TikTok owner ByteDance says employees must not work after 7 PM, aims to improve working culture

TikTok's parent company ByteDance has ordered its employees in China to not work beyond 7 PM from Monday to Friday and will require permission to work beyond those hours. The new policy is the latest effort by ByteDance to improve worker welfare. ByteDance has become one of the first tech companies in China to officially mandate shorter working hours. Earlier this year, the tech giant cancelled an alternating system where employees take 1 day off per week every 2 weeks.

As per an online report, authorities in China have stepped up warnings against employers to refrain from unreasonable overtime and other violations, as President Xi Jinping called on the country to work toward common prosperity. The new policy requires employees to apply for work overtime for not more than three hours on a weekday or for eight hours on a weekend, according to an internal document seen by Bloomberg. They will receive extra compensation of up to 3 times their normal wage for the overtime.

China's unpopular 9-9-6 work ethic which signifies employees working hours from 9 am to 9 pm and 6 days a week has come under scrutiny this year, owing to deaths associated with overwork and social media complaints. China's top court in August described 996 as illegal.

Tech workers have been launching online campaigns in China since 2019 against the 996 working culture. Criticism of long hours has gained traction due to the government crackdown on tech companies. Earlier this month, four anonymous creators in China organised a campaign called Workers Lives Matter called upon employees in tech companies to enter their company name, position, and working hours in a spreadsheet posted on GitHub.

Bloomberg quotes analysts Matthew Kanterman and Tiffany Tam who noted that China's work ethic which suggests 72-hour weeks have been typical at some companies and that they may be at odds with labour laws.

Over 4,000 people who said they worked at tech giants such as Alibaba Group, Baidu, Tencent and ByteDance had registered their data. A majority of the entries on the spreadsheet show that while a five-day week is a norm, many staffers work 10 to 12 hours a day.