"996" refers to the intensive working hours (9 A.M. to 9 P.M, 6 days a week) that has been gaining more and more popularity among Chinese domestic Internet and software companies.
So working in a company that employs or encourages "996" usually means at least 60 working hours a week.
> The employer can prolong work hours due to needs of production or businesses after consultation with its trade union and laborers. The work hours to be prolonged, in general, shall be no longer than one hour a day, or no more than three hours a day if such prolonging is called for due to special reasons and under the condition that the physical health of laborers is guaranteed. The work time to be prolonged shall not exceed, however, 36 hours a month.
In early 2019, a Chinese E-commerce company called _Youzan_ has announced the adoption of the "996" working pattern in the future, at the company's Chinese New Year Party. The CEO of Youzan responds: "This would definitely be a good decision when we look back in a few years time.".
In Mid-March 2019, it was reported that Jingdong started adopting "996" or "995" working pattern in some of the business units. Jingdong PR posted on their maimai(`脉脉`, a Chinese real-name business social network platform) account: "(Our culture is) to devote ourselves with all our hearts (to achieve the business objectives)".
According to the Labor Law, employees who follow "996" deserve to be paid 2.275 times of their base salary. Unfortunately, people who meet "996" rarely get paid that much.
