Claims that overwork killed China tech worker reignites ‘996’ debate

Claims that another Chinese tech worker has died after excessive overtime has reignited debate over the industry's "996 culture". The company denied that it overworked the employee, but said it would pay more attention to the health of its employees.

The 25-year-old reportedly died in hospital soon after he was taken to hospital from his home on Saturday afternoon. The video platform Bilibili, where the man was employed as a content auditor, said company representatives went to the hospital to assist and then notified his family.

Bilibili released an internal memo rejecting claims the employee - who reportedly died of a brain haemorrhage - was overworked. It said the man had worked from 9.30am to 6.30pm for the past week, with no overtime.

But reports of his death by a workplace blogger on Monday renewed heated discussion about a toxic overtime culture dubbed "996" - referring to an expectation that employees, especially in the tech industry, work from 9am to 9pm six days a week. The expectation has in the past been promoted by high-profile figures including the Alibaba founder, Jack Ma.

A hashtag related to the man's death and including the allegation of overwork trended on Weibo, receiving hundreds of millions of views, including accusations the government had not done enough to address the problems in the year since a spate of high-profile deaths linked to overwork in 2020.

"Don't work hard regardless of the cost. There will be no impact on the company without you. But if you are gone, your mother will have nothing," one Weibo user commented.

"The main reason is the government has been ignoring this. It is quite normal for big companies employees to work for 12 hours," another said.