China’s work culture must change to give young people hope again

As the new year unfolds and people return to thoughts of work, it is an opportune time to look at what the Chinese workplace might have in store for them. The labour force is grappling with a problem of youth unemployment, including among university graduates. This workforce cohort is seemingly caught in a painful pincer movement. On one side they face economic changes and reduced demand for their labour and, on the other, there are social changes shaping new views on work and work ethics. China’s economic transformation into the “workshop of the world” lifted people out of poverty and created a growing middle class. Its rapid growth can be seen in a similar way to the economic miracle of the “Asian tigers”, which economist Paul Krugman dubbed a myth “based on perspiration rather than inspiration”. Total factor productivity did not increase, but rather those countries merely added more labour and capital. Nevertheless, people were led to believe that, through hard work and education, China’s economic miracle would always improve everyone’s lot in life and newer generations would do better than earlier ones. Work hard and get degrees seems to be the implicit mantra for success. This economic boom occurred in the context of the clarion calls of tech titans and others for the “huge blessing” of working a 996 schedule – working 9am to 9pm six days a week. The most striking version of this corporate hustle culture is the 007 schedule, in which employees are available online for work at any hour every day. The sense of certainty around China’s growth and its effects seems to have been upended amid growing economic upheaval. This is moving the economy away from the classic mass production manufacturing of the workshop of the world, with its seemingly insatiable demand for workers draining the countryside, shifting it towards new quality productive forces and greater consumption. This is likely to require less labour input. At the same time, societal shifts are affecting the workforce. Young Chinese who were told that working and studying hard would pay off now feel defeated and trapped. Persistently high unemployment and underemployment among youth and graduates is fuelling anxiety in the labour force. How much changes to more traditional work culture and norms are driven by economic versus societal factors is beside the point. It seems that many Chinese have become more disillusioned and fearful they will not be better off than previous generations, no matter how many days they work from morning to night. This revelation has led to a re-evaluation of people’s work-life balance. Such developments can be seen in involution, a term used to describe stagnation of development. The same behaviour is repeated and maintained over long periods with no changes or improvement, such as increased levels of input not yielding proportional output. The Chinese variant is called neijuan, or “rolling inward”. An involuted society can no longer evolve, so progress is impossible no matter how hard someone works. This has led to the reimagining of a person’s place at work. This is reflected in the popularity of terms such as tang ping, or lying flat, a rejection of societal pressures to compete in the rat race in favour of a more relaxed attitude towards life while doing the bare minimum to get by. Then there is the notion of bailan, or “letting it rot”, which means giving up instead of spending energy trying to fix an impossible situation. At the far end of the spectrum, some withdraw from the race entirely and become “full-time children”, a growing cohort driven back home because they desire a break from an exhausting work life or simply cannot find a job. There are reasons for optimism that things will get better. First, China’s demographic time bomb going off might have a silver lining. Its doing so will create difficult issues such as a growing dependency ratio as well as driving down the need for schools while increasing demand for elder care. At the same time, labour will become scarcer and more valuable. Second, the regulatory crackdown on the tech and finance sectors opens a window of opportunity to reshape workplace culture towards one that employees and potential recruits find more welcoming and aligned with their values. Corporate cultures are often forged, sustained and destroyed by leaders and their actions. No business strategy is good enough to overcome a lack of the right corporate culture to implement and sustain it. This can be seen in Gerald Ratner’s infamous 1991 speech, in which he called his company’s jewellery “total crap” and the firm went under soon after. Contemporary examples include Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s frequent outbursts and former Baidu public relations head Qu Jing, who was dismissed after posting a series of videos in which she said she had no obligation to care about her staff’s well-being. More thoughtful, farsighted business leaders will understand this opportunity and use it to help create corporate cultures that engage and support both new and current workers. That would be a good New Year’s resolution.

China’s work culture must change to give young people hope again

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Shifting economic and societal forces are giving thoughtful leaders a chance to abandon crushing overwork and embrace a new corporate culture

Shifting economic and societal forces are giving thoughtful leaders a chance to abandon crushing overwork and embrace a new corporate culture