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996

(lucumr.pocoo.org)
1001 points genericlemon24 | 5 comments | 06 Sep 25 13:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | 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. Aurornis ◴[06 Sep 25 14:37 UTC] No.45149653[source]▶
> Because for at least half of the 72-hour workweek, most employee will mentally checkout (in Chinese we call this 摸鱼).

The CEO of one of my employers was smitten with his new China office because they bragged about operating 996.

To everyone else, it was obvious that they weren’t working more. They were just at the office a lot, or coming and going frequently.

When they’d send a video from the office (product demos) barely anyone was at their seats, contrary to their claims of always working.

Their output was definitely not higher than anyone else.

However, they always responded quickly on Slack, day or night, weekend or not. The CEO thought this was the most amazing thing and indicated that they were always working.

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2. r_lee ◴[06 Sep 25 15:51 UTC] No.45150335[source]▶
It's sad how a lot of things in life now are all about optics.

And it's shocking that it works for leadership/management so well

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3. Sharlin ◴[06 Sep 25 16:32 UTC] No.45150696[source]▶
To executives, responding to communication is equal to working because communication is all that they do. Same reason that so much time is wasted on meetings: for the people who organize meetings they are what work is, rather than wasted time.
4. herval ◴[06 Sep 25 16:54 UTC] No.45150891[source]▶
Life is always about optics. Medieval kings wore a piece of gold over their heads for optics.

I guess more people are just starting to realize this because many powerful people are actually dropping some of the well-accepted optics (particularly in tech, where people felt they were treated better than the average employee for a long time)

5. Balgair ◴[06 Sep 25 17:45 UTC] No.45151356[source]▶
Nothing new under the sun:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/210z3FRgTPU

Carry a clipboard around too.

Maybe a paper notebook is the new clipboard these day though, some moleskin hipster thingy, nice fountain pen with a nib, I dunno.

Anyone else have suggestions on how to shine on management in 2025?