996 no more: TikTok owner ByteDance embraces shorter ‘1075’ work hours amid backlash in China’s tech world
- The Beijing-based unicorn updated its system on Monday to discourage staff from working more than nine hours a day or going to the office on weekends
- Chinese authorities have openly criticised excessive work hours in Chinese tech companies, calling it an “evil” in labour exploitation
The Chinese tech industry’s infamous 996 work hours – 9am to 9pm, six days a week – are set to disappear at ByteDance, the country’s first major tech company to explicitly discourage employees from working overtime.
On Monday, TikTok owner ByteDance asked its nearly 100,000 employees to start following a “1075” schedule – 10am to 7pm, five days a week – a potentially life-changing move to many who have grown accustomed to toiling into the late night and weekends.
Employees must now seek permission to work overtime, capped at three hours each weekday and eight hours on weekends, according to three people familiar with the matter. Employees will be paid 1.5 times their normal salary for overtime on weekdays, and twice for overtime during weekends, as stipulated under the country’s labour law, one person said.
Claim for overtime pay must be approved by a manager who is two levels higher than the applicant, two people said, so employees are now expected to “avoid holding team meetings at night and try to leave early”.
ByteDance declined to comment on Tuesday.
ByteDance’s latest policy quickly made a splash on Chinese social media. A related topic on microblogging platform Weibo had been viewed more than 270 million times as of Tuesday afternoon. On Zhihu, a Q&A site akin to Quora, internet users excitedly discussed whether the news is true and how the rule is implemented.
