“To be able to work 996 is a huge bliss,” China’s richest man said. “If you want to join Alibaba, you need to be prepared to work 12 hours a day, otherwise why even bother joining.”
Jack Ma is a massive hypocrite IMO. In another speech Jack Ma said:
"Independent thinking, teamwork, care for others, these are the soft parts. Knowledge may not teach you that. That's why I think we should teach our kids sports, music, painting, art -- making sure humans are different from machines."
Yeah, the FIRST thing you need to do to do that is to end this 996 horror. 996 IS treating humans like machines. People already have kids and parents to care for; if you want them to engage in sports, music, painting, art, they need normal work hours.
These characters love to bandy this around because they've done it themselves, once upon a time, to establish their companies. BUT what they fail to mention is that they had a HUGE share in those fledgling companies at that time. Potential reward was HUGE so they put in the time and effort.
Employees who join Alibaba aren't given a lick of equity these days.
> “If you want to join Alibaba, you need to be prepared to work 12 hours a day, otherwise why even bother joining.”
So as someone who works neither 12 hours a day, nor 6 days a week (on paid labour at least), I agree with Jack Ma. I don't see the point in joining a company that is clear it expects this. I think that would be self defeating if you were a person like me.
Jack Ma, defending 996:
“To be able to work 996 is a huge bliss,” China’s richest man said. “If you want to join Alibaba, you need to be prepared to work 12 hours a day, otherwise why even bother joining.”