A view of ByteDance's stand at the Digital China Summit 2021 Photo: cnsphoto

TikTok owner ByteDance said Wednesday that a male employee, who was sent to the hospital after feeling sick when he was doing exercise in a gym near the headquarters of ByteDance in Beijing, died.

According to an internal statement seen by Global Times, after 41 hours of rescue, the employee, surnamed Wu, perished. The company will cover all the media expenses and provide financial help to Wu's family.

Wu felt dizzy about one hour after exercising in the gym Tuesday evening and went to the tea room to have a rest, when his coach served him a glass of sugar water and informed the administrative front desk to activate the SOS duty number. Wu vomited during the rest, according to an early internal statement of the company on Wednesday.

At 7:18 pm, the coach called the ambulance. At the same time, the security manager and another security guard at the scene performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation first aid on Wu.

According to the post of a social media account, who claimed as Wu's wife, the 28-year-old employee is an image algorithm engineer in the video architecture department of ByteDance and he has worked in the company for nearly four years and he often worked overtime.

The wife complained that Wu might have missed the best rescue time.

The event aroused criticism among Chinese social media users with most pointing to Chinese internet firms' overtime culture, or the notorious "996" work culture, although, Wu's death may not directly relate to working overtime. The 996 schedule refers to expectations that employees work 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week.

A user said sarcastically that "heart or byte, only one of them is dancing."

Separately, Bilibili, one of China's leading video-sharing platforms, faced mounting pressure after the death of an employee even after the company denied claims that excessive work has caused the death, with some family members of the employee criticizing the firm's handling of the incident.

Chinese tech giants have vowed to improve work conditions amid lingering criticism since the second half of last year.

ByteDance is one of the first major Chinese technology companies to push back against the "996" schedule last year by telling its employees that they should not work beyond 7 pm and should seek permission in advance to stay beyond that time.

The WeChat business unit of Chinese tech giant Tencent was reportedly trying the run the "1065" working system, that is, working from 10 am and 6 pm for five days a week.

Global Times