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posted by takyon on Monday April 15 2019, @05:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the banned-in-996-hours dept.

How GitHub became a bulletin board for Chinese tech worker complaints (archive - disable scripts to prevent 404)

"For years China's white-collar tech workers have been some of the most privileged in the country—and were prepared to put in any number of working hours in return. Now, as the economy slows and tech giants announce layoffs, pent-up anger over working hours is bubbling over.

The most prominent protest over work hours is the 996.ICU project launched at the end of March on Microsoft's GitHub code-sharing community. In days, the attempt to catalog companies who demand a 996 schedule—9 am to 9 pm, six days a week—became the site's most book-marked or "starred" project, racking up more than 190,000 stars.

"By following the "996" work schedule, you are risking yourself getting into the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)," says the "996.ICU" project description, whose creators aren't known. It calls on tech workers to add names and evidence of excessive hours to a "blacklist," proposes requiring companies to agree to an "anti-996 license" as a condition for using open-source software, and urges people to "go home at 6 pm without feeling sorry."

Media reports on deaths of young tech workers from heart attacks have also raised concern about the deep-seated culture of overwork, even though it's unclear whether they were related to work stress. "The overwork culture is rooted in China's tech industry. I worked 996 for nine months. During that time, I had serious insomnia due to the high pressure. So, I quit, " said GitHub member Zhang, a former software developer who put a star on the project to show his support.

Zhang, who asked to be identified only by his last name, said putting the anti-996 complaints on GitHub made sense for tech workers—it's a place they naturally gather, and more importantly, it's not blocked in China given its usefulness to developers and tech firms alike. "If you protest on Weibo or WeChat, more likely it will be controlled by either tech companies or the government," he said."

Hooray for Chinese software developers! I totally appreciate burnout. As a UNIX systems and network administrator for over thirty years, I've been on call for more than half my entire life span. It's had a serious impact upon my health and relationships, including my relationships with employers - whom always assume I am at their complete disposal and threaten me with retaliatory unemployment when I am not.

Nowadays, they want me to do this while working for them, on a temporary basis, for wages that I haven't seen since the 1980s or 1990s. Seriously. It's like there's a Cold War against workers. Nothing less than a state of war could explain the burning desire of today's employers to insure that I and my dependents never have an opportunity to go to college or live in a home of their own ... never mind, have a vacation, somewhere, or a second, vacation, home - for emergencies.

Do you know a single person in any urban area who can afford to have a spare bedroom for emergency guests? We, as a country, have NO emergency capacity. We have NO flexibility. We have our backs against the wall. Why is this? It's sad that American workers are too gutless and spineless and devoid of innovation to conceive of such a protest, and have to look across the seas, to mainland China, for organizational inspiration, so as to solve our local labor problems. What we need is a 'Yelp' for employees. But where does the revenue come from? Soylentils, put your minds to work. What do YOU think?


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 15 2019, @05:38PM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 15 2019, @05:38PM (#829942) Journal

    Thee are a lot of work schedules that suck. 5 8's are good, 6 8's begin to grind, 6 10's grind a little harder. When schedules are tight, you can expect 6 12's, and I've even done 7 12's. Not for nine months straight though. That last, I only had to do for three weeks. Depending on how much you enjoy your work, you can burn out on just 5 8's. Six ten hour days, in a way, are the easiest, IF you truly enjoy your work. But even if you do enjoy what you're doing, there comes a time when you have to put it down and get away.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by dwilson on Monday April 15 2019, @10:11PM (3 children)

    by dwilson (2599) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 15 2019, @10:11PM (#830112) Journal

    Try farming seven to ten thousand acres. 30 18's isn't unheard of.

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    - D
    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @03:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @03:20AM (#830261)

      Farmers are dumbasses though. They don't even have TV.

    • (Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday April 16 2019, @03:21AM (1 child)

      by dry (223) on Tuesday April 16 2019, @03:21AM (#830262) Journal

      Farming usually has some down time, things like snow covered fields allow a break.

      • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday April 16 2019, @06:31AM

        by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Tuesday April 16 2019, @06:31AM (#830308)

        That time period is called 'machine rebuild time.'
        Seriously, not quite as many hours, and in a (hopefully) heated shop. but it is a grind in itself. Rebuild the combine, re-disk the tiller, re-blade and sharpen the cutters, tell John Deere to fuck off, etc....

        I don't farm, but several of my relatives do. I frequently lend a hand in the winter, I love mechanical work, but am as useless as a reverse plumbed toilet as a farmhand.

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        Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.