996 is haunting Silicon Valley

If you work in tech, especially if you’re in the Bay Area, you probably can’t escape 996, the latest hustle culture trend of working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. I won’t get into its origins of worker exploitation in China; you can read about that in any number of major news outlets. But I think it’s worth calling out that not only is 996 dumb, it’s also bad for everyone involved. Everybody suffers — both the owners that impose it and the workers subjected to it. It’s simultaneously too much (for workers) and not enough for those at the top. 

Why 996 is bad for workers

Let’s start with the obvious: Even the hardest core employees hate being told how to work. I’ve managed teams as small as two and as many as 100+ people, and in each case, there has always been one truth: High-quality teams need flexibility to work however makes them most productive. As long as the work is getting done at a pace and quality that the business requires, who cares if someone only works four days a week or goes home at 4:30 p.m. to be with their kids? Forcing them to work six days a week for 12 hours a day won’t make them more productive — it just makes them resent you and your company.

Don’t do it to your team.

I guarantee your team will be infinitely more productive if they love the work they’re doing, who they’re doing it with, and the life they’re able to live because of it. In fact, studies show four-day work weeks might be the optimal working arrangement to ensure employees are happy and productive. I know that sounds easier said than done, especially for a startup, but the point is that more hours and more time in the office doesn’t mean more productivity or output. At best, it fosters a shared experience and camaraderie that bonds the team together, probably over their shared hatred of 996.

Why 996 is bad for founders

I’m going to speak directly to founders for this section because that’s who I’m hoping this message sinks in with: Do you think 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week is anywhere near what your startup needs from you? Of course not. Building a company, especially a hardware company, is a 24/7 thing. It’s kind of like raising a kid. You’re always on, even when you don’t want to be. You can’t just say “I’m on day seven; time to relax.” A founder’s job is never done;  it’s a grind, and it should be. You had the crazy idea to build a company, so you signed up for this. Thinking otherwise or trying to fit your time on the business into a neat work schedule is a recipe for disappointment and temper tantrums.

Don’t become this guy.

Part of the struggle of being a founder is carrying the weight of being the only person (or people, if a founding team) who cares enough about what you’re building to keep it alive at all costs. It’s not reasonable to expect your team to be as all in as you in that regard. But if you and your cofounders, or you and your leadership team, aren’t all in, that’s going to spell trouble. Prescribed schedules and a culture of attendance-taking gives everyone an excuse to turn off when the leaders of a startup never can. 

“Focus less on how many hours people work and more on the quality of their output.”

Productivity fads come and go, and 996 is likely headed for the dustbin of history soon. Its contradictions on both the owner and workers side make it untenable in the long run. But it stems from a deep-seated cultural tradition in places like the Bay Area of hustling exceedingly hard to invent something new. For all the shade hustle culture gets from people outside of the tech industry, that drive to work hard against all odds—and the competition it both inspires and is motivated by—is what makes places like Silicon Valley the most innovative economic hubs on Earth. It makes sense why people, particularly founders, would want to adopt fads like 996 when they hear they’ll help them supercharge their team. What leader doesn’t want that? 

My hope is that we can focus less on how many hours people work and more on the quality of their output. Which is ironic because I run an entire business built on by-the-hour consulting projects. But even we know the value isn’t in the hour itself, but how that hour is used. We try to make sure every one of those hours is high productivity because that’s what our clients expect. This way, we can spend fewer hours overall, and everyone goes home happy at the end of the day. Not to mention that 996 would be veeeeery expensive, and nobody needs that in hardware. It’s hard enough as it is! 

informal is a freelance collective for the most talented independent professionals in hardware and hardtech. Whether you’re looking for a single contractor, a full-time employee, or an entire team of professionals to work on everything from product development to go-to-market, informal has the perfect collection of people for the job.