2 Britain is experimenting 4 It's a day's work , Why? BAT Also on the 996 addiction ？

source ： Snow leopard finance and Economics （ID：xuebaocaijingshe） author ： Yu Xin

History will not repeat , But it always rhymes

Work for four days , Three days off , Salary unchanged .

6 At the beginning of , The British 30 In many industries 70 companies 、 Co ownership 3300 Employees started a “ Reverse involution ” experiment . This is the largest short work week pilot activity in history , From company managers to ordinary workers , Are concerned about the final result .

In China, , Overtime culture is still prevalent in Internet companies ,“ Sudden death from overtime ” The news of happens from time to time . Although it started last year , Many companies have announced that they will no longer “996” perhaps “ The size of the week ”, But the trend of working overtime has not really eased .

“ Reverse involution ” The wind , When on earth can it blow in China ？

01 Behind the eight hour working system

4 Day work system is also known as 100:80:100 Pattern , Ask employees to get 100% The salary of , Must use 80% Time to reach 100% Results of work , Its core is to change the management center of time , Shift to efficiency oriented working mode .

This change runs through the development of capitalism .

Britain is the birthplace of modern capitalism , Now we are used to big factories , It was also born in Britain with the first industrial revolution , And changed the form of labor organization in the world .

Marx said , Capitalism has brought unprecedented productivity progress , The price behind progress is the hard work and tears of workers . With the birth of the factory , It's super long time work and labor . At that time, the labor intensity of British factories was high 、 Low wages 、 The working conditions are extremely poor , Workers generally work from 10 Hours to 16 Hours don't wait , Usually work every week 6 God .

The capitalists at that time , Tend to extend the working hours of workers to obtain more surplus value . After all , Under the condition of constant labor efficiency , The length of working hours is directly related to the work results . Such a trend has also spread to the whole western world . According to statistics ,1890 In, the average weekly work of full-time employees in American manufacturing plants reached 100 Hours .

The improvement of the situation , Continuous strikes and protests from workers , It also comes from the change of factory management mode and production mode .

1914 year , Ford announced that its daily working hours would be reduced from 9 Hours reduced to 8 Hours , And increase the daily salary from 2.34 The dollar rose to 5 dollar . The business community is waiting for Ford's bankruptcy , But the latter is 1914 Achieved up to 3000 A net profit of ten thousand dollars . and , from 1908 Year to 1916 year ,T The price of the model car ranges from 850 The dollar went all the way down to 360 dollar , But its net profit margin is still as high as 300%.

Behind this , It is the application of Ford's large-scale assembly line production , This application almost perfectly reflects Frederick · Taylor's management philosophy , That is to split the whole process of production , Find the most economical and productive “ Standard operating methods ”, Assign to everyone . Taylor emphasized , Working hour research and job analysis are definitely not to make workers work hard , But to find a worker “ normal ” Standard quota at work .

The eight hour working system was subsequently established , The era has also entered the era of capital creating value . Hard work is no longer the best way to accumulate wealth and promote production , Technological innovation has become the main force to improve production efficiency , Capital accumulation began to become the source of value creation .

02 Britain's confidence

Similar to the industrial revolution more than a hundred years ago , The information revolution has once again changed productivity and production relations , Globalization has brought a new division of labor . Developed countries are more engaged in high-end manufacturing 、 Finance 、 Technology and creative industries , Developing countries, on the other hand, rely on ordinary Manufacturing 、 Primary raw material processing as the core industry .

On the new value chain , Britain is undoubtedly upstream , It shows a very prominent feature of innovation and value creation . To promote “ innovation ”, The Taylor system, which regards people as machine parts, is no longer applicable .

Peter, the father of modern management · Drucker is the most famous critic of Taylor system , He thinks that , Knowledge workers have a strong desire to realize their self-worth , Pay more attention to achievement motivation and spiritual motivation , They are more inclined to have a loose and independent working environment , Unwilling to be constrained like the workers on the assembly line . Manage knowledge-based talents , It should focus on stimulating vision and potential .

Silicon Valley, known for its loose management , There was also a crazy overtime culture . At the time , Workaholics are not only touted as an ideal lifestyle , In Silicon Valley, there has also been an industrial chain based on selling success .

But later, Silicon Valley used another way to stimulate employees' work enthusiasm . Go into Google , You can even see employees with facial mask and slippers , A free lunch 、 Shuttle Bus 、 The gym 、 Game room …… Employees enjoy Star welfare , Working overtime is also fun , Encourage overtime with benefits , It is also a kind of enterprise charm .

Silicon Valley is not a landlord “ Stupid tycoon ”, No company is willing to support idle people , they “ Indulge ” The purpose of employees is to manage employees by an inclusive culture , To stimulate the creativity of employees and improve the overall work efficiency of the enterprise .

Innovation plays an increasingly important role , This allows an environment that promotes innovation —— A more relaxed working atmosphere and more flexible 、 Shorter working hours —— Make it possible , The reason why Britain became this large-scale “ Four day working system ” The testing ground of the city , It is precisely related to the fact that the British economic structure occupies the high-end value chain of the global industrial chain division with outstanding innovation and creativity .

In the UK 4 Day work experiment , It is also the general trend of the post epidemic era . After three years of epidemic baptism , The physical and mental health of employees is being valued by more and more companies . Therefore, many European and American companies want to take this opportunity , Promote new ways of working , Improve employee benefits . Many British employees strongly support this , They think that 4 Day work improves health , Increased time to spend with family , It also improves happiness .

Before England , Other countries have begun similar practices . Iceland is 2015 to 2019 Years ago 4 Day work experiment , It was evaluated as “ A great success ”. The workers who participated in the experiment said , Less work pressure , The risk of job burnout is lower , And health and the balance between work and life have also been improved . Nowadays, many enterprises in Iceland are implementing 4 Day work system .

03 When will Chinese big factories abandon 996？

2019 year , Chinese programmers are on the world's largest open source website Github Launch on 996.I CU Activities , Protest against the excessive overtime culture of Internet companies , The initiator wrote on the activity page in English ：“Developers' lives matter”（ Programmer's life is also life ）.

In the past 20 year , It is a glorious history of the rapid development of China's Internet by taking advantage of dividends .10 Billion new users are pouring into the Internet , Formed the largest 、 The most dynamic digital society , It also brings the largest Internet market in the world . However, the golden development period of China's Internet does not rely on the core technology and product innovation dominated by European and American countries , But a strategy dominated by sales or market .

Internet companies in the past 20 Year , We have always focused on seizing resources by seizing cities and territories . After a product is launched , Whoever can seize the market at the fastest speed will win . That time BAT, Do what you earn , Fight for manpower , It has also become a market grab 、 One of the magic weapons to win profits .

996 Under this opportunity, it came into being , Once helped big manufacturers win a higher market share faster , It has also achieved the leap forward development of the Internet dividend period , A number of famous enterprises have made a lot of money .

however , In this wave of wealth distribution , Workers are at the low point of distribution . When the gap in the door of wealth and freedom becomes narrower , More and more people are questioning whether hard work is really valuable ,996 How much water can be squeezed out of the . Pretending to be busy is valuable , It has become a black school in the workplace .

The disadvantages of extensive growth are becoming more and more obvious . these years , Big factories are desperately 996, In order to compete for the cake of demographic dividend . but “ Resource curse ” Always exist ： Abundant resources may be a curse rather than a blessing of economic development , If a country is overly dependent on a relatively rich resource , It will lead to slow growth in the later period , Even stagnation .

indeed ,BAT by 996、 Heap manpower , It has achieved instant results for many times . Recruit a team , Invest in a new project , You can make a crazy profit in the market .“ Investment has no boundaries ” It has become the slogan of big manufacturers . But in recent years , There are more and more projects that big factories have invested heavily but failed , After the tide of diversification recedes , There are very few fist products left .

As capital returns to rationality , Spending money like dirt has become history . The focus of the capital market's inspection of large factories has also changed , From users to profits , Forcing big manufacturers to think of ways to make money . here , It's not reliable to rely on manpower alone , Overtime culture cannot continue to bring high profits , Many companies began to reflect 996 Is it effective . Tie the employees to the work station and work overtime every day , Maybe it didn't get efficiency improvement , But in exchange for public opinion attacks 、 Damage to one's reputation , Do more harm than good .

Juliet, an economist and sociologist at Boston College · Shaw is talking about 4 Day working hour means ：“ Stick to a rigid 、 Time based system , It's meaningless now .” Regardless of labor relations and social image , Or to promote the next transformation , Big factories must be abandoned 996, Because it has become an obstacle to the future .

Although now in China 996 The wind has not yet left , There is still a long way to go to completely reverse the overtime culture , But constantly optimize the management mode , Change bad management habits , It is the trend of the times . The good thing is , Some Tencent departments pilot weekly 1 Day force 6 Points from work , Bytes and Kwai also cancel the size week . Chinese Internet enterprises are willing to reflect collectively , And put it into concrete action , It's wise .

Industrial transformation and management concept change complement each other , No matter the assembly line factory in the past , Or today's Silicon Valley giant , Have experienced such changes . History will not repeat , But it always rhymes , Chinese companies facing major transformation , We also need to consider how to use new management methods , To create more incremental value .