A Chinese top manager complains about employees and then has to quit himself
The communications chief of tech giant Baidu is publicly demanding maximum effort from employees — and hitting a sore spot among overworked Chinese workers.
One thing to talk about is working conditions at Baidu.
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After a public outcry, a top executive at Chinese tech giant Baidu has apologized for reports criticizing what he saw as poor employee morale. “Many of the criticisms are very accurate, I think about them and humbly accept them,” Gu Jing, director of communications, said on Thursday (local time). His “inappropriate” comments “caused an external misunderstanding of the company’s values and culture.”
In several short videos posted on the Douyin platform, critics said that Qu Jing gave the impression of glorifying the culture of constant repetition. He threatened to ruin the careers of employees who wrote hundreds of letters of complaint by ensuring they would never get a job in the industry again. In a video, he criticized an employee who refused to go on a 50-day business trip during the coronavirus pandemic. “Why should I consider my employee’s family? I am not her mother-in-law,” Gu said.
Chinese online media portal “36Kr” announced on Thursday that it had lost its position on Q Baidu. Users of social networking sites like Weibo accused him of lacking empathy. Baidu operates China’s leading search engine and Ernie Bot, an artificial intelligence service similar to ChatGPT.
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Debate over an event known as “996” in China has been going on for years. Tech companies expect their employees to work six days a week from 9am to 9pm. The issue came into focus after the death of two employees of e-commerce firm Pinduoduo, one of whom suddenly collapsed on the street on his way home from work.
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