Amid mounting public backlash, court rulings, and employee fatigue; Chinese companies are slowly dismantling the once-glorified ‘996’ culture in favor of legal work limits.

The 70-hour workweek debate has reignited. This time it is in China. Here, the government is cracking down on its ‘996’ work culture, recently declared illegal by the nation’s top court.

From tech giants to manufacturing powerhouses, several major Chinese firms have started telling employees to clock out earlier. Midea, one of the country’s leading appliance makers, now sends staff home by 6:20 pm. DJI, a drone manufacturer long associated with late hours, has begun clearing offices by 9 pm.

These shifts signal a quiet, state-backed effort to dismantle the ‘996’ culture that has come to define white-collar life in China’s tech sector.

What is China’s controversial 996 work culture?

The ‘996 work culture’ refers to a work schedule common in some Chinese tech companies and startups, where employees are expected to work from 9 am to 9 pm, Six days a week.

The 996-work culture became a norm in China’s tech industry, especially after Alibaba founder Jack Ma famously called it a “blessing” in 2019, adding, “If you want to join Alibaba, you need to be prepared to work 12 hours a day, otherwise why even bother joining?”

A leaked internal letter from 2019 showed Richard Liu, founder of JD.com, writing, “Slackers are not my brothers!” He went on to criticize “those who spend their days drinking coffee and pretending to work” and praised “brothers who fight together and bleed together”.

At the time, a job at Alibaba, Tencent, or Baidu signified prestige and prosperity, even if it came at the cost of personal time, pushing workers to quietly tolerate the long working hours.

But soon after, tech workers, many of them young, began pushing back, criticizing the culture as exploitative and unsustainable.

Workers began mocking the system with phrases like “007”—working all day, every day. Many young Chinese started to join the ‘Bai Lan’ (let it rot) and ‘Tang Ping’ (lie flat) movements, rejecting ambition altogether in favor of low-key, low-stress lifestyles.

This was further fueled by the issue that despite working long hours, people were still struggling to afford housing, marriage, or a better quality of life. Skyrocketing property prices and living expenses made it especially difficult for Chinese youth to achieve financial security.

A few days ago, Former WHO Chief Scientist and Health Ministry Advisor, Soumya Swaminathan has emphasized the importance of listening to one's body and recognizing the need for rest, as continuous overwork can lead to burnout and decreased productivity.

She explained that while short bursts of intense work, like those during COVID-19, are possible, they are not sustainable over time.

Swaminathan also highlighted that productivity is more dependent on the quality of work rather than the number of hours worked.

Asked about the impact of long working hours on human health, the former director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) says: “I know a lot of people who work very hard. So, I think it is an individual thing and a body tells when one gets tired, so then one also has to listen to the body."

For those two-three years of COVID-19, all did it. People did not sleep much. They were stressed most of the time, worrying about things, especially the healthcare providers. They were working round-the-clock. There was some burnout. Many people left the profession also after that. But it can be done for short sprints, (but) it is not really sustainable.

The renowned global health expert emphasized that mental well-being and rest are crucial for sustained performance. The human body also has some needs for sleep. and mental also. One needs a break for going to be productive.

Health has also taken a toll, with multiple reports of young workers in their twenties collapsing and dying after prolonged periods of overwork. While companies have denied any direct link to working hours, the incidents have fueled speculation about chronic exhaustion. This is not unsimilar to the case of 26-year-old chartered accountant Anna Sebastian Perayil, who died just months after joining Ernst & Young in Pune. Her parents condemned the firm’s “glorification of overwork” and lack of employee support for their daughter’s death.

China’s Labor Law limits working hours to 8 hours per day and 40 per week, allowing up to 36 hours of overtime per month.

In 2021, the Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Human Resources ruled the 996 schedule illegal, citing labor disputes where workers had died or been wrongfully dismissed over overtime. Yet enforcement has been sporadic. Many companies simply rebranded 996 as “big week/small week” or used flexible-hour loopholes approved by local labor bureaus.

In 2024, Baidu’s head of communications triggered a social media firestorm by declaring it wasn’t her responsibility if employees’ personal lives were destroyed by work. “I’m not their mother,” she said. Days later, she resigned amid backlash.

However, Tech leaders from across the globe have long championed a “sacrifice now, succeed later” ethos, portraying extreme work hours as a prerequisite for greatness. Tech billionaire Elon Musk in 2018 famously said, “Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week,” urging followers to put in 80 to 100 hours to “improve the odds of success.”

Indian leaders echo long work hour sentiment amid productivity debate. Infosys founder Narayana Murthy sparked controversy by suggesting young people should work 70 hours a week to boost national productivity, a sentiment later echoed by several leaders.

And while many have spoken out against hustle culture and toxic workplaces, deep-rooted cultural and economic forces continue to favor long hours with the promise of future rewards.

Workers rarely challenge employers on overtime, fearing job loss or missed promotions. The problem is even more prevalent in the informal sector, with gig workers and service staff remaining overworked and under-protected. Younger workers both in China and India reject hustle culture norms. A younger generation of Chinese workers is increasingly rejecting the old trade-off of money for misery.

While ending a deeply rooted cultural trend may be difficult, the fact that Beijing is even acknowledging the problem is significant. In India too, growing pushback against burnout culture suggests that younger professionals are beginning to question whether success should come at the cost of health and strongly opposed the idea, questioning whether workers are being treated as humans or robots. True economic progress should uplift everyone, not just a select few.

More recently, L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan escalated the conversation by advocating an even more extreme 90-hour work week, even suggesting that employees should work on Sundays. The younger generation fiercely condemned such proposals, arguing that these disregard employees' well-being and work-life balance. He stressed that productivity isn’t just about logging excessive hours but about working efficiently and wholeheartedly.

Quality of work is most important, not quantity. The truth is that the people sitting at the top benefit the most from the hard work of the youth without doing anything themselves. That’s why they give impractical advice like working 90 hours a week.

Economic growth should benefit all. If economic progress only benefits a few, then whether the economy reaches USD 30 trillion or USD 100 trillion, what difference does it make to the common people? True economic justice means prosperity is shared by all. It is well said that relaxation and recreation are crucial for maintaining work quality.

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