TikTok Owner ByteDance mandates shorter working hours

TikTok Owner ByteDance mandates shorter working hours. ByteDance Ltd. has instructed its staff to finish their workday by 7 p.m. Therefore, making it one of the first tech businesses in China to do so.

According to an internal document reviewed by Bloomberg News on Monday, employees in China should only work from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and must request authorization to work outside of those hours at least one day in advance. The owner of TikTok and Douyin, as well as a spokesman for TikTok, declined to comment.

The country’s punishing work schedule is dubbed “996“. It is because employees frequently work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. It has long been lauded by tech billionaires, like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Jack Ma and JD.com Inc.’s Richard Liu. However, there were overwork-related deaths and a swelling chorus of social media concerns. Hence, it has been under increased examination this year.

President Xi Jinping’s appeal for the country is to work toward “common prosperity”. Hence, authorities have increased their warnings to employers about unjustified overtime and other breaches.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:

China’s “996” work ethic — implying working hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week — suggests 72-hour weeks have been typical at some companies. Courts are skeptical, and “996” may be at odds with labor laws in addition to being out of sync with President Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” push. High turnover at Baidu and Bilibili may signal discontent with workaholic employers.

— Matthew Kanterman and Tiffany Tam, analysts

Employees can apply for up to 3 hours of overtime on weekdays and 8 hours on weekends under the new policy, according to the document. For the overtime, they will compensate up to three times their regular income.

ByteDance’s Tiktok and its new policy of shorter working hours is the company’s latest attempt to boost employee welfare. The social networking behemoth, along with rival Kuaishou Technology, scrapped an alternating system in which staff only took one day off every two weeks.

Last month, several private-sector workers, including those from ByteDance, organized a short-lived campaign. It was to share their working hours in protest of the country’s excessive work ethic.

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