Young Chinese are sick of working long hours • Hacker News Board

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#11

Post by eumenides1 » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:08 PM UTC

“In my experience young people, especially the post-90s generation, are reluctant to work overtime – they are more self-centered,” says labour rights expert Li Jupeng, one of many who have observed some millennials challenging the 996 concept.

self-centered is a funny word. It implies selfish, but is it really selfish if it's self-preservation?

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#12

Post by ggregoire » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:10 PM UTC

I've worked in 2 countries on 2 different continents and working overtime is common in both. A combination of easily-manipulated young employees and terrible project managements, in most cases. My country has labour laws to protect employees against that BS, but people still do it.

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#13

Post by insensible » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:11 PM UTC

Can we get the word Chinese capitalized in the HN title?

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#14

Post by logfromblammo » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:15 PM UTC

They should join a union, or form a socialist workers' party, or something.~

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#15

Post by sotojuan » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:16 PM UTC

Freak_NL wrote: post #4

nickthemagicman wrote: post #2

Welcome to the club! There's 400 million Americans who feel the exact same way!

Japanese too. Keep in mind that this article is written from a British/European standpoint, where working overtime is an exception, not the norm.

I don't know about China, but at least the Japanese get something out of their crazy work agreement, at least traditional salaryman jobs. Lifetime employment, solid middle class salary forever, pension, etc. Some companies will do your taxes, help your kids go to a good school, and even set you up with someone to marry.

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#16

Post by collyw » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:17 PM UTC

IloveHN84 wrote: post #3

Who's not tired of working overtime?

Me. I think I am underpaid (actually I think most devs in my country are underpaid) so i don't do it with the exception of when I made a major cock up and the team was waiting on me.

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#17

Post by yakuza00000 » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:19 PM UTC

Poor Chinese Millennials. They are frustrated their country turned dictatorship. They are constantly monitored by the big brother, social credit score, public cameras that have facial recognition. Their words censored by wechat, and the great firewall. If they say something wrong, they will be watched and put on no travel list. There's no moving up the ladder; they're stuck trying to buy a $500k house with a meager $1000/month income. There's no other good investment choices. They see tuhaos (country bumpkin milllionnaires) drive maseratis around. They see CEOs being disappeared by the government with each passing day, which tells them if they're ever successful, that's the fate that awaits them. Their only hope is to escape to Australia or Canada. But in the meantime they have to endure horrific pollution and rising inflation.

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#18

Post by asdfologist » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:20 PM UTC

eumenides1 wrote: post #11

“In my experience young people, especially the post-90s generation, are reluctant to work overtime – they are more self-centered,” says labour rights expert Li Jupeng, one of many who have observed some millennials challenging the 996 concept. self-centered is a funny word. It implies selfish, but is it really selfish if it's self-preservation?

Yeah, clearly the employers are not self-centered for demanding grueling work hours.

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#19

Post by hutzlibu » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:21 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #6

nickthemagicman wrote: post #2

Welcome to the club! There's 400 million Americans who feel the exact same way!

Well that's weird since there's only 325 million of us, and the percentage which has mandatory overtime is pretty low. Even lower if you specify mandatory unpaid overtime.

Even though he probably meant it wrong, too, there are more than 325 milion americans around as america is bigger than the USA ..

Re: Young Chinese are sick of working long hours

#20

Post by ausjke » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:23 PM UTC

yakuza00000 wrote: post #17

Poor Chinese Millennials. They are frustrated their country turned dictatorship. They are constantly monitored by the big brother, social credit score, public cameras that have facial recognition. Their words censored by wechat, and the great firewall. If they say something wrong, they will be watched and put on no travel list. There's no moving up the ladder; they're stuck trying to buy a $500k house with a meager $…

gosh this sounds like a revolution in the cooking state, is this totally true? maybe not that bad I hope.

the big problems are the debt and the house bubble, one of them blows up will cause serious issues, so far so good it seems.