The 996: Is dystopian work trend coming to UK next?

Give a trend a name, and you give it legitimacy. It suddenly goes from potential, nebulous “something” to a definite Thing — because, however ridiculous, a name is proof that enough people are doing it to warrant a moniker. Take fridgescaping — the completely unhinged art of interior designing the inside of one’s fridge, decking it out with photo frames and earthenware pots. Or ghosting — the infamous act of disappearing completely from a romantic interest’s life and inbox with no explanation.

The world of work has plenty of named trends, from quiet quitting (doing the bare minimum required to perform your job) to side hustles (hobbies that generate extra cash). The latest one has been dubbed the 996 — but don’t let this benign trio of numbers fool you into thinking it’s harmless. They denote a totally dystopian concept that could best be summed up as a guaranteed recipe for burnout.

Specifically, these digits refer to the practice of working from 9am till 9pm every day, six days a week. Yes, that’s right: 12 hours a day, totalling 72 a week. The idea is not new, having first originated in China — not known for its exemplary human rights record — where it drew comparisons with modern slavery, provoked mass protests and was even blamed for a spate of deaths. It turns out the phrase “working yourself into an early grave” isn’t just a metaphor - but a very real threat once you join the workforce of certain unscrupulous corporations.

One British expat who worked a gruelling 996 schedule shared his experience of the “unbearable” stress of his Guangzhou tech job last year. Jack Forsdike, 28, told the International Business Times that he was fundamentally “relieved” when he got laid off. “We were constantly being pushed to meet impossible deadlines, and even on Sundays, many of my colleagues were still in the office,” he recalled.

There was such an outcry that, in 2021, the Chinese authorities sought to crack down on the practice and issued a stern reminder to companies that 996 work schedules are, in truth, illegal. Chinese labour laws dictate that a standard workday is eight hours, with a maximum working week of 44 hours; anything beyond that requires employers to pay overtime. Historically, such rules were rarely observed or enforced, especially in the tech industry.

But despite China’s attempted U-turn and the clearly horrific consequences of forcing employees to grind as if they were machines, not humans, some parts of America have clearly been inspired. Notably, that paragon of workaholism, Silicon Valley. This is the place where the meal-replacement drink Soylent was developed to enable coders to continue working through lunch and dinner without pause. Perhaps it should come as little surprise, then, that it proved fertile ground for the punishing 996 culture to take root and grow.

Those on the ground have noted a rapid rise in the trend, particularly when it comes to startup companies in the AI space hiring new employees. “It’s becoming increasingly common,” Adrian Kinnersley, who runs a recruitment company, told Wired. “We have multiple clients where a prerequisite for screening candidates before they go for an interview is whether they are prepared to work 996.” Similarly, New York venture capitalist Martin Mignot stated on LinkedIn that the 996 has “quietly become the norm across tech”.

Before you think this is some kind of underground trend happening behind closed doors, the companies themselves are often completely open about it. AI startup Rilla is transparent about expecting such working patterns from staff, making it clear in job listings that the working week is 70 hours minimum — those who are not “excited” at the prospect need not apply. The company’s CEO, Sebastian Jimenez, told Fortune that employees were given a generous stipend of $1,500 (£1,115) per month to live within a 10 to 15-minute commute of the company’s offices in Long Island, New York. Provided, of course, that they agreed to the 996 grind.

Telehealth company Fella & Delilah, meanwhile, recently shared a post on LinkedIn about creating a two-tier workforce by offering employees financial incentives to voluntarily commit to the 996. Those willing to sign their soul away were rewarded with a 25 per cent pay rise and 100 per cent increase in equity. (Not that they’d have any free time in which to spend all that extra money, of course.)

Work-life balance might sound like a warm and fluffy bit of idealism, but burnout comes with a hefty price tag.

All this follows Elon Musk’s notorious ultimatum to staff at X (Twitter) in November 2022, when he told them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” work culture of “long hours at high intensity” or leave the company.

It’s important to say that, in the Wild West that constitutes American employment law, none of this is illegal. In the land of the American dream, where anyone can allegedly “make it” if they’re prepared to put in endless toil and graft, there is no legal maximum number of hours that someone aged 16 or over can work. The only real protection offered under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) dictates that non-exempt employees must be compensated with at least one and a half times their normal pay for any overtime worked past 40 hours per week.

In the soft-handed world of a country where we have actual laws and regulations governing working practices, you might think the 996 could never take hold. Under British law, the maximum average work week is 48 hours. However, there’s already a loophole - workers can opt out of this if they wish by signing an agreement with their employer. And there are already troubling signs that some UK businesses, at least, are champing at the bit to adopt a more American approach.

Harry Stebbings, a London-based startup founder, went one further than the 996, declaring in a viral LinkedIn post that “seven days a week is the required velocity to win right now”. He added that “there is no room for slip up” as European companies are competing against “the best in the world”.

At a time when talk of more flexible approaches - think compressed hours, hybrid working and even the four-day week - seem to be gaining real traction, it’s chilling to see the pendulum swing so far back the other way. Surely we should be harnessing tech to work smarter, not harder, rather than allowing profiteering tech bros to line their pockets with human suffering? Work-life balance might sound like a warm and fluffy bit of idealism, but burnout comes with a hefty price tag; work-related mental health issues now cost the UK economy an estimated £57.4bn every year. Working 996? That’s no way to make a living.