Work from 9am to 9 pm, six days a week, which is popularly known as ‘9- 9-6’ work culture fuelled economic growth in China decades ago. While ‘9-9-6’means employees must work for 12 hours, they often end up
working for 16 hours. While government rules still recommend 8 hours a day, Chinese employees in corporate companies have to work for 12-16 hours. Or they are called unprofessional or uncommitted.1But there is rebellion now. The young generations, popularly identified as millennials, have rejected the ‘9-9-6’ lifestyle saying it leads people to death, and have taken to the social rebellion through a campaign called “lying flat”.
The ongoing trend can affect manpower availability and thus have economic impacts when the country is the problem pf aging population.
Moreover, Chinese tech companies have been found to be keeping track of their employees using surveillance tools. A software called DiSanZhiYan, or "Third Eye” is installed secretly on employee’s laptops, which sends real-time data about employees’ browsing, chatting, and documents or websites they are accessing.2 Besides surveillance, the information extracted from the software is used to hamper employees’ promotions or salaries, or even sack them. Zhongduantong, a software company, forced its employees, probably those on the field, to upload pictures of their surroundings whenever they reached a designated location. Even companies track if their employees spend time on social media or even in the loo.
“The system keeps employees afraid. They know that they are being watched throughout their 12-hour work shifts. The 9-9-6 life was miserable enough without having to live in fear,” said Jiang Yi, a Beijing-based employee. China’s double-digit growth and zooming past several nations to bag the second largest economy in a very short time could happen due to surplus
labour in the country, which was said to be super-exploited employees in factories. And now the trends continue in the private companies as well, such as Alibaba, Huawei.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who has been an inspirational figure in China, too advocated the ‘9-9-6’ culture calling it a “blessing”. He said working longer hours would help get rewards.
His comments were met with criticism. Shaun Rein of the China Market Research Group said the youth had lost the thrill to make China a world leader and thus they started rebellion againstthe‘9-9-6’ workplace culture. "Younger Chinese just don't want to slave away either working for a multi-national company or work in a factory or even work for a Chinese billionaire like Jack Ma. And they're starting to push back,” he said.
Huang Zheng, a 22-year-old working at tech firm Pinduoduo, collapsed when she left the office after a long-hours shift that ended at 1.30 in the night. She died. Her family was denied the post-mortem report since reportedly she had died due to overwork. Even the government agencies did not do anything. Zhang’s death due to inhuman working hours was discussed and criticised heavily on social media. Two weeks later,another employee of Pinduoduo committed suicide, forcing the company to mull over “psychological counseling services” for employees.
It rendered Chinese employees to express their protests against ‘9-9-6’. A senior executive wrote on social media “We spend most of our weekends in the office. Our bodies have been in overloaded conditions for an extended period of time.”
The ‘9-9-6’ concept did not even spare students. There was an uproar after a photograph of a student at Tsinghua University cycling and studying on his laptop simultaneouslysurfaced. The rat race in Chinese society has now driven the millennials to speak out against the long-hours working style. They joined the Tang Ping (lying flat movement), which is passive resistance to the feeling ofover-exploitation through more labour as we as and the exhortations of the government to be more productive.
This does not sounds well for Chinese president Xi Jinping’s appeal for driving economic growth by boosting country's own domestic demand than relying on overseas markets.11 Thus Tang Ping is seen as a rebellion
against the work-hard principle promoted by the communist party-led Chinese government.
After China undertook reforms in 1978, a readily available and cheap labour force had been a big factor for economic growth. However, now the contribution of labour is decreasing apparently due to growing wagesand shrinking youth population due to China’s One-Child policy. In such a scenario, the young generations seeking a reduced number of working hours can have serious implications on efforts to boost economic growthand thus China’s ambitions to become the biggest economic superpower.
