←back to thread

996

(lucumr.pocoo.org)
1001 points genericlemon24 | 4 comments | 06 Sep 25 13:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.612s | source
Show context
drob518 ◴[06 Sep 25 15:05 UTC] No.45149910[source]▶
Having worked at several startups, I’ll say that 996 is a lie. The best startups were ones that worked HARD for 8 to 10 hours, 5 days per week. What I always found at companies “working” 996 (or something close) was that mostly everyone was hanging out in the break room playing foosball or video games (or watching someone else do it). Sure, they were “in the office,” but the productivity of those hours beyond 8 was really low. Everyone would have been better off going home and coming back in fresh tomorrow after a good night’s sleep and having spent some time with friends and family. In fact a startup CEO friend of mine told me that he considered it a win to get 2 to 4 really productive hours per day. He found the rest of his time was typically wasted in meetings that could have been handled via email and in minutia that someone else should have dealt with. If somebody’s telegraphing crazy work hours in a job post, just walk away.
replies(3): >>45150025 #>>45150222 #>>45151857 #
1. ibejoeb ◴[06 Sep 25 15:37 UTC] No.45150222[source]▶
If you're doing R&D and you're actually into the problem, you're probably devoting the majority of your waking hours to "working" regardless. This is a different 996 than stitching shoe welts 996. Hanging around and passively considering the problem with others can be good, productive work.

If someone who actually like this kind of thing freely enters into it, well, best of luck to you. I think the shouting "996" thing is just stirring up attention.

replies(2): >>45150698 #>>45151219 #
2. drob518 ◴[06 Sep 25 16:32 UTC] No.45150698[source]▶
Yea, sometimes you need to take a break and walk outside for a bit, noodling on an issue. I get it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about people hanging around the office to be seen at the office.
3. davedx ◴[06 Sep 25 17:30 UTC] No.45151219[source]▶
That’s not 996 at all. 996 is an explicit number of hours mandated from above, not “shit this problem is cool I can’t stop thinking about it”
replies(1): >>45151285 #
4. ibejoeb ◴[06 Sep 25 17:37 UTC] No.45151285[source]▶
Right. That's what I'm saying. The posts cited in the article are from leaders in those hype companies essentially rebranding a term and using it to recruit. One is explicitly inviting employees that are about to be assimilated into Atlassian, and he's betting that some are not thrilled about going into traditional corporate.