Just when China is working to ease the stressful 996 work culture, the Inspur Group, has gone and put up banners promoting, encouraging and lauding overtime. The tech company’s open and brazen celebration of overtime has gone viral on social media and irked many.
Just when there has been an online campaign urging Chinese employees to oppose the toxic ‘996’ work culture, the banners displayed by the Inspur suggest that ‘overtime is great’; that nobody can escape it; and that everyone should work overtime if they have the time!
Investigations are on to see whether labour laws have been violated by the Company. Employees of Inspur have admitted to being made to work overtime and not being paid for the extra hours. These extra hours are reportedly considered as key performance indicators (KPI) at the time of the yearly appraisals. Apparently, even 600 hours of extra work may not get an employee to the top of the list!
This comes as a surprise considering that the Country has been discouraging the taxing ‘996’ work culture, especially prevalent in the tech sector, wherein employees end up working from nine in the morning to nine in the night for six days a week, making it impossible for them to have a healthy personal or social life.
This stressful work schedule has adversely affected the economy, as consumption has been dipping. It has also affected the birth rate.
Earlier this year, the apex court of the Country and the human resources ministry had together issued guidelines pointing out exactly what would be considered violation of labour laws and irrational overtime.
