Silicon Valley tech workers are fixating on a gruelling work schedule known as “996” that originated in China’s hard-charging tech scene, working nine in the morning to nine in the evening, six days a week.
Some companies are noting their expectation for 70-hour-plus workweeks in job descriptions, executives are asking prospective hires if they are willing to work such schedules, and workers are posting about the approach nonstop on X and LinkedIn, reports The New York Times.
In 2021, a Chinese high court barred employers from compelling employees to work 72-hour weeks. However, that has not stopped California tech workers from adopting the approach.
Ramp, a financial operations start-up, noted in a blog post this month that it had observed a higher share of corporate credit card transactions in San Francisco on Saturdays for the first half of this year than in previous years, which it took to mean that people are working more on weekends.
Margaret O’Mara, a historian at the University of Washington and the author of “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” said the 996 approach is a high-octane version of something that has been around in the tech industry for a while. She noted that since the 1960s, when semiconductor companies were in fierce competition, many tech firms have had intense, hours-heavy work cultures.
The idea of tech workers approaching their jobs with intense devotion is part of Silicon Valley culture, said Carolyn Chen, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of “Work Pray Code.” She also noted that a strain of heroic masculine culture in tech enforces the expectation that people should be working all the time.
The hustle culture may be out of reach for those with caregiving or other outside responsibilities and risks re-entrenching the dynamics of an already homogeneous industry. The recent wave of staggering investments in AI means that riches are more tantalising, while tech workers may be feeling more insecure after turbulent years of layoffs and high interest rates.
Elon Musk’s self-proclaimed extremely hard core approach is no longer out of step with the rest of the industry.
