I would rather be a gig worker off fiver than subject myself to a 996 company culture.
996
61–70 of 561 posts
Re: 996
#62If I spend my Saturday in the summer sun planting trees all day in my yard I feel liberated. If I spend my Saturday toiling for wages digging with my hands, sweating for hours, just please some land owner I feel exploited. It is not the work or the hours that is the core problem.
You aren't going to spend 12 hours a day, 6 days a week working in your garden. When you get hot and tired, you'll stop. I think that is the more relevant difference in this particular topic.
Re: 996
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
They’re removed from the realities of the working class. They have staff, live in a separate bubble from their workers with different social circles, different services, different mores and norms. Executives make shitty decisions because they surround themselves with others who view wealth as a leaderboard to be climbed and flaunted, and have no fucking clue how difficult things are for the people doing the actual wo…
maybe i've spent too much time trying to make computers operate efficiently, but it strikes me that if a process a) takes more time than should be necessary and b) produces sub-optimal results, we should maybe pursue other processes. and stop paying these idiots 7+ figures.
they aren't idiots, they're kings.
you don't just stop paying the king.
Re: 996
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
maybe i've spent too much time trying to make computers operate efficiently, but it strikes me that if a process a) takes more time than should be necessary and b) produces sub-optimal results, we should maybe pursue other processes. and stop paying these idiots 7+ figures.
a) takes more time than should be necessary b) produces sub-optimal results Both of these claims are empty. Necessary according to whom? Sub-optimal against which metrics? All industrial processes are inefficient in some way because you're always dealing with engineering trade-offs. Staying in the computer domain: show me a system with optimal latency and I will show you an underutilized system; show me a system opti…
good contrarian comment, +1
Re: 996
#65I don't understand this expectation that employees work more, and stigma if you go home on time, yet we don't have a corresponding stigma for when the amount of money that reaches my account is "only" what we agreed my salary would be.
I actually kind of like when companies are upfront about 996 expectations.
The transparency makes it that much easier to avoid them.
Re: 996
#66Do those of us not cool enough to know already get to find out what 996 means?
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Re: 996
#67In the broad sense, if theres no ‘home’ time left, theres no reason to buy whatever non-essential services your company likely offers.
Re: 996
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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.
Investment banks in Hong Kong were almost exclusively western back in the days with very few ethnic Chinese in senior management.
Re: 996
#69not only are you missing out on what makes life great and worth living w/ this arrangement, but from a strictly utilitarian standpoint, working that many hours your productivity plummets (unless you're on stimulants), and it's just straight up more effective to work fewer hours...
When 996 makes being able to afford a house easier, many people will be compelled to do it.
Why do you need a nice house you cant spend any time in with that schedule
Re: 996
#70A note of caution: everything is relative, and details are important. If you love what you do (artist, self-employed, etc.) a 996 culture can be considered a good thing as a certain amount of "good" stress allows us to feel self-actualized. As is a 996 culture that provides for work-life balance. For example, working from home with flex time for 12 hours where you get to take long breaks whenever you feel like it to…
> I'm interested in understanding why for those who wish to share their rationale and perspective.
Because it overlooks the dynamics of power distribution.
When there’s a big discrepancy in power, the needs of one party feel justified, and the needs of the other feel like a whim.
Flexibility favors the employee, if and only if it is added on top of explicit office hours. Otherwise, it’s just vagueness that benefits whoever makes the decision of how you should fill them (i.e. your boss).