This article is from WeChat public account:LatePost (ID: postlate)< span class = "text-remarks">, the original title: “” work “is not everything – and five scholars to talk about the Internet and other culture of overtime”, author: Yao Yin rice, Huang Chun-chieh, Gongfang Yi, Yue Guobin (intern), Editor: Yao Yinmi, Huang Junjie, the title picture comes from Visual China
“There are no passengers on this spaceship on Earth, we are all crew members.”
—— Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan
“We are all on the journey to modernity. The question is, are we paddle slaves or passengers with luggage and hope.”
——French sociologist Alain Treney
How will we enter the future? Some of the most insightful observers believe that leading to a more efficient society is not necessarily better and fairer for most people, and individuals should not stand idly by on this journey.
In the past two years, employees of Internet companies have begun to reflect more and more about what they have done for this job. “996” and “beating workers”, keywords related to overtime work have been repeatedly mentioned. Every few months, there will be an accidental fermentation that makes more people question what kind of future the big companies that promote technological progress are bringing us into.
What kind of social responsibilities should Internet companies bear after disrupting the market? What boundary should exist between the pursuit of efficiency and the pursuit of happiness by employees? How should the spirit of struggle and personal freedom be balanced?
People have no consensus.
Internet company executives often work harder than their employees. However, it is hypocritical that the employees of major Internet companies with annual salary of tens of millions and sitting on office chairs of thousands of dollars are hypocritical, and they are far more than their bosses.
Working overtime is just a sign of contradiction.
Internet platform companies have become the link connecting traditional industries. Retail, catering, travel, wine travel, grocery shopping… The regional markets that were once scattered in various cities are glued together by Internet platform companies, which greatly promotes transaction efficiency and brings consumers once unimaginable convenience in life.
But in this process, a small number of InternetThe company divides the profits of various industries and aggravates the accumulation of wealth. The influence of these giants is rapidly expanding. They not only determine the career choices and livelihoods of employees, riders, drivers, and vendors, but also determine the needs and desires of each consumer. The Chinese government’s renewed anti-monopoly, regulation of Internet finance, and legislation for e-commerce and online car-hailing are also rebalancing the boundaries between the government and large enterprises, and between large enterprises and society.
Chinese society once again faces the problem of growth. But this time, the stones crossing the river are hard to find.
The European Union has strict supervision on the employment of enterprises and the protection of citizens’ privacy. But in the land where computers, the World Wide Web, and modern mobile communication networks were born, the largest Internet company today is Spotify, a music playback service. How long can high welfare without commercial competitiveness support?
The companies with the most employees in the United States, Wal-Mart and Amazon, currently have no unions. The U.S. manufacturing industry with strong labor unions closed local factories and subcontracted production overseas. The working class they have abandoned brought Trump to power.
The world has no ready answers, but this is the normal state. Since the 1990s, the optimistic consensus that everything will naturally become better and fairer with technological progress has been an illusion that has dissipated globally.
Today’s discussion about Internet companies and employees concerns a larger group of people-more people who are equally hardworking, but do not have the high returns and voice of large Internet companies. Focusing on this is just because young people in first- and second-tier cities have more say in social networks, and they can express their positions and emotions loudly.
Dual opposition is never a solution to complex problems. But it is always a good thing to expose the problem, it may be the beginning of solving the problem.
LatePost contacted five scholars in different fields and talked about major discussions in our society today. Their majors are in different fields such as law, sociology, communication, and business management, and they have different entry points for problems.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Any major social problems are not caused by a few bad people or a single class-if it were that simple, they would not be a problem. We just hope to show more perspective thinking through discussion.
Zhong Ruiqing
The more mandatory labor protection means the less flexibility, which means that the more benefits for those who have jobs, the more miserable the people who are not.
Zhong Ruiqing, Associate Professor of Guanghua Law School of Zhejiang University, Executive Director of International Finance and M&A Research Center of Hua Law School, researches law and economics, financial law and tax law, pays attention to the development of bureaucracy, and has many researches on the practice of rule of law in the context of economic reform. He has published many papers in law and management journals such as “Chinese and Foreign Law” and “Management World”.
“Late”: relying on the current “Labor Law”, can the regulatory authorities restrict 996?
Zhong Ruiqing: Now employees work overtime, which is voluntary in the form of company policy. When you are off work, theoretically you can go back, but no one else, nor the leader, dare you leave alone? So it actually became an atmosphere of voluntary overtime. The actual working hours of employees absolutely exceed the provisions of the Labor Law, but can the Labor Law prohibit such “voluntary” overtime?
When the local labor department went to enforce the law, the legal basis was insufficient. In addition, law enforcement is also difficult. Is it necessary to require companies to drive people away when the time comes? For example, turn off the lights and close the door at five o’clock?
And law enforcement can’t just target one company and one industry. Today, it’s not just the employees of those big Internet companies who work long hours. The financial industry, lawyers, certified public accountants and our university teachers also work very long hours. If law enforcement is widespread, assuming that Shanghai strictly restricts overtime work by Internet companies, should we no longer control brokerage firms and funds? If only Shanghai manages, and other places are left alone, the company may move away and Shanghai’s competitiveness will decline. If the whole country is managed in a unified way, China’s economic competitiveness may decline. Therefore, the decision makers must weigh the pros and cons.
“Late”: What role should the “Labor Law” play?
Zhong Ruiqing: The extent to which China’s labor protection standards should be has been controversial.
For example, it is stipulated that you can only work for eight hours. Does this protect you or deprive you? Foxconn punished workers for not allowing workers to work overtime to earn overtime pay. Setting a minimum wage and reducing jobs in companies will help you or hurt you? It depends on where you are in the whole society. Economics has always believed that the more mandatory labor protection standards, the more disadvantaged it is for the most disadvantaged groups. This is supported by many empirical studies. More coercion means less flexibility, which means that those who have jobs have more benefits and those who have no jobs are more miserable. Young people may not know that this was the case before the reform and opening up. Labor protection standards were high, but people working in state-owned enterprises followedThose who are not working are completely from two different social classes.
“Late”: Is it possible for industry associations to become an existence that restricts corporate behavior?
Zhong Ruiqing: If the industry association has no power, it is meaningless. If it is given real power, it will become corrupt. If the government can’t solve the problem, you still count on a non-governmental association, that is very strange.
“Late”: Is it possible to reverse the overtime culture within the company?
Zhong Ruiqing: Because of the existence of competition, at least from the perspective of business leaders, they must believe that the culture of overtime is helpful to the survival and growth of enterprises. To expect it to change, only the way of competition among enterprises changes, and then it may neither want nor need employees to work so long.
Actually, working too long is not creative. Today these jobs may not require high creativity and can be piled up by time. When it requires more creativity, the existing overtime work culture will no longer work. Long hours of long work, every night to go to bed and early to get up, dizziness every day, where is the strength to make a revolutionary product.
What I have never wanted to understand is that the diligence of the ancients emphasized “the cock crows.” I think that working overtime to go to bed early and get up early is not harmful to the body and may even be beneficial. But the current overtime work emphasizes going to bed late and getting up late, which is very harmful to the body and is very inefficient. If you are still working overtime after 12 o’clock in the evening, the performance component of this overtime is higher than the actual performance. If you can’t finish your work, go to bed early and get up early. Isn’t it the same? I don’t quite understand why some companies don’t change this performance-based overtime culture.
“Late”: Some scholars suggested that employees should unite.
Zhong Ruiqing: It’s useless. Legally, even a very small group with a dozen people cannot unite. Faced with more resourceful companies, they were all broken in two or three strokes.
“Late”: Why did unions play a role in the 20th century?
Zhong Ruiqing: Actually, the strength of labor unions in the United States is very small now. Back then, many conditions were put together to have a golden time for the union.
The first is that economic activities are divided by national boundaries to restrict capital flows. After the globalization of capital flows, if the trade unions are strong in one place, companies will close their factories and open them where there are no trade unions. Secondly, the employer and the employee have a desire to cooperate, and the employer is willing to help the employee improve the standard of living.
With these two premises, there are specific details, such as how to organize a union, where the union money comes from, and how to define the right to strike. Now these two major premises are gone.
“Late”: There is some room for communication between companies and the government, either publicly or privately. What kind of lobbying space does the individual have in front of the enterprise?
Zhong Ruiqing: Large companies and the government have a lot of communication. The individual can only be if you are competitive to have room for communication. Without competitiveness, I am afraid there is no good way.
“Late”: The Guangdong Higher People’s Court ruled that Huawei’s signing of the “Struggle Agreement” is legal, or Shenzhen’s reform pilot special working hours management. What do these show?
Zhong Ruiqing: It is not a breakthrough or a concession. It is just the interpretation of the “Labor Law” by the local court, that is, the labor law’s regulations on labor hours do not include voluntary overtime.
“Late”: Internet companies are essentially platform companies. Ali is a retail platform, Meituan is a catering platform, and Didi is a travel platform. Platform companies promote economic development while also taking away most of the profits in the industries they infiltrate. This process also exacerbated wealth differentiation, right?
Zhong Ruiqing: This is similar to the United States. The market was originally divided, but now it has become a unified market. As the market expands, revenue must be concentrated towards the top companies.
The advantage is that the efficiency of the entire country has increased, at the cost of wealth polarization. At the same time, many small businesses have been eliminated, resulting in the division of regional wealth, which are all linked together.
“Late”: Is it possible for the market to solve this problem on its own?
Zhong Ruiqing: Obviously, the market cannot be resolved. It will only further divide and make rich people more money. The market mechanism will inevitably lead to polarization. As Internet companies expand the market, the polarization will become even more severe.
From the perspective of global competition, if a country wants to maintain its competitiveness, it must go in this direction. Otherwise, the overall efficiency of the country will be low, and you will fall behind in the entire global system. The Chinese people’s ideas are definitely to strive for the upper reaches. The central government and large enterprises work together to push in this direction. How to deal with negative consequences? It is up to the government to increase fiscal redistribution.
“Late”: What are some examples of redistribution?
Zhong Ruiqing: There are more and more central distributions. For example, the social security fund is gradually being coordinated. Targeted poverty alleviation is also a redistribution for the poorest.
Going in this direction, as for the specific method and the extent to which it can be achieved, we are still trying.
“Late”: Someone mentioned that in the 1990s, China changed from a single weekly break to a large and small week, and then into a two-day break.
Zhong Ruiqing: Many people say this, but those who were only part of the state-owned enterprises were very comfortable. For example, my mother is a farmer, she doesn’t know how many hours she works every day, she has no rest at all, and she can’t make any money. If it is comfortable, there are many such people now. Now there are many people lying at home, but these people don’t say “I’m so miserable”, and happy people don’t speak.
“Late”: The antagonism on labor relations on the Internet now seems to be more intense than before.
Zhong Ruiqing: Yes, it is likely that many of the so-called Internet giants are outsiders from cities. On the surface, it seems that their income is not low, but compared to housing prices, it is nothing. I’m so tired, and I don’t know when I will have a head.
To put it plainly, the root cause is the polarization between the rich and the poor. As long as this pressure of differentiation persists, complaints will always exist, but the reasons and outlets of complaints may keep changing. I used to say that housing prices have risen, but now it’s noisy working hours. Next time, I might be noisy.
Objectively speaking, compared to most people, the employees of major Internet companies are definitely a small group of people who have a good life. Although they work long hours, they have high incomes and high social status. The worst is those who cannot find a job, or those who have more than 996, whose income and social status are far lower than those who complain about 996. The people who really need help are takeaway riders, taxi drivers, and migrant workers in factories. They are different from the first generation of migrant workers.I don’t have a sense of belonging, and I don’t want to make money to go home, get married, and have children. These people will not speak up on the Internet. Children’s schooling and housing issues require the government, especially the central government, to take the lead to help them.
Zhang Lin
Some employees may accept selling their labor as a commodity, but the market should not be everything.
Zhang Lin, PhD in Journalism and Communication, University of Southern California, is currently an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire. Research on numbers and knowledge labor, focusing on China in a global context. For example, take the Chinese small capitalist tradition as a clue to discuss the interaction between labor and the state as a platform for small bourgeois. The masterpiece “The Evolutionary History of Alibaba and the Platformization of Small Capitalism: An Investigation of the Platformization of Local Context”.
“Late”: Long working hours similar to the Internet industry exist in many industries, including catering, travel, finance, and medical services. However, Internet companies may receive more attention because of their more explicit relationship with people’s lives. Is this statement right?
Zhang Lin: I agree. A similar situation was probably when Foxconn employees jumped from building in 2010 and 2011. It is an Apple supplier because this halo has attracted more attention. But Foxconn already belongs to that level that treats workers well. Now the focus of public opinion is on the Internet giants, both good and bad.
The good thing is that it provides a public topic for everyone to discuss better. The bad thing is that these companies may be turned into individual cases. In fact, I believe that many small companies may have less bottom line and less formal labor protection. It is difficult for employees of these companies to have channels to speak up. I think one of the responsibilities of scholars and the media is not to describe it as a matter of a certain person or a certain company. This is a common phenomenon and represents a bigger problem.
“Late”: One of your main research directions in the past two years is “digital labor”. How to define digital labor? Is the rider of the Meituan platform? Are Pinduoduo’s full-time employees?
Zhang Lin: There are many discussions in academia, and now everything is digital labor. In 2014 and 2015, I went to Taobao Village for research. Those in rural areas who rely on digital platforms to start businesses are basically connected to the Internet at work every dayInternet-related, life is greatly affected, and the degree may be no less than that of employees in the company, and at the same time it is more invisible. As a big manufacturing country, especially with the integration of urban and rural areas and capital to the countryside, the e-commerce field is full of people who cannot be seen on the platform. These people are what we call “digital labor.”
“Late”: Are there “exploitation” behaviors on Internet platforms?
Zhang Lin: From the standpoint of market fundamentalism, exploitation is a neutral term that refers to the extraction of surplus value from the labor of workers. This is an economic behavior and does not contain moral evaluation. If a company does not “exploit”, it cannot make a profit. But when “exploitation” is too cruel, we need to step outside the box of market fundamentals and reflect on this competition and profit maximization-oriented culture.
In fact, Internet platforms not only “exploit” internal employees, but also “exploit” outsourcing riders and sellers. The Internet business is outsourced layer by layer, and the industrial chain is particularly long. Many people’s lives are affected. There must be internal “exploitation” here. The West will also discuss Free Labor, which refers to the exploitation of users. For example, e-commerce guides users to write reviews and help sell products without return. These are all considered.
“Late”: To get ahead through high-intensity work, which was a positive narrative in China. But with the same intensity and dream, why do people start to complain today?
Zhang Lin: In the 1950s and 1960s, people in the 1950s and 1960s would identify with more people and have a sense of national ownership. The younger generation now has more critical thinking, more self-awareness, and more need for self-realization than a generation. The more considerations other than money may be at work.
On the other hand, with the current economic downturn, the trade war has created a huge backlog of China’s global profit margins. The epidemic has also led to higher unemployment and lower labor advantages. Especially non-technical white-collar workers, bargaining power is not very high. A large number of college students graduate, returnees are resurgence, and the supply of talents is oversaturated. If you don’t do it, someone will do it. Under this pressure, it is not surprising to complain.
“Late”: Corporate behavior is affected by policy. Some people think that the unstable and incoherent economic policies will also cause entrepreneurs to tend to reach a goal quickly in a short period of time, which may affect labor rights. What is your opinion on this?
Zhang Lin: Political scientists have studied and the concept proposed is structural uncertainty(Structured Uncertainty). It means that economic behavior is affected by the structural instability of the government and has short-term profitability. On the one hand, China has a macro level of 10, 50 years The year-to-century plan brings long-term stability through institutional advantages. For example, it is difficult for us to have a tsunami-like impact like the 2008 financial crisis in the United States. We have the national team to bail out the market and other tools to regulate the economy. But At the micro level, corporate behavior is affected by policy guidance. In the short term, a large influx of capital seems to be very prosperous, but it also leads to the transfer of labor issues, which is not conducive to laws and institutions to solve problems. This is the two sides of the coin.
“Late”: Pinduoduo puts “duty” into its values. One kind of interpretation is the duty of “doing the right thing and doing the thing right”. If the right thing is recognized, then it is understandable to achieve the goal unkindly. Is this statement right?
Zhang Lin: I think Huang Zheng must be talking about his so-called duty and so-called justice within a limited framework, which may be given by market fundamentalism. In this framework, man is essentially a commodity. Some Pinduoduo employees may have accepted this fundamentalism and sold their labor as a commodity. But if you think outside of this framework and reflect, you will find that the market should not be everything.
Although companies have obligations and responsibilities to the society and employees, from the perspective of the company, they face global competition. Pinduoduo’s comments on Zhihu, Ma Yun and Liu Qiangdong’s speeches to 996 Fubao, share a common logic: even if you do not do it, others do it. If China does not do it, it will not be able to remain competitive. It is a systemic problem shared by the world.
“Late”: Is it possible for this kind of market fundamentalism to be corrected?
Zhang Lin: After Europe entered the welfare society, there may be more reflections on market fundamentals, but their economy is not good. As a developed country, the United States has long relied on the support of the labor force of developing countries. Now it has to face the challenges of the educated and middle-class immigrants from developing countries to the natives. And our Internet giants have not yet demonstrated this respect for people and life. Companies are still trying to extract.
In this case, legal regulations are needed to allow everyone to reach a consensus, not to have no bottom line together. It also needs to be improved at the level of cultural value. I think there are other reasons besides market rationality. For example, in addition to salary, can you think about it: weclass=”text-remarks” label=”Remarks”>(panopticism)“. This is no different from Foxconn back then. Foxconn means that everyone sends a job number when they come in, night shift, morning shift There is no communication among the workers. In the end, once a problem occurs, the employee can only face it alone.
“Late”: In recent years, the company has required employees to sign a competition agreement when they resign, and they are not allowed to join any similar company within a certain time limit. Now the scope of competition agreements is getting wider and wider, and almost all Internet companies are on the list of competitions. How do you see companies restricting a person’s right to freely choose a job after leaving the company?
Pan Yi: When I was investigating in the Pearl River Delta, this matter was called “blacklisting” workers from enterprises. If someone leaves, all factories in the same industry in the Pearl River Delta will no longer hire these workers. Today these platforms are learning what they did in the past, but with a more advanced name. In essence, it is a threat.
We can’t have a way to respond to them. Companies can blacklist employees, and we can also blacklist companies. Today’s domestic e-commerce platforms basically rely on the domestic consumer market. We have listed the top ten blacklists of companies, let the media monitor them, and let consumers choose carefully.
“Late”: The company provides high wages and high benefits, and accordingly requires employees to work longer hours. How to understand this mentality of managers?
Pan Yi: There is still a bit of deception working behind the scenes. Let every young person pursue to be an elite and enter the elite system. The performance is that if you want to become an elite, you want to live a very middle-class life, you should work 10 hours a day.
But I think that in a healthy social system, a job can be undertaken by two or three people, so why concentrate it on one person? Why do you need to use your life to spell out a life that you think will be more comfortable?
“Late”: There is also a buzzword in 2020, the internal volume.
Pan Yi: In essence, social mobility is blocked. The internal volume describes the same social phenomenon as the “class consolidation” we mentioned earlier. When the existing vocabulary is a bit tired of speaking, the new vocabulary will easily become popular even though it is talking about a basic thing.
In the rapid development stage of enterprises, it is very challenging to move to a higher level of management, but it is easier to regress to a lower level of management.
Zhang Kai, Professor of Business School of Renmin University of China, mainly researches organizational behavior, leadership and corporate culture. Proposition: People can be shaped by culture, and they can also choose and create culture. Advocate that Chinese enterprises must carefully examine culture and humanity in the development of globalization.
“Late”:How to define Pinduoduo’s management model? How to understand it?
Zhang Kai: To understand Pinduoduo, we must analyze it from the cultural environment, social environment and business philosophy of the company. This is not a business problem. Respect for people is not enough in our culture. Chinese culture is characterized by respect for power, which is manifested in respecting parents at home, teachers at school, and leaders at work. But power emphasizes obedience to the will of the leader. This is a basic social and cultural background. Under this background, the progress of company management is relatively difficult because power is so easy to use.
“Late”: And almost never failed.
Zhang Kai: Human nature does not like to be influenced by power, but under normal circumstances, it is also to endure, small intolerance leads to chaos, this is the most reasonable saying of many Chinese. Strict management has not caused group resistance in Pinduoduo, indicating that there are still interest factors.
“Late”: Western management models have experienced a transition from “people as tools” to “people as resources”. What happened?
Zhang Kai: Because of the economic development stage, the importance of people in the enterprise and the society’s understanding of people has changed.
Before the 1980s, companies were basically in the stage of treating people as tools and costs. After the 1980s, manpower has become a resource because environmental changes have continued to accelerate: product life cycles have become shorter and shorter, customer needs have become more and more personalized, technological progress has become faster and faster, and competition has become increasingly fierce. Under such a background, the competitive advantage of an enterprise depends more on the initiative and adaptability of employees. Creativity becomes important, and people become important.
“Late”: “Take people as capital”It is also part of modern human resource management. What is the key?
Zhang Kai: The key is to change the relationship between employees and capitalists and their mentality. You are also a shareholder, and he is also a shareholder. Your relationship and your attitude towards the company are different.
“Late”: A large proportion of employees of major Internet companies are company shareholders, much higher than traditional companies.
Zhang Kai: When equity incentives were just launched that year, the purpose was to guide business operators to make long-term decisions. Later, when applied to employees, it became a mutual kidnapping relationship. Perhaps the concept of “golden handcuffs” is more suitable to describe this state. Equity incentives do not necessarily lead to management progress. It just allows employees and the company to lose everything economically, and to prosper each other. However, having equity is not the same as loving the company.
“Late”: Internet companies are the most advanced and innovative force in this society. But they did not choose a more equal management style. Why?
Zhang Kai: Because even if he treats people with a more equal and better model, whether he can manage it well is still a question. To manage people well, enterprises need systematic and effective management education, which places high demands on the senior level of the enterprise. Especially in the stage of rapid enterprise expansion, if he fails to do a good job in the management of talent reserves and management model construction, he will not be able to do it for a while in terms of energy and investment. Going to a higher level of management is very challenging for the company, but it is easier to regress to a lower level of management.
“Late”: Does this have anything to do with the mental maturity of young people now? Do you often contact students and understand their current state of mind?
Zhang Kai: Now graduates have two wishes when entering the company. The first is to make money, and the second is to be promoted. He did not expect that I would love my job and I would do my best to the company. responsibility. If, when recruiting, only focus on the skills of employees and not their personality, then the simplest management method is to require obedience.
“Late”: How do you understand the word “duty” emphasized by Pinduoduo internally?
Zhang Kai: Duty has two meanings in Chinese. The first is one’s own responsibilities and obligations, justIt means to be responsible and fulfill your obligations for your own affairs. Another meaning is to be content with where you are and don’t care about things beyond your position. The first meaning is consistent with modern corporate culture, but the second one does not. An enterprise really wants to develop well, and it needs employees to do something beyond their position and status. For example, if you see some undesirable phenomena in the company, you will comment and fight injustice.
“Late”: When employees have conflicts with the company, they usually have nowhere to ask for help. Is it possible to restrict the unlimited power of the management through some organizational designs and better protect the interests of employees?
Zhang Kai: It depends on what the boss of the company thinks. No organization established within the company can be independent of the power of the company boss. There is a “360-degree evaluation system” in management, one of which is to let the subordinates evaluate the superiors, which is intended to restrict power. But it is basically useless in China, because the Chinese subordinates are basically afraid to say bad things about the leadership.
Zhang Zhixue
Society must have empathy, and the lowest-level talents can live safely and freely.
Zhang Zhixue, Professor of the Department of Organization and Strategic Management, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, and Director of the Behavioral Science Research Center. The current international academic organization IACMR(International Society for Chinese Management Research) Chairman, Deputy Director of Decision Psychology Professional Committee of Chinese Psychological Association, Enterprise Human Resources of Chinese Labor Association Vice Chairman of Management and Development Professional Committee. Main research direction: organizational behavior and corporate culture, conflict management. He has provided management training and consulting services for IBM, Volvo, Huawei, Tencent, Baidu and other companies.
“Late”: You think that treating people as human beings is a more progressive management method, but why, whether it is factory owners in the 1990s or enterprises in various industries, use people as tools for management at certain times ?
Zhang Zhixue: The first reason has a lot to do with the progress of the entire society in China. In the past 40 years, we have concentrated on development and construction, and the whole country has seized the dividends of the times. With this experience, everyone feels that hard work, bravery and hard work are the most important magic weapon for success. Therefore, most entrepreneurs are simply like in the past, withoutEndlessly let people increase labor intensity. For example, the annual growth target of 8% is reasonable, and it must be pulled to 15%. Investors also hope to do so, and entrepreneurs also hope to do so.
The second reason is related to our culture. After the Renaissance in Europe, respect for humans radiated human creativity and created a whole new world and civilization. From then on, they believed from the bottom of their hearts that billionaires and courier brothers are born equal in terms of human rights, and this concept has almost penetrated into the bone marrow. It must be admitted that we have no tradition in this area. We have not yet realized that human beings are created equal in terms of human rights and human dignity. This leads to the lack of equal opportunities for dialogue between the managers and the managed in the enterprise, and those with resources can do whatever they want, while those enslaved by resources are not qualified to speak or have no benefit after speaking, and finally retreat and forbear.
“Late”: Many employees complained that working overtime is not efficient. According to free market rules, if a company’s management style is not good for output efficiency, it should be replaced by a better company. Why is “996”, which is considered inefficient by employees, to become a universal rule?
Zhang Zhixue: The competition is under great pressure, but the efficiency is not high. What should we do? Work that cannot be completed in 8 hours can only be completed in 9 or 10 hours. And because the employees did not protest, a tacit understanding was formed. Ensuring competitiveness by increasing labor intensity, rather than improving smarter working methods and workflows.
“Late”: So the more intense the competition faced by the company, the more simple and rude the management will be?
Zhang Zhixue: This has always been the case in history. When competition is fierce, the popular management philosophy tends to emphasize efficiency, and when a competitive advantage is obtained and the external environment is a little looser, it will return to humanism. In the early days of the United States, Ford was also very strict with its employees. Workers need an organization to protect themselves, and unions are created. But the reason why the United States is able to set up trade unions is because it supports the formation of such organizations in enterprises through legislation.
“Late”: Competition is dead or alive. In this state, do business managers have the motivation to correct themselves?
Zhang Zhixue: It is impossible for managers to have this self-correction motivation. In fact, when an employee chooses to go to such a company, he himself knows the consequences; when his conditions are better, he will leave, and other employees will join after he leaves. So few companies canReflecting, it is rare to hear employee dissatisfaction and correct it.
But companies must realize that public opinion is now turning, and the country is also launching rectification. In Western society, if an enterprise is too harsh on its employees, social activists will call on people to boycott its products or services. The price is very high. I hope that some outstanding and smart companies will deal with this problem in a timely manner. It will be too late for the government policy to be released.
“Late”: What can companies do if they want to change this competitive environment?
Zhang Zhixue: We cannot simply classify it as a business problem, and the business is powerless.
I will give you an example. For example, the length of the takeaway. If you walk for 30 minutes, I need 25 minutes. We can’t condemn users. Users require shorter time and lower prices. There is no problem. People are greedy by nature. But if the customer has this requirement, the manufacturer will immediately meet it, which will make everyone very nervous.
When manufacturers and consumers in this society are happy to satisfy their immediate desires, they need the intervention of legislation. For example, I require delivery workers not to receive more than many orders in a day, just like the current long-distance truck drivers have a driving time limit to avoid fatigue driving.
If consumers and policies have not changed, what can companies do?
“Late”: Is there a more constructive reference for similar periods in history? After the economic growth slows down, everyone can relax?
Zhang Zhixue: In fact, Northern Europe is now. Northern Europe’s annual growth rate is lower than ours, but people are very happy. If you have the opportunity to experience it, you will find that it is actually quite good. The rate of salary increase may be smaller, but you have a lot of time to get along with your family and you don’t need to be so tired every day.
“Late”: If this trend of reflection is really coming, do you think it will be realized from the company’s organizers first, or from the individual at work. a little?
Zhang Zhixue: I always think that changing a society is very difficult, but in universities and companies, it is relatively easy to change people. I think of Dewck from Stanford University (Carol S. Dewck)As mentioned in the growth mind, if an enterprise’s managers can think of and achieve financial separation, and encourage employees to grow by themselves, people and organizations will become different.
“Late”: We observed today that people began to reflect on 996. What does this mean?
Zhang Zhixue: I think China has to think about this issue when it reaches this hurdle.
A Japanese movie released in 1991 was called “The Quiet Sea That Summer”. I’m talking about a deaf and mute young man, who is a cleaner at the bottom of the society, and found a surfboard thrown away while cleaning up rubbish. After he picked it up and repaired it, he took his girlfriend to the beach to practice, and practiced after work. Mao also got the support of his coworkers and leaders, and the owner of the surf shop gave him a suit. Later, Mao also won the surfing competition.
At the end of the film, he went to practice again after winning the prize. His girlfriend came a little late and found that Mao practice had passed away. But this death is very different from the death of an employee of an Internet company today.
I think that society must have empathy so that the lowest-level talents can live safely and freely and let themselves go. Today, in enterprises, there are more and more young employees. They are not like our previous generations of Chinese who have been through the misery. You have to think more about these young people, and society will become better. Isn’t this goal what our society wants to pursue?
This article is from WeChat public account:LatePost (ID: postlate)< span class = "text-remarks">, author: Yao Yin rice, Huang Chun-chieh, Gongfang Yi, Yue Guobin intern, editor: Yao Yin rice, Huang Chun-chieh