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.

Comments

There is a name for this ..,

[UnknownSoldier]

Exploitation.

Talk about a complete lack of respect for people's time, space, mind, and health.

Re:There is a name for this ..,

[gweihir]

It is even worse: The productivity you get this way is wayyyy lower than with a 40h week. I can only think it is some idea that the underclass has to be tortured and a tiny number of those that take the torture without complaining and ask for more can be lifted up.

Re:There is a name for this ..,

[apoc.famine]

I work less now than I ever have, and I'm vastly more productive than I've ever been.

This is for a couple of reasons.

1) I can take public transportation, and triage emails before I get in in the morning, and take care of a few things after I leave so there's less built up in the morning. I show up with a list of what needs to be done, and no need to waste 20 minutes filtering.
2) My shit is organized. I put a lot of time and effort into that, and I offload a lot of mental energy by not having to remember a lot of things. That means I've got a lot more mental energy to spend on what I really need to be thinking about.
3) When I'm not productive I leave. Ass in the seat doesn't produce results just because that's happening. A rested brain can do awesome shit. The trick is making sure that it gets rest, and you don't just assume that more thinking time will produce awesome results. It won't.
4) (2a) I kick off at quitting time even if I'm mid-flow. I just lay down some quick notes about where I'm at and what needs to happen next. I dump what it's in my head, and then walk away with a clear head, leaving that for tomorrow. Tomorrow 3 minutes of skimming and I'm not doing that shit, because somehow in the last 12 hrs my brain realized that's not what I should be doing, and I now know what I really should be doing. I swear, 2/3 of the time that I brain-dump and leave, I come back the next day knowing that that's not going to be productive.

I've dropped some 10s, and even a few 12s, and none of them were as productive as my regular 7s are.

Stuff like this

[sjames]

Stuff like this reminds me of old white supremacists quacking on about how slavery in the old South was a boon to the slaves.

Re: Stuff like this

[Anonymous Coward]

Republicans were liberals at the time and conservatives were Democrats, so yes, he would be considered a liberal or at best a RINO today.

It's not rewriting history, it's understanding history.
The Republican party as you know it came about it when Barry Goldwater pulled conservatives to the Republican party, mostly over anger over the of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

see what happens when you don't have a union?

[Joe_Dragon]

see what happens when you don't have a union?

The one lucky guy among the millions...

[ffkom]

... whose hard work actually gained him a fortune is bad enough at statistics to understand that for the vast majority, hard work will get them just a little extra money at best, but very likely ruin their chances to stay healthy and happy.

Just like the nonsense that sports celebrities speak when inspiring the youth to follow their example - while they should know that most just become wrecks, not highly paid professionals.

Re:The one lucky guy among the millions...

[gweihir]

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.

"Success"

[nmb3000]

"Let me ask everyone, if you don't put out more time and energy than others, how can you achieve the success you want?"

Not everyone dreams of becoming a sociopathic executive when they grow up. Most just want to live relatively comfortably, have the means to raise a family, be able to afford a few indulgences now and then, and have a good work-life balance.

Civilization is not a zero-sum game.

Re:Productivity

[gweihir]

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.