Photo: Courtesy of  Ding Haotian

 

In recent years, a hot word "996", which is prevalent in many internet companies, has caught us. It is mainly used by programmers to describe their current work schedule, which refers to the fact that they have to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day with only an hour's break both at noon and in the evening, six days a week. Altogether, they need to work over 72 hours per week. Most people regard it as severely violating the Labor Contract Law, which requires workers to work no more than 44 hours a week. They think a 996 working time is a kind of "making lay-offs", which is unfair and inhuman. Some of them even attribute death by overwork to it. Other people think that a 996 working time is understandable from the view of employers, especially in such service industries as internet companies. And some of them believe that working overtime in a short period of time is acceptable.

In my view, we should treat this phenomenon objectively, because every coin has two sides. In the first place, although some companies have taken overwork as a kind of corporate culture, encouraging employees to spend more time on work, we have to admit that 996 working time is indeed a violation of the Labor Contract Law, which shows that the companies lack humanities concern. In addition, working overtime for a long time may affect work efficiency in the long run. 

On the other hand, however, we should be optimistic about it, for a 996 work schedule is in line with the requirements of China's current development, showing that our economy is speeding up and needs the support of all members, especially in the Internet era. As we all know, it is the economic development that provides more opportunities for us, which in turn requires more time to work. From the perspective of economic development, therefore, this phenomenon benefits us both as individuals and the whole country. What's more, a 996 work schedule is not unique to China, but is also in such developed countries as America, Japan and Korea. It is reported that Japanese enterprises have relied on the overtime work workers since the 1950s, when they managed to compete with their European and American counterparts. And this management style has become the tradition of Japanese enterprises. The same is also true of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, where overtime culture has become a tradition for employees, especially those in internet companies.

From the perspective of personal development, we all know that success is not an easy thing.  If we want to achieve something, we must work hard. Success may be achieved due to various factors; it may come from firm faith, rich knowledge accumulation or innovation. But what is needed for all successes is effort and persistence, which means that we have to put extra hours in it. Therefore, if we want to succeed, we must work harder with more time invested. Just as the president Xi Jinping said: happiness is achieved through hard work; so does success. Therefore, we can take overwork as a precious opportunity for achieving the value of life. In addition, we should learn to make sacrifices for the good of the nation without regrets or complaints, since working is not just for making money, but more importantly for making contribution to our nation. Young people, in my opinion, should keep the spirit of dedication.

In short, we should look at the 996 working time in two ways: on the one hand, it may be an act of lacking humanistic care by forcing employee to work overtime; on the other hand, we should take it optimistically, which is beneficial to both individuals and our nation by not only providing personal development opportunities but also contributing to our nation's economic development.

There are many adults who are on a 996 work schedule, and it may do harm to physical health in the long term. Besides, overwork means less time with families. Therefore, we should try best to improve the work efficiency; only in this way can we save more time for physical exercise and family time. After all, it is well known that a healthy body and harmony family relationship are the guarantee of better work.

Considering the fact that a 996 work schedule could benefit both individual and our nation, I would take a job that requires such a work schedule. In the first place, I enjoy working, and for me, work is not regarded as getting a series of jobs done, but rather as various opportunities to improve myself. And for those who want to make achievements, the 996 work schedule is not a burden, but a necessity. Moreover, our nation is in the critical time of development, which needs more people to make more selfless contributions. Young people are the backbone of our nation's development, so we should devote ourselves to the development of our motherland.

Teacher: Li Qing
Zhangqiu No.5 Middle School