996.ICU

What is "996"?

996 working, ICU waiting.

A "996" work schedule refers to an unofficial work schedule (9 am - 9 pm, 6 days a week) that has been gaining more popularity. Serving a company that encourages the "996" work schedule usually means work for at least 60 hours a week.

Quoted from Labor Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 36:

The State shall practice a working hour system wherein employees shall work for no more than eight hours a day and no more than 44 hours a week on the average.

Article 39:

If an enterprise can not follow the stipulations in Article 36 and Article 38 of this Law due to special characteristics of its production, it may follow other rules on work and rest with the approval by labour administrative departments.

Article 41:

The employer can prolong work hours due to needs of production or businesses after consultation with its trade union and employees. The work hours to be prolonged, in general, shall be no longer than one hour a day, or no more than three hours a day if such prolonging is called for due to special reasons and under the condition that the physical health of employees is guaranteed. The work time to be prolonged shall not exceed, however, 36 hours a month.

Article 43:

The employer shall not prolong the work hours of employees in violation of the stipulations of this Law.

Article 90:

If the employer prolongs work hours in violation of stipulations in this Law, labour administrative departments can give it a warning, order it to make corrections, and may impose a fine thereon.

Article 91:

(2) Refusal to pay labourers wage remunerations for working longer hours;

Gaining more popularity and publicity

In early 2019, a Chinese E-commerce company called Youzan announced the adoption of the "996" work schedule in the future, at the company's annual party. The CEO of Youzan responded: "This would definitely be a good decision when we look back in a few years time.".

In Mid-March 2019, it was reported that JD.com started adopting "996" or "995" work schedule in some of the business units. JD.com PR posted on their Maimai(脉脉, a Chinese real-name business social network platform) account: "(Our culture is) to devote ourselves with all our hearts (to achieve the business objectives)".

Although it is gaining more publicity recently, this work schedule is a commonly known "secret" practiced in a lot of companies in China.

Compensation and benefits

According to the Labor Law, employees who follow the "996" work schedule deserve to be paid 2.275 times of their base salary. Unfortunately, people who work under "996" rarely get paid that much.

Where does the name of the repo 996.ICU come from?

If you consistently follow the "996" work schedule, you run the risk of getting yourself into Intensive Care Unit.

Developers' lives matter.