996 just sounds like mismanagement to me. Yes it's hard work but Ali Baba is not a seed startup that they can't afford to hire more people and distribute the workload.
I'm not so sure. Overworked people are less happy and less healthy, and therefore less productive. I wouldn't be surprised if these extreme hours have no tangible benefit for the productivity of the company.
The only way working extreme hours can be sustainable is if the workers are self-driven, in control of their work environment, and believe in what they're building. So that's founders and possibly other early employees. But not a large corporation where most people are probably just a cog in a large machine.
It's quite different to work for your own company as much as possible as you (hopefully) gain really something big in return. If you're doing mandatory constant crunch for somebody else without extraordinary recompensation, then it's not a blessing but quite close to slavery.
Of course that kind of slavery can be a blessing in a country like China where the other options may be even worse...
i live in korea. My professor is very proud of their generation working very hard to "defeat" japan in the tech industry. I think jack ma's statement is lost in translation in this article.
At least he is openingly admitting his true opinion and allowing a discussion about interests. Nost just turning the screws to enforce this overtime as outcome and hiring some yogi to preach about mindfullness.
Still more open society regarding this then most of the west.
I've actually thought a lot about China's overtime culture. It's really bad that it pulls people away from their families - Children in China are growing up with a stark absence of their parents. On another hand, China wouldn't be where it is today without it. What do y'all think?
This is a Fetish of billionaires and I guess the only good thing is its not just an American fetish.
"Make it like working down a mine in 1898, but on computers."
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 41.9 ms ] threadBut if you want human beings to give a shit about said country, maybe let them spend some time in it. Also look up “diminishing returns”.
China has so much excess labour though, compared to the leverage Western workers had back in the day due to lower numbers.
That with Party control leaves it hard to see how anything like unions could form, or someone like a Sam Parnell could emerge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Duncan_Parnell).
The only way working extreme hours can be sustainable is if the workers are self-driven, in control of their work environment, and believe in what they're building. So that's founders and possibly other early employees. But not a large corporation where most people are probably just a cog in a large machine.
Of course that kind of slavery can be a blessing in a country like China where the other options may be even worse...
They should have rushed the stage.