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996

(lucumr.pocoo.org)
1001 points genericlemon24 | 5 comments | 06 Sep 25 13:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.791s | source
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grantdong ◴[06 Sep 25 14:26 UTC] No.45149548[source]▶
In China, its birthplace, '996' always seen as practice of failed management. Because for at least half of the 72-hour workweek, most employee will mentally checkout (in Chinese we call this 摸鱼). Although middle managers know their subordinates are inefficient, they still impose working hour KPI on their team, so they can demonstrate their own value to upper management.
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1. WiSaGaN ◴[06 Sep 25 14:31 UTC] No.45149591[source]▶
China is not the birthplace of so called '996'. Long before tech scene in China, there are a lot of investment banks doing that in HK especially for junior analysts. Calling 996 a China thing is just orientlalism. Everything bad is Chinese, everything good is western.
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2. uonr ◴[06 Sep 25 14:43 UTC] No.45149709[source]▶
At least the recent popularity of the 996 originated in China, and I believe most Chinese people would agree with that. Besides, even if it started in Hong Kong, saying it originated in China is still technically correct.
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3. WiSaGaN ◴[06 Sep 25 14:48 UTC] No.45149755[source]▶
Investment banks in Hong Kong were almost exclusively western back in the days with very few ethnic Chinese in senior management.
4. Calavar ◴[06 Sep 25 15:34 UTC] No.45150195[source]▶
China is the birthplace of the term 996. Of course it's not the birthplace of people being coerced into unhealthy work hours - that's been around for thousands of years.
5. numpad0 ◴[06 Sep 25 16:10 UTC] No.45150511[source]▶
There is probably little to nothing specifically Chinese about workaholism as a concept, but the word is definitely Chinese(as in language). Dialect continuum for East Asian languages are contained within borders, or in other words, each of the languages expanded and dominated to the full extents of continuum and hit with stagnation at major geographical features before entering the modern era.