Some firms impose mandatory clock-off times in China

A handful of major Chinese companies like homeappliance maker Midea have new badges of honour this year: mandatory clock-off times for staff called back on after-hours meetings. Staff at Midea once toiled till late in the evening, but now they’re told to leave by 6:30 p.m. The company’s page on social media app WeChat even shows a photo of people literally standing with a caption that reads: “What do you do after work? It’s better work when life really starts.” In China, this counts as radical corporate messaging, a sharp contrast to “996” or the practice of working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week - famously seen as a “huge blessing” by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and an integral part of its tech sector for much of the past 15 years.

- Farah Master and Sophie Yu

Other companies have also made changes, even if not quite as dramatic. At fellow appliance maker Haier, employees have celebrated on social media the introduction of a five-day work week. Workers at DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer, have posted about their joy at a new policy declaring officers must be vacated by 9 p.m.

“No more worrying about missing the last metro, no more worrying about waking up the wife when I get home,” wrote one DJI officer who said he often used to work past midnight. Haier and DJI did not respond to requests for comment.

In another sign of how the zeitgeist for China is indeed changing, a Beijing law firm was fined in March for not taking corrective measures after it illegally extended staff working hours - a rare imposition of a penalty by authorities that drew widespread praise on social media.

But whether these nascent corporate efforts will turn into winds of change remains to be seen.