TikTok Owner ByteDance Mandates Shorter Working Hours

ByteDance ordered its employees to end their day by 7 p.m., becoming one of the first tech companies in China to officially mandate shorter working hours. From a report: Staff in China should only work from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays and will need to seek permission to stay beyond those hours at least one day in advance, according to an internal document on Monday that was seen by Bloomberg News. The country’s grueling work pace — known as “996” because employees often labor from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week — was long celebrated by tech billionaires from Alibaba’s Jack Ma to JD founder Richard Liu. But it’s come under renewed scrutiny this year, fueled by deaths associated with overwork and a growing chorus of social media complaints. With President Xi Jinping calling on the country to work toward “common prosperity,” authorities have stepped up warnings against employers to refrain from unreasonable overtime and other violations. Read more of this story at Slashdot.