DJI and Midea Mandate Employees to Leave Work on Time. Are Big Companies Finally Stopping Pushing Workers to Overwork? | In - Depth Analysis

Text | Hu Yiting

Editor | Yuan Silai

The high - rise buildings that used to stay lit all night have started to turn off their lights.

Recently, the news that drone giant DJI and home appliance giant Midea are "forcing employees to leave work" has topped the hot search list on social platforms, attracting widespread attention.

It is reported that Midea's Foshan headquarters has started to advocate that department leaders strictly control overtime work this week. Employees are not allowed to work overtime in the company after 18:20, and the phenomenon of employees returning to their workstations to continue working overtime after meals is also prohibited.

In fact, as early as January this year, Fang Hongbo, the chairman and president of Midea Group, issued an internal document titled "Requirements for Simplifying Work Methods". It puts forward requirements for employees in China, such as restricting the use of PPT in internal communication, strictly prohibiting gift - giving and non - regulated team - building activities, and banning meetings and formalistic overtime work after work.

It can be seen that the recent measures are in line with the demand for simplification at the beginning of the year. This trend of simplification not only stays within Midea but also gradually spreads to enterprises such as MINISO and DJI.

According to the "Economic Observer", DJI's "no - overtime" campaign started on February 27 and has been in effect for nearly two weeks. On that day, at 9 p.m., department supervisors and HR staff will urge employees to leave work in three batches. Within an hour, all employees on the entire floor will have left.

This is the strategy for the Shenzhen headquarters. In the Shanghai area, the office building will turn off the lights on time at 9 p.m.

After the "996" label has been discussed for many years, large manufacturing enterprises are not just shouting the slogan of improving efficiency this year but have also taken specific actions. This means that the sense of urgency among enterprises has increased sharply, and the overall cost - reduction and efficiency - improvement has really been put on the agenda.

Revival

Actually, if we trace back, the action of canceling overtime work may have appeared earlier, and the protagonists were Internet companies known for the "996" work culture.

In 2021, the Photon Studio Group under Tencent's Interactive Entertainment Group (hereinafter referred to as IEG) launched a new overtime management mechanism, including having double - day weekends, ensuring holidays, setting the leaving time at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, and requiring employees to leave the office area no later than 9 p.m. on weekdays other than Wednesdays.

During busy project periods, employees who apply for overtime work need to state their reasons and send a copy of the application email to the president of the Photon Studio Group. Continuous two - day overtime work is strictly prohibited.

At the same time, the news that ByteDance adopted the "1075" work system also made it onto the hot search. The "1075" system means working from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, with a 9 - hour workday and double - day weekends.

As the Internet dividend gradually fades and the growth ceiling becomes apparent, large Internet companies have started to break the "996" operation mechanism they set for themselves.

Before the forced - leaving - work policy, there were almost signs in enterprises such as DJI and Midea. At the end of 2024, DJI issued an internal announcement stating that starting this year, the company will cancel the reimbursement for night - time overtime taxi rides; close facilities such as the gym, badminton court, and swimming pool; and reduce team - building funds. After the cancellation of these benefits, employees will be compensated with 500 GT coins per month as a subsidy. GT coin is the currency unit of DJI's internal mall. One GT coin is approximately equal to 1 RMB and can be used to purchase catering products, peripheral products, or be cashed out.

The subsequent forced - leaving - work policy also becomes a measure for DJI to reduce costs and improve management efficiency.

After all, the view that the consumer drone market is gradually saturating has sparked a lot of discussions in previous years. Wang Tao, the founder of DJI, once said that from the perspective of market capacity, 20 billion yuan is a threshold for DJI's revenue. In 2017, its global revenue reached 17.57 billion yuan.

Different from DJI, Midea's action of forcing employees to leave work is not only for cost - saving but may also be related to its recent market layout.

Among home appliance manufacturing enterprises, Midea has made relatively fast progress in going global. The financial report for the first half of 2024 shows that the growth rate of its overseas market has exceeded that of the domestic market, and its overseas revenue accounts for more than 40% of the total revenue.

Midea's financial report for the first half of 2024, source: the enterprise

During this period, Midea is also integrating its layout in Europe and needs to pay attention to local changes. In February this year, Midea announced the completion of the acquisition of ARBONIA climate, the climate division of European building equipment supplier ARBONIA AG (ARBN.SW), to improve its local product solutions and services. This requires Midea to pay more attention to the company's ESG image.

Coincidentally, enterprises that have introduced process - simplification or forced - leaving - work policies this year have regarded going global as an important strategy in recent years. Shortly after Fang Hongbo issued the internal document, Ye Guofu, the chairman of MINISO, also put forward requirements such as strictly prohibiting all forms of formalism and banning the use of PPT in internal communication; Haier issued an internal notice to fully implement the double - day weekend system, and all departments (including R & D, marketing, etc.) will have double - day weekends.

The topic of forced - leaving - work has become a hot - button issue, which is closely related to the living conditions of workers and the general economic environment. For a large - scale operating machine like a company, whether this action can bring actual benefits is even more important.

The "996" Trend Spreads Overseas

Whenever reasonable and more secure company management is discussed, foreign systems and the work styles of foreign - funded enterprises are regarded as references. In fact, even in developed countries, the situation is quite different.

Neighboring Japan has rather strict regulations and supervision on working hours. In 2019, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare implemented the "Amended Labor Standards Act". It stipulates that in principle, employees' overtime hours shall not exceed 45 hours per month and 360 hours per year in total; for employees with more than 10 days of paid leave per year, the company is obliged to urge them to take paid leave, and the leave taken shall not be less than 5 days.

This regulation is also accompanied by clear punishment measures. If an employer makes even one employee work overtime for more than 100 hours per month or fails to enforce paid leave as required, the employer will face a prison term of up to six months or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.

In fact, this law did not come into being overnight. In the early years, "karoshi" (death from overwork) had become a prominent feature of Japan's overtime culture. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare once published a "Karoshi White Paper" showing that enterprises with overtime hours exceeding the karoshi standard accounted for more than 20% of the total number of enterprises. Under various social pressures, Japan had to revise the law and put forward relatively clear punishment measures.

Europe is at the forefront of the world in this regard, and some countries are more in line with people's imagination of foreign - funded enterprises. After the outbreak of the COVID - 19 pandemic, the attempt of working from home has led New Zealand, Spain, Finland, Ireland and other countries to join and launch a three - year voluntary pilot program of the four - day workweek. Iceland was an earlier pioneer. In its capital and some other cities, public utilities and private enterprises tried to reduce the weekly working hours to 35 - 36 hours without reducing employees' salaries.

In contrast, the life of workers in Silicon Valley, USA, which used to feature a four - day workweek, working from home, high salaries and many holidays, has disappeared since the pandemic. In 2022, Twitter employees were required to sign a "commitment letter for hard work", acknowledging that the company no longer allows remote work and that employees must work at least 40 hours in the office per week. Employees who were reluctant to sign on time would be dismissed.

While the work intensity increased, enterprises such as Twitter and Amazon also carried out large - scale layoffs in the same year, and the illusion of a relaxed work environment was gradually shattered.

In the current downward and complex economic environment, the "996" trend has spread overseas, while domestic enterprises have chosen to try to balance various costs at this moment. Whether the measures of simplifying work and forcing employees to leave work can be truly implemented and promoted in the long - term specific actions remains to be seen.