I’ve heard that working 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week is widely accepted in China. Why is this?
Due to its high population density, the job market in China is insanely competitive which translates to workers being expected to work unreasonable amounts. It’s the same as Japan and South Korea. Basically it’s “well if you won’t work these hours, someone else will because everyone is looking for a job.”
I’m surprised the Chinese government hasn’t made laws to limit that. I guess their economy is humming along pretty well though so maybe they don’t want to rock the boat.
I’m sure they’re working on it. The communist party has been once again tightening their regulations on companies in recent years after they were loosened under Deng.
It’s not.
It’s prevalent in some industries (and slowly getting squashed even there because it’s causing instability and the Chinese government is badly allergic to instability).
In my job, my boss doesn’t allow us to work overtime except in emergencies, and then always makes up for the overtime with extra time off later.
Same reason slavery is prevalent; It’s cheap, and they can get away with it.
Exactly. In the software industry in particular (an industry that worldwide seems to gather together sociopathic management) 996 culture was a huge deal. It was never a huge deal outside of that.
And the current Chinese leadership prefers to have arrogant billionaire tech heads where they belong: kneeling in service to the people. This crackdown was long overdue (because the previous leadership preferred lining his pockets with arrogant billionaire tech head bribes) and is happening with stunning rapidity.
C.f. the sheer scale of the (utterly bogus) “market value” exsanguination as the Chinese government tells stock speculators to get fucked and forces tech giants to comply with law.