‘We’re like gears grinding until they break’: Chinese tech companies push staff to the limit

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As growth slows, employers are squeezing more hours out of fewer workers

In a recent video conference with office staff, JD.com founder Richard Liu added a warning into his pep talk: his company did not have room for anyone who wanted work-life balance. “We have employees who prefer to enjoy life, who put life first and work second. I can understand not wanting to work hard, everyone makes different choices . . . so I can only say that you are not our brother, you are a passer-by,” Liu told attendees, according to a recording posted on social media.

“I often attend meetings in the middle of the night.” The 31-year-old said the demanding culture at parent company ByteDance was more stressful than the long hours. She referred to it as neijuan, a term widely used in China to describe the relentless competition to outdo peers. Biao Xiang, a social anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute, said the word, which translates as “involution”, had grown in popularity in China as workers linked their personal uncertainty to broader shifts.

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