LONDON- A huge figure of U.K.-based tech employees are selecting not to accept or run after jobs at TikTok over fears that the organization has an aggressive work culture with demanding and long hours. In the industry, six people opined that they left interviews, dismiss job offers, or left the organization after understanding TikTok has a certain “996” culture, either from the first-hand experience or through online reviews.
In China, some organizations have practiced this 996 work culture. This name is obtained from the workers’ need of working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for consecutive six days in a week, which works out at 72 hours for each week.
Meanwhile, the regulation retains in the U.K. and U.S. is nearly 40 hours per week. However, many employees work more than that, and even in the U.K. working more than 48 hours is illegal.
China’s ByteDance owned TikTok, refused to comment while asked about the staff work hours and culture. According to one tech worker who was in a communication role in the U.K., a 996 culture was “certainly a concern” for them.
The most common ‘con’ he found from his Glassdoor research was about the work-life balance and uncertain crazy working hours which remains the same. He also added that he paused conversations soon when he understood they had a very little amount of flexibility around working policies and locations.
