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China's Tech Work Culture Is So Intense People Sleep and Bathe In Their Offices (techinsider.io)

Posted by msmash on from the different-culture,-different-lifestyle dept.

An anonymous reader writes: China's technology sector is booming at an intensely fast pace. Many startups are seeing their business grow faster than they can hire, placing a heavy burden on those already working within the industry. "The pace of Chinese internet company growth is extremely fast," Cui Meng, general manager and cofounder of data startup Goopal, told Reuters. "I've been to the US and the competitive environment there isn't as intense as in China." This has led many workers to put in overtime, sleeping at their desks, on cots, or even in provided bunk beds. Many employees are encouraged to live at the office during the workweek. Lunchtime naps are generally allowed, and those who end up staying past midnight usually pass out in the office.Reuters has amazing photographs of such offices and employees.

9 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. When I think of China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I think of China the first thing that comes to mind is technical innovation.

    1. Re: When I think of China by bmo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The British said this about the Americans at the start of the Industrial Revolution, when we stole their technology.

      We Americans said the same about the Japanese and Koreans.

      The British were wrong. We were wrong. Everyone who says that "they just steal our innovation and copy it without any creativity" is wrong. Completely, utterly, to their own detriment, WRONG.

      It screams "whistling past the graveyard" /at best/ and probably veiled racism depending on who you hear this stuff from.

      "China's economy will collapse"

      Whose economies don't have cycles of boom and bust? Ours? HAVE YOU FUCKING LOOKED AROUND?!

      Christ on a stick. You have no fucking clue. You are complacent and have not looked past the headlines at all.

      --
      BMO

  2. Reminds me of the Dot Com bubble by decipher_saint · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I remember basically living at work for a few years, slaving away for no good reason (other than ship-ship-ship). I had a friend of mine who worked for a fairly well-known maker of tax software, half their year was basically crunch time complete with in-office cots. They were treated well outside crunch time but I swear to god it aged him prematurely.

    I don't think I'd ever work like that again, at the end of the day the code quality was poor and it burnt out all the talent. I didn't think it would be possible to be sick of pizza, but you learn these things.

    Sure made the bastard CEO a hell of lot of money...

    --
    crazy dynamite monkey
    1. Re:Reminds me of the Dot Com bubble by istartedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Did you find that it was unsustainable? There were two periods in my life like this: Bachelor's degree, and a start-up. The start-up was just slightly easier than the bachelor's degree. YMMV based on how hard your school is, how much of a task-master your boss is, and let's face it--how smart you are. I'm sure there were some people that just absolutely cruised courses that made me cram... but then again there were people who dropped out and never came back. I dropped out of start-ups, and when you're middle aged you start to think twice about a diet of late-night pizza and soda. If you pass out with a coronary at 50, what's the point?

      Still though, if you think it's really important--if it's for God and country, or family, or just trying not to end up homeless or working a shit job for the rest of your life, you'll do it. Sometimes I think about the excitement and for the right project, maybe... one more time. I ran into a 20 something like that a while ago. He wanted me to help him code his stuff; but unfortunately it was the kind of software I hate. It was easy to turn that one down...

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    2. Re:Reminds me of the Dot Com bubble by barc0001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Similar experience with me in the 90s and early 2000s. We worked 16 hour days in many cases, sometimes for weeks on end to ship and at one place I worked at they finally did an audit of our bugtracker after one release. It was discovered that the amount of mistakes on code worked on during those pushes went up dramatically, and especially tellingly - during the last 4 hours of those 14-16 hour days, frequently working all weekend as well for up to 2 months. As a result during the next release cycle, the "push" was started earlier but days were limited to 10 hours and we took weekends off again and our ship time on the release was actually faster.

      Another after-release audit of the bugtracker showed that the number of introduced bugs was significantly lower than on the previous death march release and the conclusion was that the extra work hours were being burned up by mistakes to no benefit and much lower morale. Going forward, that company continued the 10 hour max rule and continues to do well.

      I moved on to other things and places and sometimes there was the old work long cycle again, but I've decided that I will no longer work at places that institutionalize that kind of time commitment. I work in systems so I am on call 24/7, and if something breaks at 3am I get up and fix it because it's what I signed on for, but I am definitely not putting in crazy overtime as part of general employment.

  3. From a picture in TFA by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "God rewards the diligent."

    Is that Chinese for "Arbeit macht frei"?

    --
    -Styopa
  4. Re:Coming To an American Statup Near You? by kilfarsnar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "giving the entirety of one's being" to one's company is already a pretty big trend.

    Those of us who know what it's like to actually have a life know what stupid bullshit that is. I have worked with people like that and they seem to think they were put on this planet to work for some company or other. I was not put here for that purpose.

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  5. Re:Coming To an American Statup Near You? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At one time it was a reasonable deal. You'd give your youth to a company, and they'd provide a pension when you're too old to work. Now we still give our lives to companies, but we don't get the pension, or even steady employment in a lot of cases.

  6. Re:Coming To an American Statup Near You? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've slept on the floor at my last startup. Whatever.

    When I first moved to Silicon Valley, I didn't even rent an apartment for the first 2 years. I just lived at the office and slept under my desk. Many others were doing the same. The company provided showers, a full kitchen, and laundry service. Then I got a girlfriend. We had sex in my office a few times, but then she insisted that I get an apartment. That was quite some time ago, since we are married now, and our daughter is in high school. But I will see people living out of their vans in tech company parking lots, so I think the startup culture is still alive and well.