The recent passing of a Bilibili employee has sparked conversation among the netizens of China. Earlier, a post on the Bilibili Weibo account stated that it would be hiring an additional 1,000 content moderators in response to this incident.
Many netizens have come out to voice concerns over the potential culture of overwork that is being observed in the Alibaba-backed company, however, Bilibili has denied all allegations of excessive overtime and culture of overwork.
Despite said denial, the company has since elaborated that the content auditing team needed to work during Chinese New Year as it was similar to other public services. In order to ensure that such an incident never happens again, the company has made it a requirement for members of the content auditing team to receive a check-up every month. In addition, the company will offer health counseling services to protect employees’ health.
According to the Global Times, employees in Bilibili’s audit team need to work 12 hours and should ‘be able to accept night shift arrangements’. Such arrangements fall in line with the popular ‘996’ system, which has gained popularity among some of China’s most successful and productive tech companies.
While there have been plenty of advocates for the system over the years, China has recently began cracking down on it. In 2021, authorities have issued stern reminders to companies that such punishing work schedules are in fact, illegal.
In a joint statement published in September 2021, China’s top court and labor ministry detailed 10 court decisions related to labor disputes, many involving workers being forced to work overtime.
With regards to a culture of overwork, China is not alone in the region. Countries throughout the Asian region have gained a somewhat infamous reputation for overworking; the most prominent of which is arguably Japan’s often brutal working hours and work obligations. Governments of their respective countries have been making the effort to alleviate the issue and some progress has been made. However, they still have a long way to go to fully resolve the issue.
