Tech Exec's Videos Spark Clash Over China's Work Culture 27
Search giant Baidu fires its head of public relations after she outraged Gen Z workers. From a report [non-paywalled link]: The head of public relations at a major Chinese tech firm gained hundreds of thousands of followers seemingly overnight after posting a series of viral videos laying out her unapologetically tyrannical management style. The videos also earned her a pink slip from her employer after they set off an explosion of criticism among Gen Z Chinese fed up with the intense work culture that prevails in their country's tech industry.
"I'm not your mother-in-law. I'm not your mom," Qu Jing, a vice president at Chinese search giant Baidu, said in one widely excoriated clip, referring to a colleague who was struggling with a recent breakup. "I only care about your results." In other videos, she criticized employees who didn't want to work weekends and dismissed complaints from one subordinate that messages she sent to a group chat late at night had kept a crying child awake. "Why should it be my business that your child was crying?" she said.
On Thursday, as public outrage soared, Qu removed the videos from her account on Douyin, TikTok's sister platform in China, and replaced them with an apology. She said she had tried to do a good job but had been too impatient and hadn't adopted "a proper approach." Baidu Chief Executive Robin Li was furious at Qu and fired her on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. A top Baidu executive told employees that Qu's comments were "inappropriate and didn't represent and reflect the real culture and values of Baidu," the people said. The management also promised to review the company's corporate culture and working systems, they said.
China's hard-charging tech industry relies heavily on a Darwinian work culture that demands near-total devotion to the workplace. Tech workers coined the term "996" to describe the typical schedule: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. Half a decade ago, videos like Qu's were just as likely to garner a shrug as generate controversy. But younger Chinese, much like their counterparts in the U.S., are increasingly skeptical of the pressure to work themselves ragged in pursuit of financial success. They have coined their own terms -- "lying flat" and "letting it rot" -- to describe their antipathy to the grinding ethos of 996.
"I'm not your mother-in-law. I'm not your mom," Qu Jing, a vice president at Chinese search giant Baidu, said in one widely excoriated clip, referring to a colleague who was struggling with a recent breakup. "I only care about your results." In other videos, she criticized employees who didn't want to work weekends and dismissed complaints from one subordinate that messages she sent to a group chat late at night had kept a crying child awake. "Why should it be my business that your child was crying?" she said.
On Thursday, as public outrage soared, Qu removed the videos from her account on Douyin, TikTok's sister platform in China, and replaced them with an apology. She said she had tried to do a good job but had been too impatient and hadn't adopted "a proper approach." Baidu Chief Executive Robin Li was furious at Qu and fired her on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. A top Baidu executive told employees that Qu's comments were "inappropriate and didn't represent and reflect the real culture and values of Baidu," the people said. The management also promised to review the company's corporate culture and working systems, they said.
China's hard-charging tech industry relies heavily on a Darwinian work culture that demands near-total devotion to the workplace. Tech workers coined the term "996" to describe the typical schedule: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. Half a decade ago, videos like Qu's were just as likely to garner a shrug as generate controversy. But younger Chinese, much like their counterparts in the U.S., are increasingly skeptical of the pressure to work themselves ragged in pursuit of financial success. They have coined their own terms -- "lying flat" and "letting it rot" -- to describe their antipathy to the grinding ethos of 996.
Doing hours (Score:5, Interesting)
Doing hours isn't the same as productive.
A healthy work ethic will never catch on whilst there's media pumping out job risks here and there, telling us slaves we're easily replaced.
What actually happens is people end up in a presenteeism system to show off how dedicated they are.
Look at it from a buyer perspective of the business product though, would you rather buy a product that had people in offices nearly all their waking hours, or a product that was innovative and fit for purpose? I don't care if the product was made from office slaves, or someone who's working four days a week with a good creative mental balance. This matters because it should matter to the shareholders who cascade demands.
Who does this apply to? (Score:1)
When I read these stories of 120 hours workers, who exactly is it? Is it just salaried white collar? I just don't see a janitor being required to work 7 days a week.
Rethinking it.... (Score:2)
Putting your newborn baby on a treadmill of life training (early education), then toddler (sports training, advanced learning, tutoring), and then repeating until they are out of college is not working out.
The hyper competitive parents starting with the boomers in 1980 turned many things for just enough of the population, keeping up with the Jonses, into Olympic training and careers for Boomer tutors, life coaches, sports coaches, dance coaches, gymnastics, swimming, ....
It's a guess here that large numbers
Re: (Score:2)
It's actually started a movement called "laying flat". As in a number of Gen Z have stopped doing.
They are not applying for those kinds of jobs anymore. Instead, they're applying for jobs that make "enough". As in enough to eat and pay for a roof over their head. Given how economical living is with an oversupply of housing and cheap food, many are getting by delivering food. And they're not working crazy hours.
Instead, they're using that time to just lie down and enjoy life - they have food, they have shelt
LDAR (Score:2)
LDAR - Lie Down and Rot
Japan has trends of avoiding work, relationships, .... some aligned, some not
Hikimori
Herbivore men
Korea too - Mainly because of the 3 year forced military service for men only, disadvantaging them in the labor market, insane work hours, insane house prices, and the requirement by the future bride's family and bride that the future husband be rich, have a home, be high paid, etc.. All of which are largely impossible for men entering college at 21, graduat
Punishing Honesty (Score:4, Interesting)
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No. But....
As an executive, part of the job is to represent the company. Anything you say or do publicly -especially when actually referencing the job- affects the company's image. If you make the company look bad, you should expect to be fired.
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No Punishing getting caught (Score:2)
A former Baidu employee said Qu brought Huawei’s aggressive corporate culture with her to Baidu.
“(She triggered) a pretty big culture shock. About 60% of the team left within months of her arrival,” the former employee told CNN on the condition of anonymity.
She'd had the job since 2021, and they only just noticed now? No, it just went viral now. But this was very much intended when they hired her. She did the exact same thing at her previous jo
Re: No Punishing getting caught (Score:2)
If she is "working hard" by telling subordinates to work hard, then the subordinates only need to spend all their time telling each other to work hard and they will be as productive as her.
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Gen WHAT? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but the "generations" are meant to indicate groups that have shared life experiences based on age groupings (had similar scholastic experience, watched same TV shows, experienced the same political atmosphere, etc.)
You cannot just slap this label on people born into wildly different cultures who experience different life events.
Calling people born 20 to 30 years ago "Gen Z" just confuses people as they will not be anything like what you would typically expect when you hear that term, rendering it meaningless.
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To expand on that, the Chinese literally have a different calendar. That's like having an article about kids in the US and saying "oh those year of the Rat kids, you know how they are".
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Uh-huh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Baidu Chief Executive Robin Li was furious at Qu and fired her on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. A top Baidu executive told employees that Qu's comments were "inappropriate and didn't represent and reflect the real culture and values of Baidu," the people said.
What he was furious about was that she said them out loud.
Re: Uh-huh... (Score:2)
I was thinking the same thing. Within the company, they would have known what she was like.
Not entirely wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
>"I'm not your mother-in-law. I'm not your mom," Qu Jing, a vice president at Chinese search giant Baidu, said in one widely excoriated clip, referring to a colleague who was struggling with a recent breakup. "I only care about your results."
I was at a company team building meeting where they were talking about how we just needed to try and I pointed out I wasn't paid to try but to succeed on average (everybody makes mistakes from time to time, everybody has to pick up new skills from time to time) and that trying's great, but if that's all you can do you're going to get let go.
Watching management try to figure out a way to contradict me was kind of funny.
I love getting along with my coworkers, but the purpose of employment is to provide or produce something in return for pay so the company can profit off your labour. Fail at that and you're gone.
That said, there are limits to what is reasonable to expect from a person. Modern societies are extremely productive, and we can afford a lot of time NOT labouring to survive. Anyone who thinks we shouldn't take advantage of that has fucked up priorities. I'm not here to be someone else's slave so they can enjoy luxuries; I have my own agenda and my own happiness to pursue, as should everyone else.
Re:Not entirely wrong (Score:4)
I was at a company team building meeting where they were talking about how we just needed to try and I pointed out I wasn't paid to try but to succeed on average (everybody makes mistakes from time to time, everybody has to pick up new skills from time to time) and that trying's great, but if that's all you can do you're going to get let go.
Watching management try to figure out a way to contradict me was kind of funny.
Yes, tangible results are the end goal. However, how to get there is the real question. There are many ways of coaching, resulting in different outcomes for different people. Simply proclaiming that only results and not effort counts works for some people and craters results for others. Saying that only effort matters irrespective of the outcome works for some and not for others. In almost all aspects of work, sports, etc., the optimal way to coach is not obvious. If it were, scientific studies would easily show this one and only correct way, but that's not the way people are.
Coaches try to encourage people by appealing to different psyches. Focusing on effort over results doesn't necessarily mean that results don't matter. And telling people that only results matter is not necessarily an indication of a cold heart.
Re: (Score:2)
People also have values, and there is a range of them. For some people, it really matters that they're working to help others. For some people, the work has to have some sense of meaning. For some people, loyalty and a shared commitment are important. These are all strong factors, or can be, depending on the person. Understanding the values of the people working in the teams probably has the biggest impact. And yes, for some people, the value is purely contractual. I'm just here to get what I need, and we'r
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There is a sweet spot between pushing your people too hard with no concern for their well being and not pushing hard enough to maximize productive results. The sweet spot is different for different people, and the sweet spot changes for any individual over time. Communications between the manager and the employee as to what the sweet spot is and the perceptions of both parties as to whether the sweet spot has been achieved must follow. This is a feedback based never ending looping endeavor that is crea
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If all your care about are results, you won't be motivated to help other people. Their success isn't your success, so might as well not bother, right?
The other issue with a focus on results is that there is a perverse incentive to do a worse job if it gets you to the finish line faster. Technical debt is the classic example. Bodge it to work, screw yourself later.
Quadruple convergence (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Considering that China is becoming increasingly authoritarian under Xi the Pooh, it might as well be #4.
Hmm... (Score:2)
To quote her: "I only care about your results."
It is possible that excoriating people for being fuckups is one place where fucking up is uniquely unsympathetic.
So how's that communism working out? (Score:3)