This articleis missing information about background on other (especially non-tech) overwork cultures in China; legitimized "special work hour" system in Shenzhen. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(July 2021)
The996 working hour system (Chinese:996工作制) is a work schedule that derives its name from its requirement that workers clock in from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, 6 days per week, resulting in employees working 12 hours per day and 72 hours per week.[1][2][3][4][5][6] It is practiced illegally by some companies inChina. It A number ofMainland Chinese internet and tech companies have adopted this system as their official or de facto work schedule. Critics argue that the 996 working hour system is a violation of theLabour Law of the People's Republic of China and have called it "modern slavery".[7][8]
Difference in working hours (orange) during waking hours between a typical9 to 5 and the 996 schedule.
In March 2019, an "anti-996" protest was launched viaGitHub.[9][10][11] Since then, the 996 issue has been met with growing discontent in China.[12][13][14]
In 2025, the practice has begun to show up among tech companies in the USA.[15][16][17]
The culture of overtime work has a long history in ChineseIT companies,[18] where the focus is typically on speed and cost reduction.[19] Companies employ a range of measures, such as reimbursing taxi fares for employees who remain working at the office late into the night, to incentivize overtime work.[20]
In 2020, a study published inIEEE Software done by Chinese researchers found that "Chinese businesses are more likely to follow long work hours than American ones".[27] Another study likened 996 culture to "modern slavery", formed through the combination of "unrestricted global capitalism and aConfucian culture of hierarchy and obedience".[7]
In September 2016, theclassified advertising website58.com [zh] officially declared its adoption of the 996 working hour system,[28] attracting criticism from employees and social commentators. The company responded that the 996 system would be encouraged, not a compulsory practice.[29][30]
ACNBC article in May 2021 reported that workers atTikTok's parent companyByteDance were unhappy with the 996 work culture there and that people were turning down job opportunities at TikTok because of it.[31] In November 2021, ByteDance moved away from 996 and mandated shorter working hours.[32] Nevertheless, on 23 February 2022, the sudden death was reported of a 28-year-old employee at ByteDance, after he posted a message onMaimai [zh], a career and social networking platform, the night before. ByteDance later issued a statement that was shared in an internal letter with its staff in China, according to which the employee felt dizzy after an hour of exercise at the company gym, before he was taken to the hospital. The incident raised scrutiny of the frequent overtime demands of Chinese tech companies.[33]
After 58.com's 996 schedule was made known to the public, an internal email from the vice-president Gang He (Chinese:何剛) ofJD.com was leaked online, which contained a demand for the management team of JD.com to implement the 996 working hour system "on a flexible basis".[34]
On 15 March 2019, an employee of JD.com alleged that some departments have begun implementing the 995 schedule, while other departments have already finished doing so. Following the report, thepublic relations department of JD.com announced that overtime work was not compulsory.[35]
Richard Liu, the founder of the company, said that the reason for his company's layoffs is because there were too many "slackers" and they were not his "brothers".[36] He said JD did not force its staff to work the "996" or even a "995" overtime schedule,"But every person must have the desire to push oneself to the limit!".
In early January 2021, the e-commerce platformPinduoduo was accused of forcing its employees to do extremely intensive overtimes, which supposedly led to thekaroshi death of a 22-year-old worker.[37][38] Later, the official account of Pinduoduo posted (but deleted shortly afterwards) an answer onZhihu, saying "Those who are at the bottom of the society earn their wages at the risk of losing their lives".[39]
Just a few days after the early January accident, another employee committed suicide by jumping.[40][41] On 10 January, news sources reported that Pinduoduo fired an employee who posted photos showing his colleague being carried into an ambulance.[42][43]
In January 2019, an employee ofYouzan stated on the social platform Maimai that their supervisor had enforced the 996 schedule.[44] Bai Ya, the CEO of Youzan, replied, "it would be a good thing to look back at a few years later".[20] Some media outlets criticized this schedule.[45] Later that month, the Labour Supervision Group ofXihu District, Hangzhou announced that the company was under investigation.[46]
At least 40 companies, includingHuawei andAlibaba Group, have implemented the 996 schedule or an even more intensive alternative.[47][48]
According to two separate reports from theWired magazine andMarketplace podcast in 2025, a growing number of U.S. AI startups are also implementing the 996 schedule.[49][50]
On 26 March 2019, the 996.ICU repository and website were created. The repository onGitHub states that the name "996.icu" refers to how developers who work under the 996 system would risk poor health and a possible stay in anintensive care unit. The movement's slogan is "developers' lives matter".[51][52][53][54][55][56][57]
Two days later, on 28 March 2019, the repository had already received 50 thousand stars, and 100 thousand stars on 30 March 2019, which made it the top trending repository on GitHub.[58] The repository reached 120 thousand stars on 31 March 2019, and 200 thousand stars on 9 April 2019, making it the second most starred repository on GitHub. The flurry of activity led to the "issue" page of the repository to be flooded with spam and shut down, which was hotly discussed onZhihu,Sina Weibo, andWeChat.[1][59]
The original aim of the repository was to list the companies that use the 996 working hour system, but it soon developed into a movement; theAnti 996 Licence [zh] was created to explicitly prohibit companies using the 996 system from using open source[a] code licensed under it.[60][61]
On 2 April 2019, it was widely reported thatTencent'sQQ browser,WeChat,Alibaba'sUC Browser,Qihoo 360's 360 Browser, and many other browsers developed by companies in mainland China blocked the 996.icu repository on GitHub, describing it as "an illegal and fraudulent site".[62][30]
On 18 April 2019, employees atMicrosoft and GitHub created a GitHub repository named "support.996.ICU" in support of the 996.ICU campaign, which they believe could be under threat of Chinese government censorship.[63][64][65][66][67][68]
Several Chinese media outlets criticized the 996 working system. Xin Shi Ping of theXinhua News Agency said that the system "violates labor law and overtakes health and the future. It does harm to hard-working workers and is a misunderstanding of the hard-working spirit".[76] ThePeople's Daily wrote that "advocating 'hard work' does not mean resorting to and enforcing the 996 system",[77][78][79] while an editorial in theChina News Service said that it is "unnecessary to exchange life for money".[80]
Beijing Daily criticizedJack Ma andRichard Liu for "boasting" the 996 work schedule, claiming that it is "aimed at disguising reduction of salary or lay-off",[81] while Wang Xinya, a writer forBanyuetan, stated that some entrepreneurs disregarded the law and associate 996 with hard work, calling it "poisonous chicken soup" (Chinese:毒鸡汤). Wang also stated that the system has nothing to do with employee diligence, but has everything to do with company interests.[82]
Python creatorGuido van Rossum described the 996 work schedule as "inhumane" in a tweet commenting on anSCMP article about 996.[83][60][84][85] In 2021, Chinese scholars stressed on policy-makers that "there is a need to reform work policies to realize the lowering of working time per worker in China (and also to curb excessive-work cultures like 996)".[86] Without such initiatives, thedual circulation policy is doomed to fail, they argued.
Some European entrepreneurs argued that 996 is contrary to European values, that it leads to a brain drain, and that the bigger problem for startups is financing.[87]
The 996 working hour system was deemed illegal by theSupreme People's Court on 27 August 2021.[88] However, some scholars cast doubt whether this ruling will be enforced.[89][90]
The007 work schedule is a midnight to midnight, seven days a week schedule using a rotational workforce which may be practiced illegally by some companies in China, especially in the high-tech sector. The term 007 could mean several things depending on the source. It may mean the employee is expected to live in the office 24/7 to finish their work, or it could be used to refer to a work-from-home position that requires 24/7 availability, especially during the times ofCOVID-19. Sometimes it is used sarcastically by workers as the "true" schedule required by employers.[49][50][91][92][93][94][95]
In 2025, amidst theAI boom, reports have emerged of startup tech companies in San Francisco / Silicon Valley requiring "9-9-6" work schedules, with the goal of building things quickly in a competitive market.[96][97][98] California Labor Code §515.5 exempts employers from providing many software engineers with overtime pay.[99]
^Such a license would not meet most definitions of open source software, such as theOpen Source Definition, as the 996 exclusion counts as a limitation on purpose of use.
^Zhao, Ang (3 June 2018).不接受"996"是不能吃苦？媒体：合法权益应获保障 [Not accepting "996" means you cannot accept hardship? Media: Legal rights should be protected].Xinhuanet (in Simplified Chinese).Workers' Daily. Archived fromthe original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved30 March 2019.
^Wang, Pinzhi (30 March 2018).50.7%受访者称所在企业有"加班文化" [50.7% of respondents said their companies have an "overtime culture"].Xinhuanet (in Simplified Chinese).China Youth Daily. Archived fromthe original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved31 March 2019.
^abLiu, Jia, ed. (31 January 2019).默认996工作制背后：被撕掉的焦虑遮羞布 [Behind the default 996 work system: tearing off the veil of anxiety].第一财经 [Yicai] (in Simplified Chinese).Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved31 March 2019.
^英报：过劳死提醒中国人"懒散些" [British newspaper: overwork death reminds Chinese people to "be lazy"].People's Daily.Xinhua News Agency. 6 March 2014. Archived fromthe original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved29 May 2022.信息技术(IT)从业人员似乎尤其脆弱：近日一项覆盖35万IT从业者的调查显示，98.8%的受访者表示自己有健康问题。 [Information technology (IT) workers appear to be particularly vulnerable: a recent survey covering 350,000 IT workers showed that 98.8% of respondents said they had health problems.]
^Zhao, Lei; Wang, Yu (3 September 2016).58同城员工吐槽"996工作制" [58.com employees complain about "996 work system"].Phoenix New Media (in Simplified Chinese).The Beijing News.Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved30 March 2019.
^Song, Tao (2 September 2016).不学好！曝京东云高管"以身作则"实行996工作制 [Not learning well! JD's executives exposed as "leading as example" by implementing the 996 work system].qudong.com (in Simplified Chinese).Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved30 March 2019.
^Xu, Qian'ang (12 March 2019).京东回应"955工作制"：不强制，但要全情投入 [JD's responses to "955 working hour system": not mandatory, but employees need to be fully engaged at work].Guancha.cn (in Simplified Chinese).Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved30 March 2019.
^知乎回应拼多多账号截图：身份真实无误相关回答实为自行删 [Zhihu's responses to Pinduoduo screenshots: No doubts of authenticity, answer was actually self-deleted].Sina News (in Simplified Chinese). 4 January 2021.Archived from the original on 4 January 2021.
^网传拼多多员工因在网上发布同事被抬上救护车的照片，被管理层逼迫主动辞职、赶出公司？事件真实性如何？ [It was reported that a Pinduoduo employee was forced to resign and kicked out of the company by the management for posting photos of a colleague being carried in an ambulance online? What is the authenticity of the incident?].Zhihu (in Simplified Chinese).Archived from the original on 25 June 2021.
^拼多多员工因发帖被逼主动辞职 [Pinduoduo employees forced to resign due to posting].Sina News (in Simplified Chinese).Archived from the original on 11 January 2021.
^张瑜 (29 January 2019). 尹淑琼 (ed.).强推"996"工作制 有赞做错了什么？.南报网 (in Simplified Chinese). Archived fromthe original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved30 March 2019.
^尹莉娜 (31 January 2019).杭州劳动监察部门回应有赞"996"工作制：已介入调查.搜狐 (in Simplified Chinese).Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved31 March 2019.
^Wen, Jing (5 April 2019).互联网公司加班问题加剧 40家陷"996"工作制风波 [The problem of overtime work in Internet companies has intensified, and 40 companies are caught in the "996" work system troubles].China Central Television (in Simplified Chinese).Beijing Youth Daily.Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved9 April 2019.
^Alfred数据室 (29 March 2019).数据解读｜都是哪些程序员在GitHub上反对996？.澎湃新闻 (in Simplified Chinese).Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved31 March 2019.
