In Silicon Valley, working 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week is quickly becoming outdated. Instead, employees are working “996,” or from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week, to advance their careers.
The New York Times reports that Silicon Valley employees are working long hours, with some employers asking prospective employees if they were open to a 72-hour workweek, while others are posting their requirements for longer working hours within job descriptions.
AI commerce company Rilla, for example, recently posted a job asking for a software engineer willing to work about “70 hrs/week in person with some of the most ambitious people in NYC.” The job has an estimated salary range of $200,000 to $300,000 per year.
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Meanwhile, in August, AI startup Cognition required new employees to work 80 hours a week outright, per a leaked email.
“We don’t believe in work-life balance,” Cognition CEO Scott Wu wrote in the email to staff.
The 996 schedule is rooted in China’s tech scene in the 2010s when companies like Alibaba, ByteDance, and Huawei were trying to grow rapidly, according to The San Francisco Standard. Though China made it illegal to require employees to work 72 hours per week in 2021, many Chinese employees are still working long hours, according to an August Reuters report.
The NYT notes that evidence for the 996 trend is mostly anecdotal, but one data point that stands out: corporate credit card transactions. Earlier this month, finance startup Ramp found that employees in San Francisco were using corporate credit cards for food and other purchases more heavily on Saturdays for the first half of this year than in prior years.
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Plus, the Silicon Valley culture of clocking in long hours “has been around in the tech industry for a while,” since the 1960s, when there was intense competition among semiconductor companies, says University of Washington Historian Margaret O’Mara.
O’Mara told the NYT that the 996 practice could be gaining popularity as tech workers feel less secure in their jobs — since 2022, tech companies have slashed close to 400,000 jobs. This year alone, tech giants like Intel, Microsoft, and Meta have collectively laid off tens of thousands of workers.
Related: ‘Creating Fear’: Meta Began Laying Off ‘Low Performers’ on Monday. Here’s a Look at How Those Decisions Are Made.
The work schedule could also be a way to keep up with foreign competition. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt commented on how China adopted the 996 work culture on an episode of the “All-In” Podcast, which aired last week.
“Remember, we’re up against the Chinese,” Schmidt said. “The Chinese work-life balance consists of 996… By the way, the Chinese have clarified that this is illegal. However, they all do it.”