After brushing up on some videos about political economy and philosophy on Bilibili in May, I rekindled my interest in this area of knowledge and started following some up masters to learn more. Among them, I particularly enjoyed Weimingzi's discussion on the topic of 996. I found it insightful and inspiring, so I decided to jot down some thoughts on the matter.
What is 996?
We often hear about 996, but what exactly is it?
Literally speaking, it refers to a work schedule that starts at 9 a.m., ends at 9 p.m., and lasts six days a week. Compared to the traditional 965 schedule, the weekly work time increases by 27 hours. In the internet industry, these extra working hours can usually be counted as overtime in most companies, and employees can receive additional overtime pay and corresponding benefits. Therefore, some people think that overtime is good, and even voluntarily work overtime, actively embracing the 996 culture. Perhaps because of this, high income has gradually become synonymous with 996. If you want a higher income, you must work 996. If you don't want to work overtime, you have to choose to accept a lower income.
The Outcome of 996
So does 996 mean that you can exchange longer overtime for higher income? Or if you're paid more, would you accept 996? The idea seems nice, but the reality is harsh.
Personal consumption can be divided into two major types: one is for reproduction, and the other is for enhancing productivity. The latter is obvious, such as investing in improving one's productivity, like learning knowledge, practicing skills, and maintaining connections. Reproduction refers to continuous renewal and repeated production, which I understand as the consumption necessary to restore one's state, including:
- Physical reproduction: maintaining physical health and energy recovery
- Mental reproduction: entertainment provides emotional value
- Social relationship reproduction: maintaining social relationships with others
Among these, a significant hidden cost in social relationship reproduction is the cost of maintaining one's position and protecting one's livelihood. This can be understood as paying a certain cost to keep the opportunity to work. In other words, the essence of work can be understood as individuals paying rent in exchange for a job. This rent is invisible but real. Because it is invisible, it needs to be negotiated with the boss, but it is often overlooked by everyone.
The 996 work model increases the value created by extending working hours, but at the same time, the consumption cost that employees need to pay also increases accordingly, including the rent paid, which is proportionally (or even more) increased. Longer working hours cause a significant increase in the cost of various reproductions in consumption:
- Physical reproduction: long hours of work can worsen physical health; lack of time for physical exercise/maintenance of health
- Mental reproduction: lack of entertainment; lack of mental rest
- Social relationship reproduction: lack of time and opportunities to interact with others
These consumption items can actually be offset or alleviated through time, but due to the existence of 996, there is a lack of time, which causes a significant increase in costs. These additional consumption costs essentially offset or even exceed the additional value/income obtained from overtime work. Thus, you actually don't gain much, while the company and the boss profit by collecting the extra rent you pay without any other costs, thus making a net profit. This explains why as long as we work a little harder, the boss can afford to buy a big house.
The Essence of 996
Aside from longer working hours, why does 996 cause our consumption costs to skyrocket? After watching a video discussion last night, I found it quite enlightening.
Why is the 996 work time from nine to nine? Isn't the efficiency of a 666 work model, which also involves 12 hours of work, higher than 996? The 996 work model includes lunch and dinner time. Each meal generally takes an hour to settle, plus the inefficiency of work before and after meals. In terms of efficiency, the benefits brought by 996 are not much for the company, especially since many people choose to return to the company to slack off after dinner. If efficiency is pursued, the work time can be moved to 666, with two large segments of work time in the morning and afternoon, which is more efficient and pure.
The main reason for choosing the 99 work time interval is to include your dinner time and thus control you completely. Because dinner time is included in the work, you can't choose to dine out, you can't socialize, and you lose the time for meals, public relations, and business. However, these times are often where development and transactions take place, especially in the context of Chinese-style socializing, where many deals are made at the dining table. So now that this time is restricted, it actually restricts personal development opportunities and increases the difficulty of self-development. Similarly, working six days a week does the same, reducing your rest day to one day, and you have to spend this day resting completely, unable to spare time and energy to participate in social activities, and unwilling to spend this day's rest time learning and self-improving. Choosing 996 is equivalent to giving up these opportunities and cutting off the possibility of jumping out to look for other opportunities.
So the essence of 996 is not just exploitation, but more about domination. The 996 model controls the employees below and deprives them of the ability to break free from control. Accepting 996 is more like accepting the company's self-castration, accepting the fact of continuously working for the boss, and even consciously joining the task of maintaining this job.