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The richest Internet nabobs in China think that their employees should work more.
Jack Ma, one of the founders of the Alibaba e-commerce website, describes long hours of work as a "great blessing". Richard Liu, who leads rival Alibaba, JD.com, said those who were wasting their time "are not my brothers."
China's core technology workers, discouraged by a weakened job market and discouraged by their chance to join the digital aristocracy, have other ideas.
They organize online against what is called in China "996" culture: from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week.
For years, Chinese technical employees have worked for hours that make Silicon Valley workaholics look pampered. Now, they name and shame employers who demand late nights. Some programmers even refuse their creations to companies that, in their opinion, place excessive importance on 996.
"Ten years ago, people rarely complained about 996," said Li Shun, a former employee of research giant Baidu, who went on to found an online medical start-up. "This industry was booming, but it's more of a normal industry now. There is no more giant financial return. It is unrealistic to expect people to work according to their own schedule (996). "
Unusually for China – where independent unions are banned and the government condemned the populist movements it does not control – the movement is gaining ground.
Even the Chinese state media have called on employers to calm down.
"Under the pressure of the economic slowdown, many companies are facing issues regarding their survival and their anxiety is understandable," said a commentary in the People's Daily, the spokesman for the Communist Party. "But the solution is not to have employees work the most overtime possible."
A 72-hour workweek worries China's digital industries.
It was not so long ago that 996 symbolized the possibility for Chinese technology entrepreneurs. Their country had the vast market. And more and more, he had the talent of engineer. The secret ingredient, the one that supposedly distinguished Chinese companies from those of Silicon Valley, was the crush.
While China demands overtime pay, laws are applied randomly, and the technology sector generally insists that workers commit their time voluntarily.
But it is more difficult to require workers in a bear market. Internet darlings have laid off employees. A flood of venture capital investments in technology has slowed down. At a time when China's Internet sector is growing, giant corporations such as Alibaba and Tencent are more like monopolies whose global dominance leaves little room for the future.
In China, "there is not much hope for the finalists," said Max Zhou, co-founder of MetaApp, a young mobile software company in Beijing. As a result, he said, small businesses can no longer use a more ambitious goal to motivate workers to sacrifice their personal lives.
"Most companies have no dreams," Zhou said. "They can only try to make something for their employees."
The 996 debate began last month with a simple post on GitHub, an online community where programmers from around the world share code and software tools. An anonymous user posted under the name "996icu" screen, a reference to where such hours take engineers: the intensive care unit.
The Chinese government is always afraid of spaces where mass discontent can simmer. It has long banned access to Facebook, Twitter and other global platforms. Years ago, China briefly blocked GitHub as well, but the engineers protested and the site was unblocked. GitHub, which belongs to Microsoft, has a policy of publishing any withdrawal request received from governments.
Nagi Zhuge, an engineer at a start-up in the southern province of Hunan, has lived 996 years in the past two years.
"My colleagues are too scared to go home after work," said Zhuge. "As a young employee, I can not be the first to leave." He is now actively contributing to the GitHub project.
In the different groups, the basic strategy is to push, but not so hard that the Chinese government feels compelled to react.
It means no strike and no demonstrations. In a group of the Telegram messaging application, references to Marx and Lenin are prohibited. The philosophies of the leaders of communism often go against the way China is headed today. This year, the government cracked down on a workers' rights movement in Shenzhen's technology hub.
Instead of sit-ins, technicians use the power of memes, stickers and t-shirts. Some have asked for a vacation to celebrate distressed software engineers. Mr. Zhuge asked the workers to mail Chinese paper copies of the labor law to Mr. Ma Alibaba.
"We express ourselves very nicely, as programmers often do," said Suji Yan, founder of a Shanghai-based young company, Dimension.
Despite this, many people in China and elsewhere remain concerned that the movement will be silenced. A few weeks ago, some Chinese web browsers appeared to have restricted access to the GitHub repository. In response, Microsoft employees launched a petition asking the company to refuse any request for censorship or deletion of the 996.ICU repository from the Chinese authorities.
"The most important thing for the 996.ICU movement is that GitHub is accessible in China," the employees wrote in their petition. "We encourage Microsoft and GitHub to keep the 996.ICU GitHub repository uncensored and accessible to all." The petition, also hosted on GitHub, has collected more than 150 public signatures and has been interpreted over 4,000 times.
Concerns about censorship also arose when Twitter users in the United States were prevented from posting links to the 996.ICU repository. The link has been incorrectly reported by Twitter's spam prevention system, a Twitter spokesperson said, but users are now able to post it.
On GitHub, Chinese techs have blacklisted technology companies with the longest hours. Among the authors: Alibaba, JD.com, smartphone maker Huawei and Bytedance, the social media giant behind the TikTok short video platform.
Written at the bottom of group 996.CU bright red homepage: "The life of developers matters."
Alibaba said it did not comment on 996 beyond Mr. Ma's social media posts, and JD.com did not comment except for Mr. Liu's message. Huawei, whose leaders speak proudly of their "wolf culture", did not comment. Bytedance has not responded to a request for comment.
The GitHub repository contains information on job opportunities abroad. There is also a list of things that people can do to support the movement.
Last item on the list: "Go home at 6 pm. without feeling sorry.
Kate Conger contributed to the reports.
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