Chinese city proposes ban on work messages sent after business hours
- The number of people who log into WeChat via a computer increased almost 10 times over a three year period
Tencent’s WeChat super-app enables its Chinese users to chat, play games, shop, read news, pay for meals and much more, providing unparalleled convenience for its one billion users. However, Chinese workers are finding that such convenience comes at a price as company bosses increasingly use WeChat to assign tasks to their employees.
Now authorities in the Xiangzhou district of the southern Chinese coastal city of Zhuhai are pushing back with proposed measures designed to separate work from play on the app. “No working messages should be sent to WeChat working groups during non-working hours,” according to a proposal announced earlier this month on the district’s official WeChat account.
The proposal comes at a time when communicating via WeChat has become an extension of daily life for most Chinese people due to the dominant position of the Tencent-owned app in providing social media services.
WeChat representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“WeChat groups originally served to improve working efficiency but [with more and more groups forming] it has become a heavy working burden to employees,” said the proposal. “In principle, one company can only form one WeChat group [and] the group for a project should be disbanded after it is done.”