[ad_1]
First, a worker in her twenties collapsed in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, while walking home with her colleagues in the early morning hours of December 29. The company confirmed his death but did not reveal the cause.
So another worker He died late last week after jumping from his 27-story apartment in Changsha, a city in southern Hunan province. Pinduoduo said the man had previously asked for time off, without giving a reason, according to a company statement.
“We are deeply saddened to have lost one of our employees to suicide,” the company said in the statement. “We are doing everything we can to support his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”
Chinese social media users had already started calling the deaths emblematic of a troubled work culture at Pinduoduo when a former company software engineer catapulted awareness of the problem to new levels.
In additional posts on Weibo and other Chinese social media platforms, Wang accused the company of forcing workers at its Shanghai headquarters to work more than 300 hours per month and of failing to provide enough toilets for its employees.
“I don’t think the world should work this way,” Wang said in the video. He described Pinduoduo as a company that “forces the smartest people in the country to work” long hours, and expressed disappointment that the stock has been trading at record highs on Wall Street despite recent controversies.
Pinduoduo denied that Wang was fired for the photo he posted, telling CNN Business that his firing was due to “extreme comments” he made on social media with “notable malicious intent”, in violation of company rules.
The company did not respond to questions about allegations made against its work culture. He said, however, that he has created a team to provide psychological counseling after the suicide of his worker last week.
Culture of technological work under fire
The firestorm surrounding Pinduoduo has reignited a long-running debate in China about the tech industry’s controversial “996” work culture, a term that refers to the practice of working from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week. week that is said to be common among large technology companies and startups in the country.
The public’s reaction against the practice is not new. Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, for example, was heavily criticized in China two years ago after calling 996 culture a “great blessing.”
“The sad death of Pinduoduo employees provides Beijing with timely and highly visceral publicity that it can harness to further its political goals,” said Alex Capri, a senior fellow at the Hinrich Foundation and visiting senior fellow at the National University of Singapore. “The message: The Pinduoduo tragedy is another lesson in what happens when private companies put their own business priorities before [ruling Chinese Communist Party]. “
Chinese state media has picked up on the recent controversies, further suggesting that the government is willing to fan criticism of these tech companies. (Such media are a powerful tool in the country’s propaganda machine, and are often viewed as barometers of sentiment among senior officials.)
Xinhua interviewed Wang, the former Pinduoduo worker, on Tuesday. He told the publication that while his comments were drastic, he did not regret posting his photo.
“It is the Chinese government that allowed the Wang Taixu video to have so much circulation and generate such heated discussions,” said Jack Qiu Linchuan, a communications professor at the National University of Singapore and an expert on Chinese labor issues. “One of the fundamental reasons for the huge public reaction is that the government did not censor it, despite having full capacity to do so.”
Brock Silvers, chief investment officer at Hong Kong-based Kaiyuan Capital, also said the recent backlash against the 996 culture appeared to have “political overtones.”
“Beijing is busily trying to assert new levels of control over the tech giants and their enormously wealthy leaders. The recent tragedies of the workers at Pinduoduo have provided those authorities with another potential arrow in their quiver,” Silvers said.
However, he added that the environment for workers may not change much, even after the technology sector “regains regulatory balance.”
“Ambitious workers seeking a better life will likely continue to work under the influence of 996,” Silvers said.
