【学习指导】 观看视频

【本节难度】   易

【学习要求】   必做 

Script：

It was a Friday night in March and I had survived another grueling week of 

intense studying and exams  in my Master’s in Accounting Program. 

Whereas I was usually full of energy on a Friday night, I found myself rather lethargic, not having much of an appetite, which for me was pretty unusual. 

As most Fridays in university went, my phone was exploding with messages to come and party, and not wanting to be the odd man out, I got myself together and met up with my friends.

As I was at the bar, I started to feel even more tired and told my friends I had to sit down. 

My friends returned to the dance floor, and as they returned to check up on me, they found me passed out on the floor.

I woke up the next morning. But instead of being in my bed, I was in the hospital with one of my friends by my side. 

He filled me in on what had happened, and the only thing I could think of was that I had to get home to study. 

As the doctor came into the room, she explained to me that my body was overworked and I needed to take better care of myself to avoid this happening again. 

My prognosis was simple: burnout. 

As I lay there in the hospital bed, I knew I never wanted to go through that horrific experience again. 

But I didn’t know how to change my lifestyle to avoid burning out. 

I felt like I always had so much to do and that I couldn’t afford to take anything out of my busy schedule. 

But if I didn’t, I was destined to end up back in the hospital, or worse.

【视频观看和观点讨论】

Script：

You’ve probably heard of nine-to-five, but what about nine-nine-six?“Working 996 every day makes your overtime longer than 20 or 30 hours. It surely harms your body.”That’s become a popular sentiment towards 996, the culture of working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. 

It’s become more common in China’s super-competitive tech industry, and has sparked a nationwide debate about work-life balance, much of it playing out on social media. Last month, a movement of dissent took off on Microsoft’s code-sharing platform GitHub. It’s dubbed “996, ICU,” implying that working 996 will land you in the intensive care unit. The hashtag #young_people_trapped_by_996# has also made the rounds on Chinese social media. 

It’s a way to share stressful work experiences and call out companies that implement the grueling schedule. “Some startups and big companies, they need their work to compete with other firms. The employees are at the core of their competitiveness.”“It is acceptable to struggle for your career once in a while, but don’t make it a norm. 

I think the best way is to increase efficiency.” The heads of some of China’s biggest companies have also joined the debate, Alibaba’s Jack Ma posting on Weibo, “I personally think that being able to work 996 is a huge blessing.” “If you don’t put out more time and energy than others, how can you achieve the success you want?” Ma later clarified, saying he didn’t condone mandatory 996 schedules,but just wanted to praise those who put in the hours voluntarily. 

Richard Liu, CEO and cofounder of e-commerce giant JD.com, put it more bluntly in his Weibo post, saying, “Slackers are not my brothers.”

996 is not unique to China. Elon Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, said on Twitter he often clocks a hundred and twenty hours a week. 

Nobody, he said, ever changed the world on forty. But choosing to work long hours or being forced are two issues entirely. 

One Chinese attorney says there is a legal red line. “According to Chinese Labor Law, 

most employees are subject to standard working time, which is no more than 8 hours per day, no more than 40 hours per week, and at least one day off every week. 

So the 996 working time violates the Law in terms of both working time every day and every week.”“For young people, after many years they may think they had a valuable work opportunity, but they may also regret they have sold themselves cheaply.”Of course there are some saying it just isn’t worth it. 

Francis Koh, CGTN.