Recently, well-known companies such as DJI, Haier, and Midea have successively introduced "forced off work" measures: DJI forces employees to get off work at 9 p.m., and many employees have shared their experiences of being "pushed" from get off work; Haier issued an internal notice stating that special circumstances require overtime work, which must be approved one week in advance; Midea's internal documents strictly prohibit meetings after get off work and formal overtime work… These measures directly refer to the "overtime culture", which has made many netizens applaud and also given hope to many people in the workplace.
One stone stirred up a thousand waves. Companies that enforced mandatory off-duty get off work were envied by others, and employees who were still working overtime looked forward to it.
At 7pm every working day, He Wenwen takes the subway home. Whether sitting or standing, she puts on headphones in the noisy subway car and holds an evening meeting with her team colleagues. Although the company stipulates that she gets off work at 5 o'clock, in the past year and a half since joining the company, He Wenwen not only often delays getting off work, but also has to attend evening meetings on time at 7 o'clock every night. The working group she belongs to holds morning meetings at 9 a.m. and evening meetings at 7 p.m. every day, which spans up to 10 hours. Although the evening party can be attended online, it still makes He Wenwen feel very painful: "Although people have left the company, they are still tied up by work, and their spirits are always tense. People are always in a 'standby' state, and they feel that their life outside of work has been compressed."
In He Wenwen's view, the evening meeting every night is a typical "ineffective overtime" and has no substantive role in work. "Even if there is no progress in the project and the content of the speeches is the same as last time, morning and evening meetings must be held every day." He Wenwen said, "Everyone generally feels that evening meetings are not very meaningful. Morning meetings and evening meetings can be merged into one meeting."
In the workplace, everyone is quite disgusted with "ineffective overtime", but there is nothing they can do about it. Zhao Ming is responsible for warehouse management in a state-owned enterprise in the retail industry. Every day after 5 pm, his department needs to hand over the keys to the supervisor before leaving the unit. "Different departments have different working hours. For example, the colleagues in charge of e-commerce operations will get off work late. If I go to hand over the keys as soon as it is time to get off work, my supervisor will question me – other departments are not finished yet, so why is your department the only one that has to get off work? In order to ease the conflict, we have to wait and leave after half an hour or an hour." During the extra half hour of waiting, since the main work of the warehouse has been completed, Zhao Ming and other colleagues can only sit and wait most of the time, bracing themselves to "suffer" until they leave with others. "You are supposed to get off work normally, but you have to wait for others to leave first, or for the boss to let you go before leaving. This is completely time-consuming."
Employees who are "trapped" at their workstations
Since no one is willing to work overtime, what is the reason that keeps everyone tied to their posts?
"It's obviously time to get off work, but no one leaves immediately. This is a common problem in the contemporary workplace." Liu Yutong, who has worked in a public institution for four years, believes that in fact, most people want to get off work on time, mainly because of face, and no one wants to stand out. "Everyone wants to 'follow the crowd' and be consistent with everyone, so no one leaves for a long time after get off work. As time goes by, it becomes the norm that no one leaves after get off work."
This herd mentality of wanting to be consistent with others is also a form of "ineffective overtime." Liu Yutong's department has eight employees, who are mainly responsible for writing materials. If there are unexpected tasks that require overtime, no matter how big or small the task is, the entire department will always work overtime together. She said with a wry smile that some temporary tasks only required two people to complete, while the rest were only responsible for doing chores, finding materials and other trivial matters, and did not really make any contributions. "In the eyes of many leaders, 'appearing' is more important than what you do. If you can show up at your work station, you are a good employee. In order to leave a good impression on the leaders, everyone has to stay and work overtime." Liu Yutong said helplessly that this kind of "performance overtime" for the sake of attendance has become another shackle for being unable to get off work on time.
Many newcomers in the workplace, in order to gain a foothold in the workplace and win the favor of their leaders, have to show their diligence through "involution" such as working overtime. 30-year-old Li Ningyuan is nicknamed the "overtime king" by his family. During the three years of working in a manufacturing company, he could not go home until after 9 p.m. almost every day, wash up and go straight to bed. He rarely had so-called spare time. The company-stipulated off-duty time is 6:30 in the evening, but after 6:30 is the "battlefield" where everyone widens the gap: Li Ningyuan's department divides employee performance into four levels, and the difference between each level is nearly 800 yuan. For people at the same level, the work content and workload are similar, so "working hours" has become an important basis for rating, and overtime has also become an important means of promotion. Li Ningyuan said: "At first, working overtime was just to show off in front of the boss and let the boss see that he was working overtime. Later, he hoped to improve his performance level through working overtime. Later, because of the reduction in manpower, overtime work added to the actual work content, and he was so busy every day that he had to work overtime to complete the task."
In fact, many companies will set up various "benefits" to motivate employees to work overtime. The Internet company where Hu Jialin, an employee of a "big factory" works, stipulates that employees' taxi fares can be reimbursed after 9:30 p.m. "Most of my colleagues who live far away from the work will stay until 9:30 before leaving. Even if they finish their work in advance, they will still wait until 9:30." Hu Jialin believes that this "welfare" is a disguised encouragement of the company's overtime culture.
Don’t turn forced get off work off work into hidden overtime
At the beginning of this year, the "2024 Workplace Person Satisfaction Index Survey Report" released by Zhaopin Recruitment showed that 49.2% of workers work 8 to 10 hours a day, accounting for the highest proportion; 25.6% of workers work more than 10 hours a day, among which overtime is more common in "blue-collar" industries and operation positions, and 37.4% of workers in operation positions work more than 10 hours a day.
Three years ago, Wang Yang was hired for a risk control review position at a technology company and was responsible for reviewing contracts related to the company's business. In November last year, she was temporarily assigned to the operations department and took on additional new media operations. She originally got off work at 5:30 p.m., but because of the extra work, she had to work overtime every day, which not only shortened her personal rest time, but also made it difficult to produce work results. "For me, this arrangement is putting the cart before the horse, and I can't do both jobs well. What's even more frustrating is that my salary has not increased at all, which is equivalent to getting one salary to do two jobs." Although she was overwhelmed by the increasing number of work tasks, she did not dare to "break up" with the company, and could only barely maintain it.
As a front-end engineer, Hu Jialin has worked in the commercialization department of a "big factory" for nearly three years. The company implements a flexible working system. There is no clock in and no clear minimum working hours at work, so he has been commuting to and from get off work "with the crowd". "We usually arrive at the company around 10:30 in the morning and leave one after another at 9 or 10 pm. Because the work is based on a project system, everyone assumes that it is normal to continue working after dinner, and no one would suggest that it is overtime." Hu Jialin said that people who have something to do can occasionally leave early after 6 o'clock, but if they leave early every day, it will inevitably have a bad impact on the individual.
As employees of a "big factory", Hu Jialin and his colleagues have deeper thoughts on the "forced get off work off work" in many companies: "If the workload and work intensity remain unchanged, then 'forced get off work off work' only treats the symptoms but not the root cause. If the company scientifically arranges work plans and reasonably allocates work tasks, then there is no need to force get off work off work, and it can effectively reduce the workload of employees. If employees are only forced to get off work off work at a certain time, employees can only take the work home to complete it. Doesn't this mean that they have to work overtime and have no overtime pay?"
Working overtime can easily lead to sudden death, depression and other occupational health problems. Normalizing "forced get off work off work" can reduce corporate expenditure costs and reduce the probability of labor disputes. However, Wei Xiaodong, a lawyer at Beijing Huiyuan Law Firm, said that cracking down on invalid overtime and hidden overtime still faces many problems, such as the determination of labor relations. Labor relations refer to the rights and obligations arising from workers providing paid labor under the management, command and supervision of the employer. This kind of labor relationship cannot be narrowly defined as "labor can only be provided at the workplace." That is to say, the place of work is not the main basis for determining whether labor is provided. The employer should pay remuneration no matter where the work is done.
Lawyer Wei said that when workers defend their rights, they should focus on relevant evidence of “employer arrangements.” For example, it is impossible to prove whether the overtime work is arranged by the employer simply based on the clock-in and clock-out records. It is necessary to keep written or online chat records that reflect the employer's arrangements. It is worth noting that even if both the employer and the employee agree, the prescribed overtime hours cannot be exceeded. "We hope that more workers will promptly defend their rights and have the courage to defend their rights once they discover that their legitimate rights and interests have been infringed. This will help maintain a good workplace environment."
(The interviewees in this article are all pseudonyms)
