Employees in China may get a chance to take a breath from the grueling "996 work culture", where people work from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week, after several Chinese companies issued internal reminders to prevent formalistic overtime working and workplace rat race.

在多家企业发布内部通知，要求遏制形式主义加班和职场内卷后，中国职场人士或将迎来“996”工作文化的缓解。“996工作文化”指的是员工每天从早上9点工作到晚上9点，每周工作6天的工作模式。

The central government has also shown greater determination to regulate the unwholesome "work culture".

与此同时，中央政府也展现出更加坚定的决心，规范这种不良的“职场文化”。

In an action plan released recently by the State Council, China's Cabinet, local authorities have been urged to better protect workers' right to rest and tighten supervision of employers' behavior of illegally lengthening employees' working hours.

中国国务院近日发布的一项行动方案敦促地方当局更好地保护员工的休息权利，并加强对雇主非法延长员工工时行为的监管。

Before the release of the action plan, several Chinese companies sought to relax their tiring working schedules.

在该方案出台前，已有多家中国企业尝试放宽紧张的工作时间安排。

Shenzhen-based drone manufacturer DJI became a trending topic on social media platform Sina Weibo recently after some of its employees posted their experiences of not being allowed to work overtime after 9 pm.

深圳无人机制造商大疆创新（DJI）近期登上社交媒体微博的热搜，原因是该公司部分员工发布了自己晚上9点后不准加班的经历。

The posts said that DJI's human resources managers patrolled around the building and asked the employees to leave by 9 pm.

帖子称，大疆创新的人力资源经理在大楼周围巡逻，并要求员工晚上9点前离开。

Midea, a home appliance manufacturer, issued an internal notice in late January, asking its staff members to streamline their working patterns. Midea confirmed the existence of the notice, according to Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper.

家电制造商美的在1月底发布内部通知，要求员工简化工作模式。据上海媒体《澎湃新闻》报道，美的方面证实了该通知的存在。

The group asked the employees not to have meetings or work overtime, reduce the number of work-related WeChat groups and prohibit any formalistic behavior.

集团要求员工减少会议和加班时间，精简工作相关的微信沟通群组，并杜绝形式主义工作方式。

As employees have seen increased working hours in recent years, even longer than the length regulated by the nation's Labor Law, their complaints about the unreasonable schedules intensified after the "996 work culture" was promoted by some large companies or industrial titans.

近年来，随着“996”工作文化被部分大型企业和行业巨头推崇，员工工作时长普遍延长，甚至超出《劳动法》规定，使得员工对不合理工作时间的不满愈演愈烈。

"My colleagues and I usually joke that we get a 'sense of shame' by leaving the office at 6 pm sharp. It has become a stereotype that you are not hardworking if you don't stay very late to work in the office," said Wang Xiaofeng, a telecommunications engineer in Beijing, who works from 9 am to 8 pm and on Saturday every other week.

“我和同事们经常开玩笑说，晚上6点准点下班会让人有‘羞耻感’。大家普遍认为，如果不加班到很晚，就会被认为不够努力。”北京的一名电信工程师王晓峰表示，他的工作时间是上午9点到晚上8点，并且每隔一周还需要在周六上班。

The 30-year-old said he was happy to see this news and hopes that his company can relax its working schedules, as the job has almost taken all of his time so far. However, he expressed his concerns that it may be hard to quantify the overtime work and overtime fees if an employee has to continue work after returning home.

这位30岁的年轻人说，他很高兴看到这个消息，并希望公司能放宽工作时间安排，因为到目前为止，这项工作几乎占据了他所有的时间。然而，他也担忧如果员工回家后仍需继续工作，如何量化加班时长及加班费可能成为一大难题。

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show that employees at domestic companies have had longer working hours in recent years—reaching 49 hours a week in 2024, up from 47.9 hours in 2022.

国家统计局的数据显示，近年来国内企业员工的工作时间持续增长，2024年已达每周49小时，高于2022年的47.9小时。

However, based on the Labor Law, employees should work no more than eight hours a day and a maximum of 44 hours a week. Employers can lengthen the working day by one hour at most after negotiating with trade unions and employees.

然而根据《劳动法》规定，员工每天工作时间不得超过8小时，每周工作时间不得超过44小时。用人单位在与工会和员工协商后，最多可将每日工作时间延长1小时。

Experts and industry insiders said the measures taken by companies to shorten working hours or optimize working patterns will help protect employees' rights and their physical and psychological health.

专家和业内人士表示，企业缩短工时或优化工作模式的举措，有助于保护员工权益和身心健康。

"As job seekers' views about careers, labor relations and working patterns have changed in the new era, employers may find that the employees are losing their passion for or loyalty to the job after being asked to work overtime," said Li Qiang, vice-president of recruitment portal Zhaopin.

招聘平台智联招聘副总裁李强表示，随着新时代求职者对职业发展、劳动关系和工作模式的观念发生变化，企业如果长期要求员工加班，可能会导致员工对工作失去热情和忠诚度。

Noting that work schedules like"996" have hurt people's working rights, Li Chang'an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said that employees find it hard to achieve a work-life balance and may have health or marriage problems because of those unreasonable schedules.

北京对外经济贸易大学的国家对外开放研究院教授李长安指出，“996”这样的工作模式损害了人们的劳动权益，使得员工难以实现工作与生活的平衡，甚至可能引发健康或婚姻问题。

He said that steps taken by these companies to improve their working schedules will help promote high-quality employment, with their working hours being more in line with the national regulations.

他认为企业改善工作安排，使员工的工作时间更符合国家规定，将有助于促进高质量就业。

"The companies themselves can also improve their attractiveness to workers, as corporate social responsibility and sound protection of workers' right to rest have become an important part of their competitiveness in the market," Li said.

“这样的话，企业也可以提升对求职者的吸引力，如今，企业社会责任以及对员工休息权的保障，已成为企业市场竞争力的重要组成部分。”李长安补充道。

He said he hopes that more companies can adopt a reasonable and humanistic work culture to ease the workload, which can help create harmonious working relationships, expand consumption and increase the marriage rate.

他表示，希望更多企业能够采取合理、人性化的工作文化，以减轻员工的工作负担，这样不仅能营造和谐的工作关系，还能促进消费，提高结婚率。