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Young Chinese Are Sick of Working Long Hours (bbc.com)
Young professionals in China are pushing back against employers who expect them to work around the clock, saying no to the decades old "rule of 996" -- working from 9am to 9pm six days a week. From a report: At the forefront are millennials who are often better educated, more aware of their rights and more interested in finding something fulfilling than the previous generation. And as only children (China's one-child policy wasn't eased until 2015), they are also outspoken and pampered. "In my experience young people, especially the post-90s generation, are reluctant to work overtime -- they are more self-centered," says labour rights expert Li Jupeng, one of many who have observed some millennials challenging the 996 concept.
The relative affluence of their parents and grandparents is part of the reason. China's rapid economic transformation has given rise to a sizeable middle class, with almost 70% of the country's urban population making between $9,000 and $34,000 annually in 2012. In 2000, that figure was just 4%. As only children, millennials are receiving a lot of support from their families -- including a financial safety net should their careers not go as planned. Although their options for pushing back are limited, some are no longer willing to put in long hours for a meagre paycheck.
The relative affluence of their parents and grandparents is part of the reason. China's rapid economic transformation has given rise to a sizeable middle class, with almost 70% of the country's urban population making between $9,000 and $34,000 annually in 2012. In 2000, that figure was just 4%. As only children, millennials are receiving a lot of support from their families -- including a financial safety net should their careers not go as planned. Although their options for pushing back are limited, some are no longer willing to put in long hours for a meagre paycheck.
Amazing how each generation thinks the one that follows it are a bunch of losers for wanting something different than what their parents want.
Nobody likes being forced to work long hours. China's economy is getting to the point where a lot of Chinese finally have a choice in the matter. That's a good thing.
They need an union!
Fine all work will move to south sudan!
happy to just have a job.
That's what the last place I worked told me when I had 14 weeks of unpaid 24/7 on-call.
Hopefully, you will focus on doing your own start-ups, honest ones.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Wait until your boss makes you "dial it up to 11" and work 184.8 hours in a week before you complain about working too hard.
They have a point. There's so many Chinese and such a large workforce that they are one of the few nations that can accommodate a system of
generally halving work hours to substitute them with shifts, and instead encourage workers to get their health and studies regarding the work they do
constantly in top shape and up-to-date. Not many people continue studying to keep themselves informed on the latest news and innovations in their fields
after leaving Uni; and a rational work-schedule provided by government and business including an intelligent nudge and system to encourage this is the way.
A good worker is a worker who is in good shape to think and constantly improve.
Ok, we might not be on 12 hours a day 6 days a week anymore but it still sucks unless you're lucky enough to bag a job you enjoy that doesn't just suck the fun out of it.
"I'm only working here because I need more fucking money"
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Definition of capitalism: The art of making money with the work of others.
For vulture capitalists and other "investors" to make shittons of money sitting on their fat capitalist asses in their ivory towers doing absolutely nothing, somebody, somewhere, has to bust their asses day and night, seven days a week, in some shithole factory or mine, working in disgusting conditions, ruining their health, and getting out of it the bare minimum.
China can either become more like the West, or they can be overrun by their own citizens -- or, I suppose, go the al-Assad route and start slaughtering them wholesale for daring to want a different way of life. People don't want to live like this, no matter how much you try to indoctrinate them that it's 'normal' and 'right'.
Once you reach a certain income, you ask "why am I trading my life away for this?"
It's a good sign that the chinese economy is maturing. They still won't achieve wage parity for another 20 years at current rates and that will give them a competitive advantage until then.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Spoken like a true millenial.
"...young people, especially the post-90s generation, are reluctant to work overtime -- they are more self-centered," says labour rights expert Li Jupeng
Not wanting to work overtime is considered self centered? China will thrive even more with young people that finally understand that life is much more than your job.
And it's getting more and more enforced these days, although mainly in larger corporations versus small firms. There is of course an exception that allows one to work more than 8 hours a day, but that still requires a person not to work more than 40 hours per week. The exception is for people like train conductors or pilots that may have to work more than 8 hours in a single day.
Wasn't this just mentioned in Silicon Valley as the "New China"?
Are we sure they were not saying they didn't want to work wrong hours?
It's the first effects in China of the trade war with the US. Expect more as the effects really begin to take hold.
Typical entitled millennials too lazy to work like their parents did. No wonder the boomers hate them so much.
Seriously - wtf is there to do for 12 hours per day 6 days a week? If they were digging in mines, ok, I could see that, though with the physical nature of it, they'd probably be better off getting more rest. Or is just fill-a-seat type "work"?
When Chinese workers have enough ability to push back, that will be good for employee wages world-wide.
If you had bothered to read the article you would know that market forces are already solving the problem.
As long as there is someone willing to trade their life away cheaply the rest of the globe is stuck with those poor conditions. The most clever phrase I ever heard was "We are the 99%". At the end of the day, fairer economics will help people far more than any number of "social issues". You can't get to 99% unless you ditch social issues that fracture it like BLM. That's why social issues get pushed so hard by the media, to keep us from realizing that we've all been conned while we argued over bathrooms and bakers.
8 hours work, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest. My grandfather bled for this so Mr. Project Manager can go fuck himself for his overtime. May they have a better time than we did with our labor-owner relations. The pinkertons, the homestead strike, the Colorado Labor Wars, company script, blacklists, strikebreakers, infiltrators, massacre. Least we forget.
About time Asia started to realize their work ethic and the hours they've been forced to labor aren't really normal.
These three hour workdays are killing me!
(Pedantic note: The Jetson's have represented George's work hours randomly, from 3 hours above (assumed this is 'overtime'), to 2 hours, 3x a week, to 1 hour, 2x a week)
You mean having few children (one) means your parents can provide a safety net with more income and you can get out of poverty? Something must be wrong with that ...
If it wasnt for 996 the luxury of pushing back against in now wont exist. The Chinese are not starving and the global economy better today and we have nice toys thanks to the fact that they were cheaper than western manufacturing.
I am not saying they need 996 at the same time they have to respect that it was needed.
Both the "1%" and BLM rhetoric were manufactured by the same people for the same reason: to elect Democrats. The 1% line was pushed as a weapon against Mitt Romney. The BLM line was pushed as a way to keep black voters enraged and voting for Democrats, and thus elect Hillary, without Obama at the top of the ballot.
You know, the "40 hour" week was formalized in the US by uneducated line workers many of whom could barely read. It doesn't take a half a life time of education debt to grasp the concept. These attitudes are emerging in China because the demand for workers is high enough that workers have leverage, not because they have degrees.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
At this rate slave labor is going to become an endangered species. SAD.
As a fat lazy American I used to have pride knowing other people spent their lives working in shitholes making whatever scraps they could wrestle away from rats just so I could save a few bucks at Nike Town.
Now everyone wants to assert themselves and be paid fairly for their work. What a bunch of losers.
and hopefully, you will focus on your own start-ups, instead of sucking Elon Musk cock.
When I ran a development team, I soon learned you have to police people who develop the habit of spending long, non-productive hours at work. These people are not the high performers.
I'm not talking about flow sessions where someone spends twelve or even eighteen hours without realizing the time is passing -- that exploits a natural behavior of brains when they're fully engaged. I'm talking about people frittering away hours dancing around work without doing it. Keeping your ass in the chair longer is a way for a lazy person to convince himself he's a hard worker.
Nobody can give their best for seventy hours a week, week in and week out. It's a challenge getting peak effort out of people working forty hours a week. Routine long hours are often a sign of lack of management planning and vigilance.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
It's your kind of thinking that's gotten us where we are today. I'm tired of you moneygrubbing conservatives robbing us blind and treating us as "human resources". Your "advice" is unwarranted and uneeded. We've done it your way for the last 100 years and it's fucked this country all up. It's time for something different.
20 hour work week would be perfect
don't tell my boss
Welcome to life. Itâ(TM)s a tad more difficult than you may have been led to believe.
As long as theyâ(TM)re ok with diminished buying power due to working less hours, there wonâ(TM)t be any issues.
But we all know this likely wonâ(TM)t be the case. Thatâ(TM)s where the problems will start.
Perhaps if the workers were to join together and form some sort of cooperative group, they could express their concerns with unity and act in unison to see that those concerns were acted upon.
But what would we call this union of people banding together to protect their interests?
I love working long hours on a good and fun programming project that will make a difference to others in the office will use it. It's a sense of not just helping the users, but the end result of our clients getting information faster and improved waiting times. Now.... If I'm given a programming project that I know nobody will use and is a waste of time, that's a different story.
If you love what you do though, it isn't work. Plain and simple. Well, most of the times.