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Alibaba Founder Defends Overtime Work Culture As 'Huge Blessing' (reuters.com)
Alibaba founder and billionaire Jack Ma has defended the grueling overtime work culture at many of China's tech companies, calling it a "huge blessing" for young workers. Reuters reports: The e-commerce magnate weighed into a debate about work-life balance and the overtime hours demanded by some companies as the sector slows after years of breakneck growth. In a speech to Alibaba employees, Ma defended the industry's "996" work schedule, which refers to the 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. workday, six days a week. "I personally think that being able to work 996 is a huge blessing," he said in remarks posted on the company's WeChat account. "Many companies and many people don't have the opportunity to work 996," Ma said. "If you don't work 996 when you are young, when can you ever work 996?"
"In this world, everyone wants success, wants a nice life, wants to be respected," Ma said. "Let me ask everyone, if you don't put out more time and energy than others, how can you achieve the success you want?" Ma referred to the tech industry today where some people are without jobs, or working at companies in search of revenue or facing closure. "Compared to them, up to this day, I still feel lucky, I don't regret (working 12 hour days), I would never change this part of me," he said. On Thursday, an unnamed author published an opinion piece in a state newspaper, arguing that 996 violates China's Labor Law, which stipulates that average work hours cannot exceed 40 hours a week. "Creating a corporate culture of 'encouraged overtime' will not only not help a business' core competitiveness, it might inhibit and damage a company's ability to innovate," the author wrote.
"In this world, everyone wants success, wants a nice life, wants to be respected," Ma said. "Let me ask everyone, if you don't put out more time and energy than others, how can you achieve the success you want?" Ma referred to the tech industry today where some people are without jobs, or working at companies in search of revenue or facing closure. "Compared to them, up to this day, I still feel lucky, I don't regret (working 12 hour days), I would never change this part of me," he said. On Thursday, an unnamed author published an opinion piece in a state newspaper, arguing that 996 violates China's Labor Law, which stipulates that average work hours cannot exceed 40 hours a week. "Creating a corporate culture of 'encouraged overtime' will not only not help a business' core competitiveness, it might inhibit and damage a company's ability to innovate," the author wrote.
Stuff like this reminds me of old white supremacists quacking on about how slavery in the old South was a boon to the slaves.
see what happens when you don't have a union?
There are some very old studied done by Henry Ford and others. They wanted to optimize worker efficiency. They found that the best outcome is at 8h per day, 5 days a week for manual work and 6h per day, 5 days a week for mental work. Work more and your productivity drops due to mistakes, sick-days (even if uncompensated, you are still not working) and other effects.
Of course, the US has forgotten that and China has probably never found out. In both cases, the mistaken thinking is that the more you exploit your workers, the better the profits. That is patently untrue, but requires dropping greed and the superiority complex of the average capitalist and rationally looking at facts instead. Few people with money or a deep desire for money are capable of that.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
It is even worse than that: Preaching hard work will get _him_ less money, because individual productivity peaks at around 40h/week and drops above that. This guy mast have gotten really lucky, because he does not even understand the basics of work. Not that different from the average CEO, though.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.