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?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 15 2019, @05:38PM (4 children)
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.
(Score: 3, Informative) by dwilson on Monday April 15 2019, @10:11PM (3 children)
Try farming seven to ten thousand acres. 30 18's isn't unheard of.
- D
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @03:20AM
Farmers are dumbasses though. They don't even have TV.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday April 16 2019, @03:21AM (1 child)
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
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.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by canopic jug on Monday April 15 2019, @05:41PM (12 children)
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.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Monday April 15 2019, @05:52PM (6 children)
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)
> 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)
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)
Just choose your parents or your lottery ticket well.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 16 2019, @01:09PM
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)
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
I already do.
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)
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
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
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
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Monday April 15 2019, @06:41PM
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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @05:46PM (3 children)
I think you should have listened to the libertarians who told you that inflation is a hidden tax on wages that when left unconstrained (without a backing for the currency) will increase wealth inequality to insane levels. Also, that you should buy bitcoin because the world economy ponzi scheme is nearing collapse and governments are never going to be able to agree amongst themselves on what is "fair", so it will default to bitcoin.
But I'm sure you would just shit on those ideas and prefer to continue believing your false worldview.
I know someone who does henna "tattoos" for a living who lives in an urban area. I am visiting this week and they have a spare bedroom for me. If people really want a spare bedroom they would pay for it or choose to live somewhere cheaper where they could afford it. I find it difficult to believe that someone with coding skills is having more financial trouble than someone doing henna other than via poor life decisions (you irresponsibly had kids you can't afford, etc).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 15 2019, @06:06PM (1 child)
Well, the winter before last, I stayed in Sacramento, CA with someone who had two spare bedrooms. It happens.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:47PM
Actually, now that I think about it I know multiple people in downtown chicago with spare bedrooms. And these are definitely working class people.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Tuesday April 16 2019, @03:35AM
If they are good enough to make a living at it, they are probably skilled. It's a niche market (how many henna tattooists are there?) but there is no reason that a skilled artist shouldn't make well above average wages. A henna artist having a spare bedroom says nothing about the general downward pressure on tech wages.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:49PM
Keep them so busy they have no time for dating or families.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:56PM (2 children)
Tiny wages? Working all time overtime? Destruction of lives? You people well deserve it. By demolition of competitive communism, imperialism went completely unleashed and ceased to opportunistically pretend a so called democracy, or a so called freedom or a so called equality or other nice sounding buzzwords. It is all over, deal with. Now all those corporate overlords want their lost money back. Expect living (or rather, dying) in a heavy dystopian world now. There is no place to hide, you can only fight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @07:22PM (1 child)
Yea before the "demolition of communism" everyone was running to communist countries to "hide". You can still go to North Korea.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @11:33PM
No I can't, gov won't like me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @07:04PM (2 children)
Their sense of "organizational inspiration" is borne out of necessity because they don't live in a society as free as in the West.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gtomorrow on Monday April 15 2019, @07:13PM (1 child)
You do realise how hollow that rings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 16 2019, @04:05AM
You do realise how khallow that rings.
FTFY
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jon3k on Monday April 15 2019, @08:37PM (5 children)
To be fair we have strikes going on all over the place. It seemed to start with the teachers but now it's all kinds of things like "Stop and Stop" strike and the possible Hollywood Strike [deadline.com].
But the reason is pretty simple: we keep electing conservatives. You want unchecked capitalism? Well, here you go. You want protections for workers, unions, etc, vote in some liberals. It's really simple. Anyone who thought Donald Trump, a draft-dodging silver-spoon rich kid from New York that spent his whole life screwing over his employees, hiring immigrants and outsourcing to China was going to be the great savior of labor was completely deluded.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @08:49PM (4 children)
Anyone who thinks the US has unchecked capitalism is deluded. You are saying this on April 15th no less...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @08:52PM (3 children)
Hint: in unchecked capitalism banks and giant corporations don't get bailed out by the government (taxpayers forced to pay at gunpoint).
(Score: 1) by jon3k on Monday April 15 2019, @09:25PM (2 children)
That was government coming to rescue us from unchecked capitalism.
(And don't take everything so literally.)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @09:42PM (1 child)
In unchecked capitalism those banks would have never been able to grow to the size they did. Just look at the history banking in the US with its "less checked" capitalism. It was a continuous series of booms and busts accompanied by the failure of banks that invested poorly.
(Score: 3, Touché) by PartTimeZombie on Monday April 15 2019, @11:21PM
Wow, A/C's comment was modded funny, even though it should have been +1 True.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @10:59PM
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassdoor [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by Coward, Anonymous on Tuesday April 16 2019, @05:28AM
I think my eyes started bleeding when I read that.