Recently, a new user named "996icu" appeared on GitHub, an international open source community. He built a new code warehouse named "996.ICU", pointing out that the "996" working system prevailing in Internet companies seriously violated the labor law. Subsequently, this quickly became a professional group of programmers and even a national topic.

The so-called "996" working system refers to working hours from 9: 00 am to 9: 00 pm, with one hour off at noon and evening, totaling more than 10 hours a day, working six days a week and working 72 hours a week. This working time, regardless of whether there is overtime pay, has violated the labor law.

This kind of working system gives people the first impression that enterprises are squeezing employees, but if programmers are weak, then why can programmers get a high salary of 20 thousand to 30 thousand? In fact, programmers are not a vulnerable group, but a group with high salary, high quality, high skills, high attention and high voice. The various factors and logic contained in their rights protection actions are more complicated.

In the consumer market, there are two important methodologies to judge whether an enterprise has violated the interests of consumers: Is there competition? Is consumer sovereignty still there?If the answers to these two questions are yes, I don’t think there is any big problem.

Similarly,On the issue of overtime and wages, there are also two methodologies: is the enterprise in a competitive state in the labor market? Can job seekers choose?If these two answers are in the affirmative, then the problem will not be too serious.

Moreover, under these two premises, safeguarding rights is definitely not as simple as it seems. There must be deep-seated factors besides the simple explanation of "enterprises squeezing employees".

It is worth noting that,Opposing "996" is more of a group appeal, but it has not become a universal behavior of individuals in the group.

Theoretically, programmers have the ability to get rid of the 996 working system by individual choice. For example, ask if you want to work overtime regularly during the interview; Resignation from the company that announced the implementation of 996; You can also choose to go to a smaller company. This kind of dispersed individual behavior will eventually form a group trend, which makes the company dare not implement the 996 working system at will.

In fact, the high salary of programmers comes from this mechanism. Programmers make choices independently and dispersedly, and use the method of "voting with their feet" to make enterprises offer high salaries. Finally, the systematic situation of programmers’ general high salaries is shaped.

Why can the decentralized and independent individual selection mechanism bring high salaries to programmers, but it can’t make them get rid of 996?

From the industry point of view, the Internet and IT industries have fierce competition and rapid development, and the company must strive hard; From the specific nature of work, programmers are often faced with urgent needs and often have unexpected events to solve, which will lead to frequent overtime. The nature of business makes overtime work a "just need" for employees.

From a larger perspective, China’s overall income is not high. According to the economic law, when the income is not high, people tend to work more in exchange for more wages. This makes employees’ motivation against overtime weak. Just as a programmer told reporters: As long as the money is in place, everything can be said.

In fact, the IT industry has experienced explosive growth in the past 30 years. Entrepreneurship, equity and listing have constructed one wealth myth after another.People in IT companies are willing to work overtime, which is largely due to the wealth effect. Entrepreneurship, options, bonuses and dividends all encourage employees in the industry to work overtime.

The industry’s just need for overtime, employees’ expectation of wealth and weak resistance to overtime often form a culture, which leads to all kinds of unnecessary overtime. For example, in a department or a company, when someone works overtime, others are forced to follow suit. Over time, it has become the default consensus that Internet companies work long hours and are not fixed. In the end, the company unscrupulously stood up and implemented the 996 system, turning overtime into a solidified system.

However, the Internet industry is developing at a rapid pace, and many things have changed.

From the perspective of the big economic law, with the increase of wage level, with rich income, the marginal effect of income begins to decrease, and workers will think that leisure is more important than income growth, preferring to increase leisure and reduce working hours.

From the time point of view, "996" was mentioned frequently from about 2014, and it took about five years for this outbreak to be a hot topic. Five years ago, it was the time when the myth of entrepreneurship and wealth creation brought by the mobile Internet kept emerging. Five years later, the economy is in a new normal, the Internet’s wealth-making ability is no longer beautiful, and the incentives are reduced.Without money, overtime culture can’t continue.

Therefore, when the "996ICU" action appeals, awakens and influences the programmers in China, the "996" overtime system will be more severely challenged. Internet companies in China should conform to this general trend and maintain long-term sustainable development with better labor protection and welfare.

Of course, at the same time, the characteristics of the Internet and IT industries also need to be respected. For example, your APP can’t be used, and you definitely want programmers to work continuously to solve this problem. Therefore, the introduction of flexible working hours is also inevitable.

It is worth noting that the implementation of flexible working hours in China needs the approval of relevant supervision departments, so law enforcement departments also need to respect the diversified market formats and make appropriate adjustments.Only legal and clear overtime can make those illegal and vague overtime more obvious, so as to better regulate it.