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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: 5, Insightful) by canopic jug on Monday April 15 2019, @05:41PM (12 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 15 2019, @05:41PM (#829943) Journal

    What we need is a 'Yelp' for employees.

    No. Yammering on a social media site like Yelp won't get you anywhere. People will grumble there and still sign on the dotted line while giving further concessions away. Collective bargaining can establish safer more humane working conditions, livable salaries, (in the US) health care, and pension funds. You need European-style unions for ICT staff even if ICT has been really resistant to unionization against its own interests. The time has come to look up from the (hopefully) cool and challenging work going on at the keyboard and plan ahead a little.

    The move does not have to come from Silicon Valley itself, but that is where it would have the most immediate effect. I remember seeing jobs posted on Usenet even in the 1990s which looked like high salaries but when you took cost of living into account were just scraping by. Things have only gotten worse because so many have gone along with making them worse. It will take some effort to turn that around. So far it has just been talk only [qz.com], and real effort will be needed. And don't be fooled that there won't be blowback. The gig economy is all about knocking the bottom of the labor market and those pushing it won't give an inch without a fight.

    These difficulties are not new problems either, even if computing is relatively new. There is a reason Eugene V Debs [newyorker.com] kept getting put in jail to keep him from running for office and that special laws were drafted to fight any following after him in his footsteps.

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  • (Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Monday April 15 2019, @05:52PM (6 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 15 2019, @05:52PM (#829947) Journal

    People will grumble there and still sign on the dotted line while giving further concessions away.

    Except when they don't do that, say by hopping to a different job. Most of these problems can be solved without involving unions, particularly in the developed world. I get that China might be harder due to the application of state power or existence of a hiring cartel for the industry in question. In that case, sure, an independent union would be a good counter.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:52PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:52PM (#829976)

      > Most of these problems can be solved without involving unions

      yeah, let broken, debt ridden people take on one on one with corporations instead of joining forces. Nice wave slave thinking

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 15 2019, @10:21PM (4 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 15 2019, @10:21PM (#830118) Journal

        yeah, let broken, debt ridden people take on one on one with corporations instead of joining forces.

        As I noted, it works pretty well. particularly if you choose not to be one of the broken, debt ridden people.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @05:31AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @05:31AM (#830291)

          Just choose your parents or your lottery ticket well.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 16 2019, @01:09PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 16 2019, @01:09PM (#830379) Journal

            Just choose your parents or your lottery ticket well.

            Or save money. It's interesting how much your choices improve when you're not in debt and have some money saved up.

        • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday April 16 2019, @06:37AM (1 child)

          by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Tuesday April 16 2019, @06:37AM (#830310)

          You are quite a piece of work. Here's hoping you yet get to experience what the majority of people do. NO FUCKING CHOICE if they want to eat tomorrow.
          Shallow Khallow indeed.
          If you had a choice, you were not one of the masses.
          Collective bargaining is the only way the majority will ever have any say.

          --
          Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 16 2019, @01:07PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 16 2019, @01:07PM (#830378) Journal

            Here's hoping you yet get to experience what the majority of people do.

            I already do.

            NO FUCKING CHOICE if they want to eat tomorrow.

            You got to understand that in the real world, people have a lot of choices even if you never recognize them. And we're making a world with even more choices in it.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by mhajicek on Monday April 15 2019, @05:55PM (3 children)

    by mhajicek (51) on Monday April 15 2019, @05:55PM (#829949)

    One thing I'm puzzled about. There are 22 job offers per graduate from a local trade school's CNC machine operator program, yet most of those don't pay any more (or much more) than fast food work. What happened to supply and demand?

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:01PM (#829953)

      Why not look into it and find out? Are the job offers fake due to some deal with the school? Is the school so worthless most new recruits wash out, so the entry level pay is basically for unskilled work?

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Monday April 15 2019, @06:04PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 15 2019, @06:04PM (#829956) Journal

      There are 22 job offers per graduate from a local trade school's CNC machine operator program, yet most of those don't pay any more (or much more) than fast food work. What happened to supply and demand?

      It's easier than ever to issue an offer both from the employer and employee sides. It's just an email. That's why you can see hundreds of applications for good jobs.

      Here, it's no skin off the teeth of the potential employers to throw out a bunch of emails for below market job offers. They get a hire, then it was worth the effort.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @08:21PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @08:21PM (#830014)
      A machinist can gain experience and command larger salary or hang his own shingle. A fast food worker cannot open their own restaurant, as their job offers neither education opportunities nor growth. Machinists are in high demand, as automation needs parts. A fast food worker will be replaced by a robot.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Monday April 15 2019, @06:41PM

    by Bot (3902) on Monday April 15 2019, @06:41PM (#829970) Journal

    It is a global issue. The system is already global, the manager class adopts the same strategy everywhere, at the same time, which makes no sense given the difference in development history between countries like US China and euro ones. The economic crisis is an excuse. Profit is an excuse. Competition is an excuse. A global strike would hurt the very same people that protest. A return to the anni di piombo i.e. commie (or black but working class) terrorists is going against a much more developed technocratic dictatorship and is probably what the system wants.

    A possible way out is a shadow government, that is an organization that provides welfare in exchange for favors. Guess what, that's what Islam is doing. So is it a way out or what the system optionally wants? Are mafias letting this golden occasion to become more powerful slip? Or are they behind it all? Corporations are money driven which means they are banksters or gangster ops, all of them by now. Is mexico a pilot experiment?

    Whatever, everything is about control and you should be about retaining as much as possible for yourselves. Good luck.

    --
    Account abandoned.