Alibaba founder Jack Ma says companies forcing staff to work overtime are ‘foolish’

Alibaba Group founder and billionaire Jack Ma again weighed in on the Chinese tech industry’s grueling overtime work culture on Sunday, this time calling enforced long hours “unsustainable.”

Ma’s comment followed his remarks on Thursday that working overtime could be a “huge blessing” for young workers who found careers they were dedicated to.

Photo credit: Alibaba

He was responding to a debate that has emerged in recent weeks among Chinese tech workers over the 996 schedule, which means working from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, six days a week. Industry workers set up a discussion group called “996.ICU” on the code-sharing platform GitHub, suggesting that anyone working those hours all the time could end up in a hospital intensive care unit with burnout.

“If you find a job you like, the 996 problem does not exist; if you’re not passionate about it, every minute of going to work is a torment,” Ma said in a post on his Weibo account on Sunday.

“No one likes working at a company that forces you to do ‘996’. Not only is it inhumane, it’s unhealthy and even more unsustainable for long periods – plus workers, relatives and the law do not approve of it,” he said. “In the long term, even if you pay a higher salary, employees will all leave.”

Ma added that companies that thought they could profit by forcing staff to work overtime were “foolish” and doomed to fail.

But in a speech to Alibaba staff on Thursday, Ma said the company expected people to be ready to work 12 hours a day since it had huge commitments to its clients.

“If you don’t work 996 when you are young, when will you? Do you think never having to work 996 in your life is an honor to boast about?” he said in the speech. “If you don’t put out more time and energy than others, how can you achieve the success you want?”

In the Weibo post on Sunday, Ma said: “Real 996 should be spending time learning, thinking, and for self-improvement. The people who stick to 996 must have found their passion there, and their happiness besides from money.”

Ma said he expected to be criticized for his views but he felt it was necessary to talk about the issue.

Some of the comments on Ma’s post criticized him as out of touch, and for having little regard for his workers. “Only talk of working hard, but silent on wages – this is typical language used by people who exploit others,” read one comment.

Many other Chinese tech giants have come under the spotlight for their intense corporate culture. Senior executives at Huawei, Baidu and JD.com have previously urged staff to increase their working hours, become dedicated “strivers” and embody a competitive, fearless “wolf spirit.”

A WeChat post last week attributed to JD.com founder Richard Liu Qiangdong focused on reports of the online retailer’s plan to sack underperformers. He said he would not consider “slackers” as his “brothers” and also called for colleagues to join him in striving for the company.