There's working hard... and there's 996 (Part 1/2)

It's no big secret that I'm rather contemptuous of the term "work-life balance". It's a term that's been bandied around so often that it's lost its meaning. It's some buzzword tossed around by people who have it so good that they're no longer thinking about survival and instead obsessing over having enough time to watch soap operas and whatnot.

That being said, the recent furor over the 996 work culture in China was disturbing. 996 is shorthand for 9AM to 9PM, 6 days a week, akin to, or perhaps even surpassing, the Hustle Culture in Silicon Valley. And what was most disturbing of all was realizing that tech companies in China were making their employees do this, in direct defiance of China's labor laws against compulsory unpaid overtime, which, if we're going to be honest, don't amount to a pile of monkey shit since they're not enforced.

Now, it's also no big secret that I used to pull those ungodly hours years ago. 996? Bitch, please - I was coming in twelve hours a day, Sundays and public holidays. Years later when I was working in a startup, that was 996... and a vacation in comparison. So I'm going to risk sounding like an utter hypocrite when I denounce the 996 work culture in China's tech industry.

You see, spending those hours at work for your own sake is one thing. You're young, you have the energy, pour it into something you love. Learn. Practice. Perfect your craft.

But when the company mandates the 996 work culture, that is something else entirely. That is repugnant. It's like you telling your spouse "I love you" just because he or she told you to say it. My bosses appreciated me putting in all that time precisely because they never asked for it. Not that their appreciation means anything since I was doing it purely for selfish reasons... but enforcing a work culture like that breeds resentment. It leads to bosses taking employees for granted because if 996 is the norm, going above and beyond the call of duty would involve something even more spectacularly insane. Case in point tech workers in China putting up 996.ICU on GitHub, an allusion to ICU (Intensive Care Unit) being where you'll end up after 996.

Because that pace of work isn't sustainable long-term. There is going to be a breaking point somewhere.

About to snap.

You see, even when I was spending the majority of my life at work, there was an objective. The objective was to get better at my job so that one day I wouldn't need to spend that much time honing my craft. Because I understood that despite how much I love my work, like any other human being, I have physical limitations. And as I age, those limitations are going to become increasingly apparent.

Should people spend more time at work? Yes, if they personally see a need to. But no, it should not be, implicitly or explicitly, demanded of workers unless there is commensurate remuneration; or unless these workers own shares in the company, in which case they would be motivated to put in those extra hours anyway.

Work is part of life...

Here, I need to digress a little.

When I said "work is part of life" a couple months ago, I was faced with objection from proponents of "work-life balance". These are people whose entire world is divided into two parts: work and not-work. I consider it an oversimplification, but if it keeps them happy, I'm all for it.

This is how it looks like, using PHP arrays as an example.

$work = ["debug", "test", "code"];
$not_work = ["sleep", "play", "eat"];

On the other hand, if one is experiencing dissatisfaction with the "work-life balance" model, you could try looking at it from my perspective instead. In my perspective, work is part of life, because my world is divided into things we do because we're alive, and things we do because we're dead. And unless you're claiming to be able to work after you're dead, work comes firmly under the $life array. Yes, there's an extra layer to the previous model and I'm viewing everything through that lens.

$work = ["debug", "test", "code"];
$not_work = ["sleep", "play", "eat"];

$life = [$work, $not_work];
$death = [$decay];

But this model only works if you're not working merely to pay the bills. It's only relevant if your work is part of your identity.

...but there should be lines drawn.

Whichever model you employ in your worldview, a certain amount of discipline is advisable. These days, I don't bring work home if I can help it, and I certainly don't answer work emails at home. Why? For the same reason I don't do my goddamn housework in the office. If employers want professionalism, they should be prepared to accept everything that goes with it. I can stay back late in the office; I can even come in on weekends. But once I leave the office, I'm done, dude.

And unless what you're working on is so earth-shatteringly important that success would change life for everyone on this planet as we know it (cure for cancer, mind-controlled mobile phones, flying cars), the company should never take priority over family. If you die in the course of work, your family's going to be devastated. The company's merely going to be inconvenienced.

I can't emphasize this enough. Even if we assume that it's passion and not money that drives you, the workplace is a place you work, end of. Lawyers care about the law - they don't care about the firm they practice in. Surgeons care about saving lives - they don't care about the hospital they operate in. And as a web developer, I care about making good software - I certainly don't care about the company I do it in. Not enough to be operating 996 solely for the company's benefit, anyway.

In essence, I'm not against 996 at all. I'm only against companies that think they're entitled to that level of commitment.

Next

Reflecting on the value of hard work.