《Economic Observer》 reported last Saturday (March 8th) that by 9 p.m., managers and HR personnel at DJI's Shenzhen headquarters would conduct three rounds of sending employees home, prohibiting overtime; the office building in DJI's Shanghai area would turn off lights promptly at 9 p.m. Besides DJI, in January this year, Midea Group's chairman Fang Hongbo issued a document titled "Requirements for Simplifying Work Methods," which clearly outlined "six prohibitions" regarding simplifying work methods, including "strictly prohibiting meetings during off-hours and formalistic overtime." Midea has been actively practicing the concept of "anti-involution," and the topic of "Midea being forced to leave work at 6:20 p.m." even trended on Weibo's hot searches on March 10.
According to the official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation of China, on February 25, the bureau held a symposium on fair competition with representatives from Alibaba Group, JD.com, BAIC Group, Mercedes-Benz Group, and other seven companies to conduct in-depth exchanges on rectifying "involution-style" competition.
However, these large companies loudly proclaim slogans like "prohibit overtime" and "oppose involution." Are they truly just as capitalists have fabricated—"thinking of employees' health, not advocating excessive overtime, no urgent tasks, so leaving early," "providing employees with richer and more colorful leisure activities," and "hoping employees learn and improve professional skills, and enhance family happiness"?
In fact, practices like shortening employees' working hours have long existed. Starting from January 1, 2023, LeEco implemented a four-and-a-half-day workweek. Specifically, every Wednesday, they adopted a flexible half-day work schedule, with attendance hours adjusted to five continuous hours, such as 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Many large foreign companies also have a "four days on, three days off" system. Nike Greater China also announced that a new work system, "4 days on, 3 days off," would be officially implemented on January 8, 2024, requiring employees to work in the office Monday through Thursday, with optional remote work on Friday, without affecting pay and benefits, limited to office employees. In 2019, Microsoft Japan trialed a four-day workweek for all employees. Subsequent survey results showed that working four days a week with three days off increased productivity by 40%, with employee satisfaction reaching 92%. Takuya Hirano, then President and CEO of Microsoft Japan, once said: "I want employees to think and experience how to achieve the same results with 20% less working time." This statement openly reveals the true purpose of "not allowing overtime": to improve employee work efficiency.
More clearly, these measures against involution only apply to office workers in company buildings—namely, these companies' intellectual laborers. As for ordinary industrial workers, they probably haven't even seen the shadow of a weekend.
In summary, the so-called "anti-involution" and "prohibition of overtime" are actually measures to further intensify the labor of mental workers, shorten working hours, and lower wages, serving as a whip that capitalists use to more forcefully oppress laborers. During the capitalist economic crisis phase, with a large surplus of goods, inventory backlog, capital turnover difficulties, and surplus value hard to realize, capitalists reduce production scale and dismiss many industrial workers, while also saving on variable capital in other areas through such measures. As the crisis worsens, even previously highly esteemed "technicians" face increasingly harsh working conditions, let alone the vast number of physical laborers who are subjected to heavy oppression.
https://www.zaobao.com/realtime/china/story20250310-5992406 https://www.msn.cn/zh-cn/news/national/从-996-到-不准加班-多个大厂开启-反内卷/ar-AA1AAjnv?ocid=BingNewsLanding&cvid=a97f3c6652cd4ea0be7e286ea4d1aaed&ei=8 https://www.zhihu.com/question/627376933
