"If you don't work 996, someone else will do it." Thoughts?

You have to create your own work values and the employer will keep you and pay well. I had chance to work in Korea for couple years. Korean too has corporate culture of working very long hours. However I would only work from 9-6pm (even if work extra, I would work from home), and was able to hold my own because of value I created for my employers. I "appeared" to be more productive than my peers.

Then let other do it. Unless they can pay more😆

Working 996 is unsustainable and only "sustainable" where there is unlimited or close to unlimited human resource. While it's true in China, this is possible because their population is huge - the human resource becomes highly replaceable.

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At the end of the day, human bodies will break down. Stress (persistent and invasive) will result in less productivity, creativity and in some cases boldness.

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Is working 996 absolutely essential? This is debatable. But we should all remember to protect our minds and bodies. We should do what's important to keep our "money making machines" a.k.a our mind and body in good shape. Even machines need maintenance and overuse results in higher maintenance fees and frequency and leading to replacement in the end. So you can work 996 out of fear, or work 996 out of necessity and then figure out a way to create value that breaks you out of being in a 996 cycle. These are rarely jobs that will require incessant working because space and some form of limitation is a prerequisite for creativity and innovation.

Yes, there will people willing to... however this is old, traditional approach for menial type work... though performed with keyboards.

Instead we should, individually not wait for society or organization, into becoming real knowledge workers. This means contributing based on your outcomes, outputs, deliverables instead of grunt efforts and time. This requires personal innovativeness, some automations (office tricks), time and people management.

This is not new. My dad generations always considered Europeans, Germans - lazy, not work hard and long hours as we in Asia. However, having work in Germany, found that they are super productive... That's why they can excel in manufacturing, pharma, finance etc, etc despite working much less hours than us. When they work, they really work to deliver.... focused, efficient.