The 996.ICU library has been trending on Github.com for the past two weeks as one of the hottest topics in the programmer community.
What is 996. Icu?
Original quote: The name996.ICUrefers to** “Work by ‘996’, sick in ICU” **, an ironic saying among Chinese code, Which means that by following the “996” work schedule, you are risking yourself getting into the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). The name 996.ICU stands for “work ‘996’, fall ill in the ICU”, a sarcastic phrase used by Chinese programmers, which means that working on a 9am to 9pm schedule, six days a week, puts you at risk of being sent to the INTENSIVE care unit
This is the warehouse creator of the 996 workplace programmer launched a protest.
I have taught myself programming since 2002, and started to work in professional software development since 2005. I thought 996. Icu was just another programmer’s funny joke, but I never expected that it got so much attention and resonated with my peers.
My experience: start a business — work — start another business
Since 2005, I have always loved my programming work. During this period, I have worked in software development teams of education departments, government-affiliated units and private enterprises, and even started a business with my friends. Although I could not compete with top programmers in the industry, I was recognized by programmers around me.
In addition, as I started my career a little earlier and my city is not a first-tier city, I worked as a team leader except for development, which provided me with opportunities to get in touch with HR and enterprise management personnel, as well as time to learn knowledge other than development
From 2005 to 2010, the salary of programmers was not very high. I majored in civil engineering in college, and I learned from my college classmates that the salary and prospect of programmers were not comparable to the income of road and bridge majors during 2005 to 2010. At that time, the demand for programmers was mainly in the “enterprise site” area, the rise of Web2.0 led to a wave of programming learning, and even university computers added additional courses in web development and production.
In the following years, the rapid development of e-commerce was followed by the rise of new media, which led to wave after wave of demand for programmers. Until a few years ago, the carnival in the field of big data, artificial intelligence, sharing economy and capital also brought the professional level of programmers to a climax.
Why does 996 appear?
From job-hopping to 996: Capital is always the most agile
Capital markets are always sharp. They have their finger on the pulse of the economy, get in quickly, make profits and then get out quickly.
Capital is agile, and it brings with it the idea that “the only way is fast.” Capital needs to be fast, needs to build products quickly, and then sell them to hungry customers. As far as I know, some entrepreneurial teams are the first to initiate 996, not only to get the money early, but also driven by “ideal”, everyone is happy to work; This culture and atmosphere is then spread to other companies, as well as those that are not ideal-driven, and solidified into the character of the profession
Overall compensation: learning environment, sense of achievement, future vision
Programmer, is a high overall pay profession.
Overall compensation, refers to the employees in the company, on the basis of full participation, establish each employee with different sets of compensation system, and regularly with the change of their interests and needs, and makes the corresponding change, this is a kind of independent style of salary system, each employee can be in accordance with the business development, coordination of work and personal life, Determine your compensation mix and the proportions of the various compensation elements in that mix.
To put it simply, total compensation refers to the overall return of work, including money, interests, identity, sense of achievement, development prospects, life harmony, health.
Professional programmers tend to have high interest, sense of identity, sense of achievement, and development prospects. In addition, their monetary income is often at a medium and high level in all industries. Therefore, programmers are easy to meet such an overall salary, and ignore the coordination of life and health.
Many years ago, programmer job-hopping was a prominent occupation. When the supply and demand of human resources was still in balance, technology companies were still afraid of programmer job-hopping, and recruitment and training cost a lot. With the help of capital, companies are given enough capital to hire good people quickly, and programmers are given high salaries, equity, and the “possibility” of becoming the next Gates or Zuckerberg, so they have more incentive to work hard. This is a very sweet time, with no “losers”.
Until the capital leaves.
Insert a joke: “The best feature of our company is that we can often work overtime.”
The boss of a tech company once tried to poach a friend of mine with this offer: “Our company doesn’t pay very well, but we have a lot of overtime.” . Our friends told us about it and we had a great time. It sounded like a real story. Do bosses really think overtime is a hobby for programmers?
Prospect theory: loss aversion, risk aversion, comfort zone
The prospect theory proposed by Daniel Kahneman, a renowned psychologist (the only one to win a Nobel Prize in economics), says that people avoid risks when they gain and pursue them when they lose.
There is a clear polarization in the programmer community between risk aversion and risk pursuit
Avoid risk and stay in your comfort zone. After getting a higher overall salary, they are willing to sacrifice life coordination and health for a stable job. A common “coaching” message received in the workplace indicates that if you ask your boss for time off, you are likely to lose your competitiveness and be forced to change jobs or careers.
In pursuit of risks, these programmers are dissatisfied with the current status quo. They hope to get more money, interest, identity, sense of achievement and development prospects. Since they have to sacrifice their life and health at work, they choose to start a business.
With the rapid influx of capital, it became clear that capital could cover the overall compensation of programmers, and most of them chose to avoid risk in the first few years
Not only are the programmers themselves a cost, but the effort invested is a sunk cost
No matter who wrote the code to develop the “great project”, from the “boss” point of view, programmers are just the cost of producing the product, and it is the boss’s natural desire to make the most of that cost.
On the other hand, the effort programmers put into their work is also a cost, and a sunk cost, which makes it easy to attract the sunk cost bias: people who invest effort or money in something are less likely to give it up.
Many of my friends complain about their current work status while constantly working overtime. Apart from the tendency to maintain the status quo, the most common reason is that they want to finish the project at hand before considering the matter of rest.
The wind rises and the wind stops. Why protest now?
996 has a long history. Why is it getting attention and protest now? It may be that the number of enterprises implementing 996 is increasing and the scale is getting bigger and bigger, and everyone has become unbearable.
It is more likely that 2019 will give a clear signal of the withdrawal of capital from Internet technology. Capital withdrawal, income is obviously affected, sense of identity, sense of achievement, development prospects have also been shaken.
People are beginning to realize that the value of the overall salary they once paid for their life and health will be much lower in the future.
How to break: Hindsight
Now analyzing the reasons is hindsight. If we don’t reflect on the reasons, even if we go back in time, we may still have the same historical track.
Having a successful career is not incompatible with good health, but it requires rational trade-offs.
We need to seriously think about what is the most important in a long and short life. You can’t be swayed by what you gain or lose.
As an old programmer who has worked for more than ten years, I hope everyone can correctly view work, life and health.
In addition, 996 is not unique to programmers. Many people I know in sales, service, and finance experience 996 as well…
