Recently, the discussion of "996" swept the public opinion field, from employees who spit out, internet giants and even scientists and scholars, a discussion about "struggle" and "life", "work" and "health" aroused people’s resonance.

　　On the one hand, programmers launched the counterattack of "996 today, ICU tomorrow", on the other hand, 996 was praised as a flower by some bosses. On April 11th, Ma Yun said that being able to "996" is a great blessing, and many people have no chance to "996". How can we achieve the desired success without making efforts and time to surpass others? The next night, he said in Weibo that any company should not and cannot force employees to "996". Don’t defend 996, but pay tribute to the strugglers!

　　Liu Qiangdong also posted in the circle of friends, sharing his struggle history of "8116+8" working mode, starting at 8 am and working until 11 pm, working 6 days a week and 8 hours on Sunday. Compared with programmers, high-intensity work is commonplace, and even "711" (11 am to 11 pm, working 7 days a week) is very common.

　　In GitHub, the first code hosting website to discuss "996·ICU", more than 40 enterprises were exposed to implement the "996" working system. "996" has long been the "hidden rule" of the Internet industry. So, is it really a choice between hard work and a happy life?

　　Active "996" has gained a lot, forcing "996" everyone to shout.

　　After nearly a year of "996", Qiang Wenhao resigned as the director of an Internet company (search engine optimization) in Beijing and went to a "965" company. Although the working hours are no different now than before, he feels "like heaven."

　　Qiang Wenhao is 26 years old. His work for nearly a year has made him gain dozens of pounds and suffer from gout. This year’s work also made him see the world: "996" is nothing, and there are also "9-12-6 (9: 00 am to 12: 00 pm, 6 days a week)" and "9-12-7 (9: 00 am to early morning, 7 days a week)".

　　"Active 996 is different from compulsory 996. Active 996 can gain a lot." For Qiang Wenhao, he went through at least one cycle: in the last company, he went from active "996" to passive "996"; After leaving the company to take private jobs, you still have to work overtime, and it has become an active "996".

　　As a management, his experience is deeper. From adding workload to front-line employees, cutting off overtime benefits, and canceling overtime pay, Qiang Wenhao tried his best to appease the team’s mood, but he could not avoid the reality that "996" changed from an option to the only one. Finally, employees left voluntarily, from a few hundred to only a few dozen. Qiang wenhao is exhausted.

　　Unlike Qiang Wenhao, Qin Zuo (a pseudonym) is a staunch opponent of "996". As a senior software development expert of a Fortune 500 foreign-funded company, Qin Zuo has been enjoying the "preferential" 8-hour flexible working system for the past three years, and has never worked overtime.

　　At the Zhihu, he and others discussed the "996" working system, which made workers more aware of their rights, which made him feel that his efforts had been valuable. Qin Zuo said that programming, as a kind of mental work, has no absolute linear relationship between output and labor time. With a high degree of concentration in 8 hours’ work, the output will be competitive enough. In his experience, after high-intensity labor, the brain will be very chaotic. Bugs caused by forced work will only take you several times more time to fix. "The technical sages realized this as early as decades ago, so that’s why they got the famous Myth of Man and Moon." (The book puts forward that the primary reason for the delay of software projects is the lack of reasonable schedule, which is praised as the "holy book" of management in the software field)

　　Qin Zuo said that a few years ago, "996" and "wolf spirit" were all crowned with the name of struggle, and bosses and employees applauded. Now, many people are shouting. "From the public opinion, the so-called’ 996′ has no soil for survival. This is a visible progress. This progress cannot be separated from the cry of every worker."

　　Chen Dayou (a pseudonym) is a newcomer to a venture capital company. He laughed at himself, saying that people who work in Beijing have no life. Dealing with entrepreneurs every day, he has long been accustomed to their working conditions of 7×24 hours, 365 days a day. Like many young people in this industry, it is difficult for him to distinguish between life and work. It is common to work overtime after dinner. Even if you make an appointment for brunch on weekends, you will wonder if you can make an appointment with an entrepreneur to talk about work.

　　Then, if the boss puts forward the "996" working system to Chen Dayou, will he accept it?

　　"I will point to the boss’s nose and scold him." Chen Dayou said that for start-ups, it is a failure to rely on a rigid system to make employees work hard for the boss’s vision.

　　However, in Chen Dayou’s view, for the industry, if a person loves it enough, he must accept its "rules." Whether it’s "996" or something else. Otherwise, even if you don’t really like it, maybe this person is really not the person these companies are looking for.

　　Where is the "degree" of overtime work

　　Recently, an anonymous report about sogou Company in the pulse post made Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of sogou Company, unable to sit still.

　　It was revealed that sogou began to count overtime hours and lay off employees, so colleagues around him "dawdled" for 11 hours. In this regard, Wang Xiaochuan said that the company has no such requirement, and even if there is, the employees who waste time like this are irresponsible to themselves and the company.

　　Wang Xiaochuan sent a screenshot of this conversation to his Sina Weibo, and forwarded: 1. sogou did not engage in "counting overtime hours for layoffs", and the work was driven by goals and wishes, not coercion; 2. Sincere communication and common growth are the values of sogou. My email address and internal IM are open to every employee in sogou. Please ask me directly if you have any questions. 3. We will not tolerate those who do not agree with sogou’s values and are unwilling to meet the challenge with sogou.

　　Among the top five popular comments in Weibo, four expressed dissatisfaction with sogou’s substantial support for overtime work, and another claimed to be a former employee of sogou, saying that sogou was the most humane, conscientious and considerate of employees in Internet companies, and paid the monthly salary 10 days in advance, regardless of the length of service.

　　Coincidentally, the media recently broke the news that Nikolay Storonsky, CEO of Revolut, a Silicon Valley startup, said in an internal email that "the KPI bonus may not be finished" and also suggested that some product managers and team leaders were behind the process and did not work overtime to catch up on weekends. Such people "will be dismissed without notice after the review if their performance is not as expected".

　　Such behavior is becoming more and more open, and in the name of corporate culture, it attracts job seekers with the same values. In response to the discussion about "996" in China, Jiang Ying, dean of the School of Law of the Institute of Labor Relations, said that he did not recognize this "corporate culture". She told China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online reporter that the Labor Law aims to protect and balance the rights and interests of workers and enterprises, hoping to protect the physical and mental health of workers and avoid labor accidents caused by overwork.

　　Jiang Ying said that the protection of workers’ rights and interests is in step with a country’s economic development. China is still in the primary stage of socialism, but the Labor Law protects the rights and interests of workers to a relatively high degree. The benign production and operation of enterprises is also the protection of workers’ rights and interests. When enterprises encounter difficulties, they should at least keep the bottom line of the law. Jiang Ying pointed out that at present, the law does not prohibit overtime work, so long as certain procedures are followed, overtime work within certain limits is allowed.

　　Article 36 of the Labor Law stipulates that the state practices a working-hour system in which workers work no more than eight hours a day and no more than 44 hours a week on average. Article 41 stipulates that due to the needs of production and operation, the employer may extend the working hours after consultation with the trade unions and laborers, and generally the working hours shall not exceed one hour per day; If it is necessary to extend working hours for special reasons, the extension of working hours shall not exceed three hours a day, but shall not exceed thirty-six hours a month under the condition of ensuring the health of workers. (In 1995, the State Council Decree No.174 was amended to mean no more than 40 hours per week)

　　"Corporate culture must first uphold the principle of the rule of law." Jiang Ying said that modern enterprises in any modern country must form a corporate culture on the basis of the rule of law, and at the same time, this corporate culture should be recognized by employees, so as to unite employees. In contrast to these two standards, Jiang Ying demanded the so-called "996" enterprise spirit and found that this could not be called corporate culture. "If some enterprises unilaterally require employees to implement’ 996′ from their own interests, this is a violation of the labor law. Strictly speaking, this should not be a corporate culture. "

　　Qin Zuo unceremoniously "fired": "There are many managers in China’s current enterprises, who are unable to mobilize the enthusiasm of employees within 8 hours and are afraid of taking responsibility, so they can only pursue superficial efforts, pile up labor time, deceive themselves and be numb." Qin Zuo denounced that these people have made the workplace smoggy and abruptly made the life of this generation of workplace people miserable.

　　"It is a lazy policy to extend the working hours blindly in the hope of achieving higher efficiency, which is a manifestation of powerlessness." Peng Xiang, an entrepreneur, is also a manager. He holds a negative attitude towards the management mode of "996".

　　Peng Xiang paid great attention to the public opinion trend of "996". Chengdu Wanshouwu, which he founded, is a start-up enterprise. In his view, startups have to adopt the "996" approach, otherwise, compared with large companies, there is not only a gap in market share, but also a gap in working hours.

　　Peng Xiang believes that "996" may be a means of management. "For example, when the company’s previous team can’t rise and can’t bear to give it up, it can only be partially laid off. 996′ perfectly solved such a problem-it not only achieved soft layoffs, but also allowed the remaining employees to supplement the working hours of those who were laid off. "

　　Chen Dayou’s company has invested in more than 70 entrepreneurial projects. Although he has never heard of any entrepreneur asking for "996", he bluntly said that "start-ups all ask for small steps to run quickly, and they must find someone who fits their values to come to the company, otherwise it will be impossible to complete this matter." More importantly, large companies often form a complete talent training system, which can bear the risk of moderate talent flow, which provides conditions for them to implement "996". However, Chen Dayou believes that this is more of a strong point of large companies and does not apply to startups.

　　In Qiang Wenhao’s view, some Internet companies adopt the "996" working system, which is a compromise when there is no better solution to improve efficiency. Even if employees change jobs, they may not be able to solve such problems. "Anyone who is engaged in work overtime can bring benefits and will be’ overtime’. I hope that I can only change industries without working overtime. "

　　"Who knows the original taste of life when the whole people are’ 996′?"

　　"High-intensity overtime makes the middle-aged crisis inevitable for everyone in the workplace." In Qin Zuo’s view, among the 10,000 hazards of overtime, this is more serious than the deprivation of family life and the harm to health.

　　"The essence of the middle-aged crisis lies in the irreconcilable contradiction between people’s declining energy and high-intensity labor." Qin Zuo found that the growth of age is so cruel, even if the enterprise overcomes age discrimination and gives you a job, as long as there is high-intensity overtime, "even if you are not desperate, you can’t do it." Every middle-aged person in the workplace will eventually be kicked out of the top labor market-no matter management or technology. In Qin Zuo’s eyes, this is a trap that middle-aged professionals can’t jump out of.

　　To avoid the trap of middle age, people can only start from youth. At this point, Qiang Wenhao also supports "996". He said that without the overtime system, the starting salary of programmers would not necessarily be so high. For young people, without qualifications, background and ability, health is the greatest capital. Appropriate "996" may give you a job-hopping to an ideal job one day and reserve more confidence.

　　Chen Dayou is used to analyzing "996" enterprises with investor thinking. He said that these enterprises are likely to prove their business model by running data in the starting stage; Or just get new financing and expand at the request of shareholders to get a better valuation. In short, it is all out of the stage of greater pressure.

　　"This stage is more prone to problems. Under the same conditions, some enterprises will be "crushed", but some enterprises will persist. This means opportunity. " Chen Dayou said that entrepreneurs are actually very pure and want to use all their time to finish what they want to do. More preparation must mean more confidence.

　　Li Siwei (pseudonym) works as an iOS development engineer in Shenyang. He has never experienced "996". On the one hand, there are not many IT companies in Shenyang. On the other hand, he will speak frankly with HR before joining the job, and can accept appropriate overtime, but he needs overtime pay and does not accept unconditional overtime.

　　Li Siwei bluntly said that he didn’t have any lofty ideals and ambitions, and didn’t think about how much money he could earn in this life. He just wants to do what he likes and live the life he wants. "Many people don’t understand the labor law at all, and they don’t know what life should be like at all. They have been brainwashed by entrepreneurs in the form of’ struggle’ and’ corporate culture’." Li Siwei raised a question: If "996" is not resisted, who will know the original taste of life when the whole people "996" comes? (Reporter Li Chen He Ningdi)