China has begun '996 work culture', according to which, people are scheduled to work from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week. The culture is now facing backlash from locals in the country. To protest against the gruelling work hours, aggrieved Chinese office workers have initiated a 'worker lives matter' campaign, which asks everyone to share their work schedules on an open-access spreadsheet that is being circulated over the internet.
As per the updates on Thursday, the sheet had entries from over 4,000 people working in tech giants including Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance.
This 996 culture had been publically praised by founders of China's tech unicorns, including Jack Ma, who once reportedly said, "To be able to work 996 is a huge bliss."
But the Chinese population, particularly the youth which emphasises on healthy living and a balance work trend with phrases such as "laying flat" and "feeling fish" being used as terms for slacking off among exhausted employees, is now protesting it, Taiwan News reported.
Besides, Chinese tech companies are also attempting to bring productivity-enhancing tools into everyday office life, worker's efficiency is being channelized into squeezing more value from employees by using software-driven surveillance management and monitoring into their professional lives.
Despite fierce criticism over such aggressive practices and complaints from employees, they have had little impact on investor sentiment, reported Nikkei Asia.
Companies are running even more brutal working hours - ByteDance allows its employees a full weekend only every other week, while employees at Pinduoduo's newer units are required to work at least 300 hours a month.
(With inputs from ANI)
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