What is China’s 996 rule that Narayana Murthy is talking about? Infosys founder’s 72-hour work week comment goes viral, says, ‘9 AM…’

Achieving a work-life balance is among the significant discussions globally today in modern society. In every country, people are trying to establish an appropriate work-life balance in their professional and personal lives as they want to offer their time and energy to their families, hobbies, and self-care, while also creating time to work to meet their professional ambitions. While this global conversation continues, some business leaders and founders are stirring up controversy with their suggestions of longer hours.

In this context, the founder of Infosys, Narayana Murthy, is once again debating about work-life balance. He has stated the idea of working 72 hours a week and compared it to China’s popular “996 rule”— where employees work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. If you are preparing for government examinations, you might come across questions on “996”. Questions on this topic can appear in interviews and written exams. So let’s discuss what Narayana Murthy has said and what China’s “996 rule” means.

In an interview with a TV channel, Narayana Murthy has made some pointed remarks about India’s work culture. He said that individuals should concentrate on enhancing their lives prior to speaking about work–life balance. Murthy previously said that Indians should work 72 hours a week, a comment that had attracted significant outrage. During this interview, he defended his previous comments.

“Last year, Catamaran senior and middle level staff went to China and they went to tier 1 cities, tier 2 cities and tier 3 cities. They stayed in tier-3-kind of hotels because we wanted to understand the real China. And you know there is a saying there, 9, 9, 6. You know what it means? 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week. And that is 72 hours a week,” Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy was quoted as saying by Business Standard.

In China, a practice known as the ‘996 rule’ was commonplace in many companies for many years. The 996 system required employees to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week, and have only one day off.  Tech billionaires like Jack Ma openly encouraged this type of working, while others critiqued companies for treating workers like machines, or “slaves.”

Most importantly, clearly, this practice was a massive form of exploitation, with employees often exhausted, burnout common, and even cases of workers literally collapsing at their desks from overwork. Because of this excessive and unhealthy lifestyle, many families departed large cities and returned to villages to lead healthier, more stable lives.

However, eventually, due to public outcry regarding the practice, protests amongst workers, and legal challenges to the model, China banned the 996 work model in early 2021.

The question is now: How many hours can workers work legally in China?

According to China’s labour laws, a worker cannot work more than 44 hours in one week. This means that a worker can work no more than 8 hours in one day.

Legally, an employer can only ask a worker to do one hour of overtime in a day. If the worker is healthy and agrees to work overtime, the employer can have the worker do up to 3 hours of overtime. All of these overtime hours are still limited to a total of 36 hours in one month.

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