culture.
Bai Ya, CEO of youzan.com, has shared in his "moments" that the 996 working schedule is part of his company's culture:
Xiang Ligang, head of cctime.com that specializes in communications, even said it is the culture of the global IT industry.
Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, also said that it was impossible to strike a balance between life and job.
But according to Cui Zhendong, a lawyer from Yiqian Law Firm, it is illegal if a company introduces a compulsory 996 working schedule for employees, because the Labor Law clearly states that one should work eight hours a day and no more than 44 hours a week.
It would be legal if an employee works extra hours on his/her own volition, but as the weaker side, they often find it very hard to say "no" to the boss.
Yet it would be hard to stop that illegal practice. In order to stop it, employees must collect evidence, hire a lawyer, and go through very long procedures to take their employers to court. And after paying for the legal battle, all the employees will receive compensation equal to a few months' wages.
Worse, the over 40 companies are the biggest covering the entire internet industry. So that even if an employee wants to change the job, it is highly likely that his new employer will also demand he or she work a 996 schedule.
Even if a company introduces a working schedule that allows employees to go home early, it might fall behind its competitors because it gets lower profit from employees. Few companies will want to fall behind their competitors by offering their employees a shorter work schedule.
Therefore, what really matters is not one company implementing 996 working schedule, but the more than 40 big companies doing it. When the whole industry takes extra working hours as its culture, their employees have no choice.
Only strict enforcement of the law can bring companies back to the same starting line and prevent any of them from over-exploiting their employees. Yet that will be easier said than done.
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