Baidu urges staff to be frugal, criticises first-class travel, five-star hotel stays and excessive tissue use
- Baidu has seen a slide in its market value since the start of this year
- The Beijing-based search engine operator is refashioning itself as an AI company
Technology companies have long been among the most generous with employee perks, dangling carrots ranging from unlimited leave to free meals. The reasoning was that hiring the best talent was hard, keeping them was even harder in an ultra-competitive industry and required more than just a relaxed dress code and stock options.
In China, tech companies have been known to send employees to Europe for team building exercises. Others hand out the latest iPhones to employees as a reward. The flip side of the perks was the hard-charging “996” culture, short for 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
At Beijing-based search-engine operator Baidu, extravagance is under review. Once ranked among the biggest tech companies in China along with Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, the company founded by Robin Li Yanhong has seen its stock price slump 34 per cent this year. After a first-quarter loss and warning by Li at the start of the year that “winter is coming,” the company is in cost-cutting mode.
In a notice published on Baidu’s internal website on Tuesday, the company criticised extravagant behaviour such as staying at five-star hotels for team-building activities, flying business-class or first-class on business trips, and dining at high-end restaurants. It also frowned upon wasteful actions such as using three to five pieces of hand towels to dry hands when one would do the job, not switching the lights off when leaving the office, and using disposable paper cups when employees can bring their own cups.