Alibaba's Jack Ma overtime comments stir anger

China’s richest man provoked a social media backlash Friday

Jack Ma, who founded e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and helped launch China's online retailing boom, angered people with his endorsement of the "996" unofficial work schedule from 9am to 9pm, 6 days per week.  AP

Billionaire Jack Ma again encouraged tech workers to embrace the industry’s extreme-overtime culture, defying a growing social media backlash.

The Alibaba Group co-founder once more endorsed the sector’s infamous 12-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week routine as de rigueur for passionate young workers. In a lengthy Sunday blog post, China’s richest man expanded on comments from last week, in which he dismissed people who expect a typical eight-hour office lifestyle.

“As I expected, my comments internally a few days ago about the 996 schedule caused a debate and non-stop criticism,” Ma wrote. “I understand these people, and I could have said something that was ‘correct.’ But we don’t lack people saying ‘correct’ things in the world today, what we lack is truthful words that make people think.”

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Ma’s earlier comments stoked a fierce ongoing debate over tales of programmers and founders dying from unrelenting stress. Chinese tech workers protested labor conditions on the online code-sharing community GitHub in March under the banner 996.ICU, which quickly became the site’s most popular topic. The term 996 refers to a 9am to 9pm, six-day a week work schedule.

Beyond Ma, several of China’s most prominent industry figures have also weighed in on the controversy. Richard Liu, chief executive of Alibaba arch-foe JD.com, said in a recent post on his WeChat moments that, while he would never force staff to work a 996 schedule, people who slacked off were not considered his “brothers.” On Sunday, Ma said forcing employees to work gruelling hours was “inhumane” -- but that some wanted to do so.

“Those who can stick to a 996 schedule are those who have found their passion beyond monetary gains,” Ma wrote.