China's 'toxic work culture' a hurdle in country's plans to lure talent

As China re-opens its doors to the world after a three-year hiatus, it is also looking to lure back talent not just from within country, but also its citizens residing in other countries. However, Chinese companies are facing a mounting problem, that of toxic work culture. This is why several Chinese workers are choosing to look for work outside the country, than dedicate long hours to companies in their home country.

An SCMP report says that those citizens who have been laid off by companies in the west, are not interested in working in China as most companies demand them to work extra hours as a rule, leading to back-breaking work and overburdened staff.

An SCMP report quoted one such worker, Mark Liu, as saying that he would rather take a break from work than work for a company in China. He was laid off from Amazon in Canada and says that he will explore work opportunities in Canada after a break. This is because Chinese living overseas say that companies in their home country offer terrible work-life balance and have a more stressful work culture, which can quickly turn toxic.

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Liu says that after he graduated in 2014, he joined a state-owned bank in Shanghai. His boss clearly told the team that they need to complete 46 “compulsory” overtime hours each month. It does not end here as the overtime hours soon extend to 50 hours or more. “If you don’t reach the 46-hour requirement, the boss will criticise you. And in the second year, it became 50 hours,” Liu said. Employees are also expected to attend compulsory seminars after work hours.

“The company is trying its best to manipulate you, to restrain you and control you. It just feels that the company is not your partner and supporter, but rather you are a slave that gets paid," he said.

According to Chinese labour law, statutory working time is eight hours per day and 40 hours a week. However, few companies comply with it, especially the tech companies. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the average working week for Chinese employees was 47.9 hours as of December. In comparison, all employees on private nonfarm payrolls in the United States worked an average of 34.7 hours per week, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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