ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動) ordered its employees to end their day by 7pm, becoming one of the first tech companies in China to officially mandate shorter working hours, according to an internal document.
Staff in China should only work from 10am to 7pm on Mondays to Fridays and would need to seek permission to stay beyond those hours at least one day in advance, the document showed.
A representative for the TikTok and Douyin (抖音) owner declined to comment.
The country’s grueling work pace — known as “996” because employees often labor from 9am to 9pm six days per week — was long celebrated by tech billionaires from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) cofounder Jack Ma (馬雲) to JD.com Inc (京東) founder Richard Liu (劉強東).
It has come under renewed scrutiny this year, fueled by deaths associated with overwork and a growing chorus of social media complaints. With Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) calling on the country to work toward “common prosperity,” authorities have stepped up warnings against employers to refrain from unreasonable overtime and other contraventions.
Under the new policy, employees can apply to work overtime no more than three hours on a weekday or eight hours on a weekend, according to the document. They would receive extra compensation of up to three times their normal wage for the overtime.
The new policy is the latest effort by ByteDance to improve worker welfare. Earlier this year, the social media giant, along with rival Kuaishou Technology (快手), canceled an alternating system where employees just take one day off per week every two weeks.
A short-lived campaign last month saw some private-sector workers, including those from ByteDance, come together to share their working hours in protest against the country’s excessive working culture.
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