Chinese workplaces take an Orwellian turn
Protocol
April 21, 2021
Workers in China have long since returned to office life following a relatively short but draconian COVID-19 lockdown last year. The idea of going, well ... anywhere that's not home might strike many locked-down, fed-up Western readers as a relief. But what if your workplace resembles a dystopian surveillance state? What if your boss has been replaced with a heartless algorithm? Chinese workers are beginning to wrestle with these new, grim questions.
Chinese tech giants are stepping up workplace surveillance. On Monday, LatePost published interviews with several Chinese Big Tech employees who said their employers monitor everything from the amount of time employees spend on internal systems, to conversations on social media, to restroom breaks.
Some have undergone interrogations by internal investigation staff, known euphemistically as "quality control."QC will demand workers hand over their phones so they can check private WeChat messages.Veteran tech workers have crafted an "anti-surveillance manual" that includes best practices like using separate work and personal devices, creating a separate dedicated WeChat account for work and taking pains not to connect any personal devices to the company intranet.
Also on the rise: algorithmic bosses. "Office automation systems" (OA??) are all over the news in China, and the market is projected to generate $3 billion in 2021. But algorithm-driven management is often unbelievably invasive.
Some systems measure heart rates or other vital signs to ensure no one is slacking.Workers who don't complete (often arbitrary) tasks the algorithm has decided are important can be subject to wage cuts.Even executives who know the OAs aren't doing a good job seem reluctant to junk them after sinking money and reputational capital into their internal deployment.
And China's delivery workers are toiling for increasingly unforgiving apps. The country's ecommerce market is huge, but it's built on blood, sweat and lots of tears.
One app reportedly levies a $300 dollar fine on workers for every customer complaint via email — and remember, delivery drivers in China often make less than $1,000 per month.Some are fighting back, and paying a cost for their activism. One activist who calls himself "Leader of the Delivery Rider Alliance" and documented the harsh lives of delivery workers via social media videos was detained in late February.
Chinese workers are making a stand, even if they don't have meaningful unions. Instead, they're sharing their experiences online.
Workplace gossip site Maimai, which Zeyi Yang profiled for Protocol in February, is upending the employer-employee relationship by turning employees into anonymous tipsters and citizen journalists.Maimai users often hear of major scandals first, like the death of a Pinduoduo employee, likely from overwork.But Chinese Big Tech hates Maimai, and has hauled it into court so often that Maimai had to put its IPO in the icebox.
Look for workplace tensions to rise further. Chinese bosses are increasingly looking to automation to solve for a shrinking labor pool and rising labor costs. But those factors also mean workers have more options, and will grow likelier to speak up against abusive employers.
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