The first workplace event at the beginning of 2022 was unexpectedly a heart-wrenching and sad thing. On February 5, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the sudden death of an employee of Bilibili (Station B) overtime attracted the attention of many netizens. There are even many relevant personnel who have revealed that overtime is the norm, and the monthly salary is only four or five thousand yuan. Say good thirteen salaries, the result of the bonus at the end of the year is not as much as the salary. In this regard, Station B responded: there was no overtime in the week before the incident, and it will cooperate with the police and family members to deal with follow-up problems.
Why do Internet giants always have to work overtime?
When the motherland and the land of ten thousand families reunion firecrackers in unison to welcome the New Year, this employee suddenly passed away, we have to lament the impermanence of life, you never know tomorrow and the accident which one comes first. The sudden death of employees at Station B has made people re-understand a thorny question: Why do Internet manufacturers always work overtime?
In 2019, Zhaopin released the "White-collar 996 Work System Special Survey Report", in a year, more than 80% of white-collar workers are working overtime every week, more than 70% of white-collar workers are working overtime without compensation, and more than 20% of white-collar workers are working overtime without compensation every day. They work an average of 6.45 hours of overtime per week, which can only be exchanged for the boss's early realization of wealth freedom.
Friends who are familiar with the Internet know that overtime in Internet factories such as Station B, Tencent, Baidu, and Weibo is commonplace, and even many companies have a deformed overtime culture within them. Initially, only a few industries and a few large enterprises had a 996 working system, requiring employees to work hard to occupy the market. The outlet of the epidemic and the community group buying war has accelerated the sinking trend of 996, not only the large companies in first-tier cities, but also many small companies have begun to encourage employees to work overtime, and even interview employees who leave work on time.
Whether or not overtime is directly related to the fierce competition in the industry. With the change of the outlet, in the past few years, there will be a new overtime disaster area every year, on the offershow, someone broke the news of the latest fresh graduate salary of the Internet manufacturer. In the table, sp represents a more advanced offer, high-quality student sources are recommended first, and the level of ssp is above sp, symbolizing the most advanced student source.
But such a high salary, in most cases, comes at the cost of constantly selling out personal time. After many sudden employee deaths, we can't help but reflect, what makes the struggle change its flavor? "Exchanging life for money" is a deformed workplace culture that must be resolutely curbed!
Deng Liqiang, executive director of the China Health Law Society and deputy director of Beijing Huawei Law Firm, said in an interview, "In the context of the current pressure of employment competition, employees have long been accustomed to enterprises requiring overtime, in order to keep jobs or raise salaries and promotions, employees have to compromise on overtime, and forced to accept the so-called 'voluntary overtime' situation abounds, which is very helpless." ”
Those "conscientious bosses" who do not advocate overtime are nothing more than the arguments of vested interests
Nowadays, keywords related to overtime work, such as "996" and "hit workers", have been repeatedly mentioned. At the same time, the popularity of words such as "996.ICU", "blessing newspaper", "inner volume", "social animal" and "hit worker" reflects the helplessness of individual employees when they talk to the platform and race against reality. In turn, looking at the bosses' arguments, how do they see the so-called 996 in view of the overtime of employees and the frequent sudden deaths?
Liu Qiangdong: 996 is not mandatory, but there must be a spirit of struggle.
Lei Jun: Excellent people are willing to leave work at 12 o'clock every day!
Zhou Hongwei: There is no point in forcing 996, if I am not the boss, I may not be able to do it, excellent people do not talk about 996, he himself will be 996! Nine to five must not be rich!
In recent years, the contradiction between workers and industry tycoons has become increasingly large. Last year's 996 Blessing Incident, Ma Yun caused public anger. There is also the boss of Xibei Noodle Village mentioned that the company's culture is overtime, and the quality of the dishes is because of overtime, and the comments below The result of Boss Jia's Weibo are scolding.
There is also the popularity of words such as Bai Yansong being scolded, lying flat and touching fish, which is a manifestation of the deepening contradictions between employers and employees.
However, since the big guys are already vested interests, what is the big deal about being complained about by the workers. Just like the big stars are the ones who give the general public tea and dinner and then entertain. To make money and to educate others on a high level, in the final analysis, is the workplace PUA.
Can overtime really save the Internet from losing money?
When overtime takes more forms than content, we can't help but think: Can overtime really save the Internet from losing money? The answer is obvious: no!
Does overtime really mean high performance and high results? Is it true that not working overtime is not working hard, and there is a problem with the work attitude? In addition to affirming the extra time and effort that some employees pay for their work, we need to think about whether some work can only be completed by overtime, and some work needs to be completed overtime.
According to public information, Station B, which is mired in overtime, has lost 9.6 billion yuan in less than 4 years, and in the three years from 2018 to 2020 alone, Station B has a net loss of 560 million, 1.3 billion and 3.05 billion yuan respectively, while in the first three quarters of 2021, this figure reached 4.7 billion yuan.
Speaking of the Wave Group, which is controversial for "overtime", there are many promotional slogans in the office encouraging employees to work overtime: "When you have time, go to 'overtime', to complete the things we have not yet completed!" "Work part-time during the day and don't sleep; work overtime at night and can't sleep." "Everyone plus, is really plus, overtime is really good" "He plus I also added, I can't run if I want to." Some inspur group employees broke the news that they worked more than 600 hours of overtime a year, and the ranking was still the bottom. Inspur Software's financial report shows that in the third quarter of 2021, the company's main revenue was 872 million yuan, and the net profit attributable to the mother was -36.4943 million yuan, which is the third consecutive year that Inspur Software is in a state of loss.
According to the China Yearbook of Labor Statistics, since 2001, the average weekly working hours of employed urban workers across the country have never been less than 44 hours. According to the latest announcement by the National Bureau of Statistics, the average weekly working hours of employed personnel in enterprises nationwide in November 2020 were 46.9 hours. Based on 52 weeks of a year, excluding 11 days of statutory holidays, the average working hours in a year are 2365 hours. Compared with other countries, the United States is 1779 hours, Japan is 1644 hours, and Germany is 1386 hours. If the 996 (work at 9 a.m., 9 p.m., 1-hour lunch break, 6 days a week) work system is implemented, then 66 hours a week, 3328 hours a year. At this time, one 996 professionals, the top two Japanese professionals.
According to the "2019 Shanghai White-collar Health Index Report" released by Shanghai Foreign Service and "Popular Medicine", the abnormal rate of white-collar physical examination in Shanghai in 2018 was as high as 98.75%. In other words, less than 2 out of 100 people in the company are completely healthy.
For large Internet manufacturers, the overtime culture of employees or the encouragement of overtime cannot solve the loss of large factories. For the workers, work is to achieve a better self, not for the exploitation of capitalists.
Why the overtime culture, which was once overly admired or even deformed, has encountered resistance in this era of rapid development and has more different voices is a question worth pondering.
According to incomplete statistics, the number of sudden deaths in China exceeds 550,000 every year, which means that on average, more than 1,000 people die suddenly every day, and sudden death has become the third largest killer after suicide and accidental death. We must always observe whether we have entered the range of internal friction, whether our emotions are healthy, whether our bodies have alarmed, and we must always assess which critical point is "not worth it in the world" at any time in our work, and re-examine what work brings to us and what we have taken away from ourselves.
The blessing of the beat worker may be a decent life exchanged for a high salary, and it may be the satisfaction of achievement in the workplace, but it will never burn out life in the 996 overtime without an end.
Just new year, 25-year-old B station employee sudden death! I always think that youth is capital, but in fact, health is. May every worker find his true blessings.