[adnanazadsg]

This is unfortunately a common phenomenon where people from countries in the west see negative press about another country and assume its a universal issue. Often thats not true - companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and many others are willing to bend over backwards to get the best talent.

There's a lot of other companies that want their employees to work overtime, but thats probably true in a lot of countries - probably even in the US.

I wish there was some way of balancing the news coming out of countries - without resorting to censorship. It would remove a lot of prejudice,

[rak00n]

Jack Ma of Alibaba endorsed 996 - https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/04/15/busi....

[adnanazadsg]

"If we find things we like, 996 is not a problem," Ma said in a blog post Sunday on Chinese social media site Weibo. "If you don't like [your work], every minute is torture," he added.

I agree with this sentiment, I happen to work 996 on my own stuff mainly because I love it. I know a lot of people who have jobs and pour themselves into it because they love what they do as well.

I'd say its only an issue once you are being punished for not working 996.

[rak00n]

You missed the other part.

"I personally think that 996 is a huge blessing," he said. "How do you achieve the success you want without paying extra effort and time?"

[adnanazadsg]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with the point you're trying to make regarding how Jack Ma might be part of the problem.

But its not really a "China" problem. There's a lot of startups and mature companies in the US that have similarly aggressive personalities at the helm who demand a lot from their employees.

My main point was the notion that people are assuming that its universal in China, when its not always true (whether its more prevalent than in the US or not - i dont know).

The only reason I'm even making this point was because how grandparent to my comment made a simple comment about how companies in Shenzen pay a lot, and the response to that was a blanket "but 996" when that might not be true.

[krageon]

The way to remove prejudice is to educate people like you are doing. Fundamentally, it is expected that the rest of the world sees less news about your country than you do. That's how news works.

It would behove us all to expect and believe that a country is usually more nuanced than the extremes that make it across a border.

[RAIN92]

Especially in the US, I'd say. US have pretty long hours compared to Europe.