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Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Some Silicon Valley AI startups are asking employees to adopt China's outlawed ‘996' work model
Some Silicon Valley startups are embracing China's outlawed '996' work culture, expecting employees to work 12-hour days, six days a week, in pursuit of hyper-productivity and global AI dominance. The trend has sparked debate across the U.S. and Europe, with some tech leaders endorsing the pace while others warn it risks mass burnout and startup failure. Silicon Valley's startup hustle culture is starting to look more and more like an outlawed Chinese working schedule. According to a new report from Wired, Bay Area startups are increasingly leaning into models resembling China's 996 working culture, where employees are expected to work from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., six days a week, totaling 72 hours per week. Startups, especially in the AI space, are openly asking new starts to accept the longer working hours. For example, AI start-up Rilla tells prospective employees in current job listings not to even bother applying unless they are excited about 'working ~70 hrs/week in person with some of the most ambitious people in NYC.' The company's head of growth, Will Gao, told Wired there was a growing Gen-Z subculture 'who grew up listening to stories of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, entrepreneurs who dedicated their lives to building life-changing companies.' He said nearly all of Rilla's 80-person workforce works on a 996 schedule. The rise of the controversial work culture appears to have been born out of the current efficiency squeeze in Silicon Valley. Rounds of mass layoffs and the rise of AI have put pressure and turned up the heat on tech employees who managed to keep their jobs. For example, in February, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told employees who work on Gemini that he recommended being in the office at least every weekday and said 60 hours is the 'sweet spot' for productivity. Other tech CEOs, including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, have stressed that productivity among workers is king, even if that means working hours or days of overtime. In November 2022, Musk infamously told remaining X, then Twitter, employees to commit to a new and 'extremely hardcore' culture or leave the company with severance pay. Part of the reasoning for the intense work schedules is a desire to compete with China amid a global AI race. Especially after Chinese startup DeepSeek released an AI model on par with some of the top U.S. offerings, rocking leading AI labs. China has actually been trying to clamp down on the 996 culture at home. In 2021, China's top court, the Supreme People's Court, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security jointly declared China's '996' working culture was illegal. At the time, the move was part of the Chinese Communist Party's broader campaign to reduce inequality in Chinese society and limit the power of the nation's largest tech companies. But the practice has already spilled over to other countries. Earlier this summer, the European tech sector also found itself in a heated debate over the working culture. Partly exacerbated by an ongoing debate about Europe's competitiveness in the technology and AI space, some European VCs warned that more work and longer hours may be needed to effectively compete. Harry Stebbings, founder of the 20VC fund, said on LinkedIn in June that Silicon Valley had 'turned up the intensity,' and European founders needed to take notice. '[Seven] days a week is the required velocity to win right now. There is no room for slip up,' Stebbings said in the post. 'You aren't competing against random company in Germany etc but the best in the world.' Some other founders weighed in, criticizing the rise of the 996 working culture and warning that it could quickly lead to burnout culture. Among them was Ivee Miller, a general partner at Balderton Capital. 'Burnout [is] one of the top 3 reasons early-stage ventures fail. It is literally a bad reason to invest,' Miller said on LinkedIn. This story was originally featured on Solve the daily Crossword
Mint
07-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Think work-life balance is overrated? You're hired!
Shopify wants a product manager who can 'keep up with an unrelenting pace." Solace, a healthcare marketplace, tells job seekers: 'If you're looking for work-life balance, this isn't it." A job posting for a senior engineer at software company Rilla urges applicants 'please don't join" unless they are eager to work 70 hours a week—in person. If you think free time is overrated, this is the job market for you. Corporate job listings this summer stress long hours, a competitive business environment and the importance of hustle. It might seem impractical to recruit applicants with a pitch that loosely translates to 'This is going to hurt." But we're a long way from 2022. Americans are facing monthslong job searches and competition from laid-off workers as companies shrink headcount. Though the U.S. is still adding jobs every month, the pace of hiring has slowed and some of the country's largest employers are cutting their white-collar workforces. In the tougher environment, many applicants find that managers are taking a harder line. They're not just reining in flexible schedules, remote work and perks that became staples of the previously tight job market. They're warning prospective and new employees to get ready for the grind—and they're not afraid to say it out loud. Google co-founder Sergey Brin in February told employees that 60 hours a week was the sweet spot of productivity. The federal government warned staff this year of a new 'performance culture," insisting on 'excellence at every level." People are logging into more meetings after 8 p.m. than they did a year ago, new Microsoft data show. 'They're testing the limits of what they can ask of their employees, knowing how hungry people are to work, and knowing they're in the driver's seat," said Lori Reed, president of Reston, Va.-based recruiting firm Schechter Reed. 'The pendulum has swung, and companies are in control again." Reed said the tough talk can also lower turnover, since applicants are well aware of what will be required of them, as well as reduce the number of applications at a time when recruiters are overwhelmed by résumés. After candidates interview at Rilla, which makes AI-powered coaching software for sales reps, they receive a culture statement that outlines several core principles. 'We don't have any strict work policies, but we tend to work 60 to 80 hours every week," reads one. When Will Gao, Rilla's head of growth, sends it to candidates, he tells them that they should read each of the eight statements carefully. 'Don't lie to yourself if you have a gut feeling that you don't agree with the culture," he says. Will Gao ribbed employees for not sleeping in the office, as he did for about 10 days in June. Gao, 26, said he urges applicants to 'ghost" the company if they aren't on board. He recently ribbed colleagues for not sleeping in the New York office, as he did for about 10 days in June. 'We're very clear with people who we are," said Sebastian Jimenez, Rilla's CEO, who before his honeymoon this summer hadn't taken a vacation in eight years. 'If you align with this—and there's a lot of people that do—come apply." Rilla subsidizes employee rent in New York City if they minimize commute time by living closer to the office, Jimenez said. He added that he hopes every employee at the company becomes 'insanely wealthy" and that workers in sales make an average of $350,000 annually. Users on a Reddit forum about hellish recruiting experiences picked apart the Solace Health ad that said work-life balance was a no-go. Some posters said they admired the company's honesty. Others said they would expect more pay for the hustle required. The company didn't respond to requests for comment. 'If I were going to work 70 hours a week, you would have to pay me $1 million-plus," said Brett Terpstra, a software developer in Winona, Minn., who has applied to about 60 jobs since April. Terpstra said he is picky when he applies: 'I automatically opt out of anything that seems like they don't respect a work-life balance." It's not only startups telling applicants to expect a challenging atmosphere. McKinsey now explicitly says associates must 'attend meetings outside of traditional business hours" or 'take on projects with limited or no notice." 'Driving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work," language in job postings reads. Blair Ciesil, a partner leading talent attraction at the consulting firm, said it had noticed newer hires who were caught off guard by certain realities of the job, like working with people in different time zones. McKinsey now purposefully describes that management consulting is hard and the difficulty spurs professional growth, she said. 'The reality is, there is a level of rigor here," she said, adding that being honest is important because some applicants will self-select out of the process. 'That is good for them and good for us." Write to Lindsay Ellis at
