
996.icu, Chinese programmers against working overtime gathering on GitHub - xyclaude
https://github.com/996icu/996.ICU
======
helen___keller
996 contributes to brain drain as well. I know several American-educated
Chinese engineers whose primary motivation for working in America rather than
back home is because they get a sane work-life balance.

~~~
zachguo
It depends. Many top and ambitious talents did go back to China because they
may get higher pay and have a higher chance of becoming billionaires. Average
Joes like me tend to stay in the US because everything is much easier and less
competitive.

~~~
helen___keller
>Many top and ambitious talents did go back to China because they may get
higher pay and have a higher chance of becoming billionaires.

This is true. The people I know in this category are typically in leadership
positions, e.g. scientists under the thousand talents program.

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maimeowmeow
I wonder why developers think they need special protections that other workers
do not have. It is not uncommon for waiters to work 12 hour days, with 1 day
off for wages far lower.

~~~
ohaideredevs
I guess it stems from the fact that developers are one of the few groups which
CAN dictate some things.

We do forget that other jobs come with 14 hour shifts, no breaks, no health
insurance, and constantly being on-call for a 5th of the salary.

That doesn't mean that devs shouldn't push for decent conditions though.

Also, while devs "have it good," it's nothing near what lawyers and doctors
made, so before patting ourselves on the shoulder and thinking we made it, we
should keep tht in mind.

~~~
rak00n
The other part of the argument is programming doesn't scale the same way. A
sleep deprived waiter can fulfill his tasks while a programmer cannot perform
on the same acceptable par.

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outloudvi
An English translation is now available on
[https://996.icu/#/en_US](https://996.icu/#/en_US) as well as GitHub.

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loser777
For those curious: 996 stands for 9a-9p x 6 days a week.

~~~
namelosw
And AFAIK for most of the companies actually do this -- they sort of enforce
employees to work as 996. In the meantime do not pay for working overtime or
pay very few.

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jsongreateBan
As a Chinese developers, 996 is an unspoken rule around in IT companies. When
I got interviewed, HR would always ask whether I was OK with 996.

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guard0g
When I was in investment banking, it was more like 727 (7am-2am, 7 days/week).

~~~
stuffedBelly
I work in finance and all I can say is it's not sustainable and not definitely
something anyone should be proud of. Literally no one benefits from such long
work hour, not even the company itself.

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svnpenn
Jesus - its now by stars the number 4 repo in all of GitHub after… 1 week

~~~
andreif
2nd place now
[https://github.com/search?utf8=&q=stars%3A%3E10000&type=Repo...](https://github.com/search?utf8=&q=stars%3A%3E10000&type=Repositories&ref=advsearch&l=&l=)

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drinane
modern china is definitely odd as it proclaims to be socialist and capitalist,
but its a lot like 1920s America. Off the rails capitalism that ate the
peoples gubment.

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hilshire
mainstream views of a small chinese forum are as follows:

The programers are textile women in the new era.

such a weak resisting.

other workers even work harder and receive less and they said nothing, why
these programers so delicate?

and so on

~~~
stuffedBelly
long hours != work hard

so sad people in that forum even don't realize it and are so proud of their
so-called "hard work" while getting exploited by their employers.

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tomerbd
What is this?

