“The 996 work culture is, in fact, a symptom of corporate incompetence.”
Only when management is unable to deliver real results to investors do they fall back on saying, “Look, we’re all working passionately, we’re doing 996!”
The implicit message is: “Even though I’m incapable, we’re working hard—please keep investing in us.”
It’s a methodology of working for performance theater, not actual productivity.
I’ve worked as a professional executive in China for over 20 years. From 2000 to 2008, I grew in foreign enterprises. After 2010, I joined Chinese internet companies and worked with many firms, mainly focusing on IT governance to meet IPO-level audit requirements.
One principle has remained consistent throughout my career:
Overtime is a sign of managerial failure.
And when a company turns overtime into culture, it is collective incompetence—from the organization and its leadership. That should be a source of shame.
When I began working in Chinese internet companies around 2010, leadership both appreciated my capabilities and deeply resented my foreign-corporate mindset.
They felt I always touched their most painful nerve: that 996 is a mark of failure.
They found it hard to work with me because I always structured everything with clarity, and what they hated most was clarity.
I spoke in logic and market truths; they hated that, always insisting they were “crossing the river by feeling the stones.”
So when I see Silicon Valley now embracing 996, I know this is the final straw for the AI bubble:
When people start working for the performance, not for the purpose, the collapse is already on its way.
Only when management is unable to deliver real results to investors do they fall back on saying, “Look, we’re all working passionately, we’re doing 996!” The implicit message is: “Even though I’m incapable, we’re working hard—please keep investing in us.” It’s a methodology of working for performance theater, not actual productivity.
I’ve worked as a professional executive in China for over 20 years. From 2000 to 2008, I grew in foreign enterprises. After 2010, I joined Chinese internet companies and worked with many firms, mainly focusing on IT governance to meet IPO-level audit requirements.
One principle has remained consistent throughout my career:
Overtime is a sign of managerial failure. And when a company turns overtime into culture, it is collective incompetence—from the organization and its leadership. That should be a source of shame.
When I began working in Chinese internet companies around 2010, leadership both appreciated my capabilities and deeply resented my foreign-corporate mindset. They felt I always touched their most painful nerve: that 996 is a mark of failure. They found it hard to work with me because I always structured everything with clarity, and what they hated most was clarity. I spoke in logic and market truths; they hated that, always insisting they were “crossing the river by feeling the stones.”
So when I see Silicon Valley now embracing 996, I know this is the final straw for the AI bubble:
When people start working for the performance, not for the purpose, the collapse is already on its way.