An online movement is pushing back against the country’s ferocious work culture of long hours for seemingly little gain

中國正在開展一場反擊野蠻的、效率低下的職場加班文化地網(wǎng)上運(yùn)動(dòng)。

On the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, enthusiastic slackers share their tips: fill up a thermos with whisky, do planks or stretches in the work pantry at regular intervals, drink litres of water to prompt lots of trips to the toilet on work time and, once there, spend time on social media or playing games on your phone.

中國微博平臺(tái)，那些激情昂揚(yáng)的逃避工作的人正在分享他們的小技能：熱水壺里裝滿威士忌，每隔一段時(shí)間去午餐室做平板支撐或伸展運(yùn)動(dòng)，多喝水多跑廁所,抽空刷一下社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)或者玩會(huì)兒手機(jī)游戲。

“Not working hard is everyone’s basic right,” said one netizen. “With or without legal protection, everyone has the right to not work hard.”

一位網(wǎng)友說:“不努力工作是每個(gè)人的基本權(quán)利。不管有沒有法律保護(hù)，每個(gè)人都有不努力工作的權(quán)利?！?/b>

Young Chinese people are pushing back against an engrained culture of overwork, and embracing a philosophy of laziness known as “touching fish”. The term is a play on a Chinese proverb: “muddy waters make it easy to catch fish”, and the idea is to take advantage of the Covid crisis drawing management’s focus away from supervising their employees.

中國年輕人正在抵制根深蒂固的加班文化，踐行一種被稱為“摸魚”的懶惰哲學(xué)。這個(gè)說法是由一句中國諺語“水摸魚”改編而來的，目的是借新冠肺炎疫情的契機(jī)，轉(zhuǎn)移監(jiān)督員工的管理層的注意力。

The author of a viral post at the centre of the conversation, Weibo user Massage Bear, described “touching fish” as a life attitude.
“[It] is a life philosophy of perfunctory living, letting go of oneself and others at the same time… and that’s the key to living in the moment and being relaxed,” she said.

微博用戶推拿熊(Massage Bear)的一篇帖子引起了網(wǎng)熱議，推拿熊將“摸魚”描述為一種生活態(tài)度。
她說:“摸魚就是敷衍著隨便活一活，放過自己同時(shí)也放過他人……這才是活在當(dāng)下、放松的關(guān)鍵?！?/b>

Some make a game of it, Quartz reported, aiming to be the employee who uses the most toilet paper, or getting up from their desk whenever any other colleague does.
The deliberate slowdown at work marks a cultural shift among younger generations who are pushing back against unhealthy work hours for little gain, and not seeing the opportunities for upward mobility experienced by their parents.

Quartz網(wǎng)站報(bào)道稱，有些人把摸魚當(dāng)成一種游戲，游戲目標(biāo)是成為使用廁紙最多的員工，或者只要其他同事離開辦公桌時(shí)他就站起身來。
這種故意拖延工作時(shí)間的行為標(biāo)志著年輕一代職場觀念的轉(zhuǎn)變，他們正在抵制工作效率低的不健康工作時(shí)間，而且看不到他們父母經(jīng)歷過的上升機(jī)會(huì)。

“The fundamental reason for me to do that is that I no longer believe that I can get a promotion in my current company by hard work and ability,” said one Weibo user.
“There’s a joke in the tech industry, if you work hard before 35 as engineer in a food delivery company, then after 35 you are the delivery guy,” said Suji Yan, a 25-year-old chief executive of a tech startup mask.io.

一名微博用戶表示:“我這么做的根本原因是,我不相信現(xiàn)在的公司還能通過努力工作和能力得到晉升?！?br /> “科技行業(yè)有個(gè)笑話，如果35歲之前在一家送餐公司當(dāng)工程師，而且努力工作，那么35歲之后你能當(dāng)送餐員了，”25歲的科技初創(chuàng)公司Mask Network CEO閻晗說。

“I’ve heard of people being fired after 35 because they spent less time in the company, because they have families to look after and they have less energy than the younger people.”

“我聽說有人在35歲以后被解雇，因?yàn)檫@個(gè)歲數(shù)的人在公司待得時(shí)間少了，他們要照顧家庭，而且這個(gè)年齡的人也不像年輕人那么精力充沛。”

The “touching fish” movement has a sense of humour, but behind it is a deadly serious issue. Recent deaths have again highlighted the dangers in China’s “996” work culture – a reference to working 9am to 9pm, six days a week at a minimum, particularly in the tech industry and among food delivery drivers. The 996 attitude is widespread, despite labour laws saying work should be limited to eight hours a day, for an average of 44 hours a week.

“摸魚”運(yùn)動(dòng)頗有幽默感，但背后卻是個(gè)極其嚴(yán)肅的問題。最近的死亡事件再次凸顯了中國996職場文化的危險(xiǎn)，996指的是工作時(shí)間從早9點(diǎn)到晚9點(diǎn)，每周至少工作6天，尤其是在科技行業(yè)和送餐員。盡管勞動(dòng)法規(guī)定每天工作時(shí)間應(yīng)限制在8小時(shí)以內(nèi)，平均每周工作44小時(shí)，但996仍然很普遍。

Media reports include anecdotes of employees being offered bonuses or fold-out beds for under the desk if they work overtime, fines for missing phone calls, and even signal blockers in bathrooms to stop employees using their phones while on their toilet.

媒體的一些報(bào)道就提到，如果員工加班就能得到獎(jiǎng)金，有的公司會(huì)提供行軍床放在辦公室，員工如果不接電話會(huì)被罰款，有的公司甚至在洗手間安裝信號(hào)屏蔽器，防止員工在上廁所時(shí)使用手機(jī)。

“It’s not that I don’t do my job well,” said one Weibo user.
“Touching fish to resist 996 is nothing more than a kind of nonviolent non-cooperation in a harsh working environment and a difficult process of safeguarding rights.”

一位微博用戶表示:“并不是我工作做得不好?！?br /> “上班摸魚抵制996，其實(shí)是在嚴(yán)厲的工作環(huán)境和維權(quán)難的背景下的非暴力不合作?！?/b>

In December a 23-year-old employee of e-commerce giant Pinduoduo died after working past midnight, the company confirmed earlier this month. While her death hasn’t been formally attributed to overwork, the company attracted furious backlash over the expectations put upon employees, and it was exacerbated further when earlier this month an engineer – surnamed Tan – took his own life.

本月早些時(shí)候電子商務(wù)巨頭拼多多證實(shí)，去年12月，該公司一名23歲的員工工作到深夜后死亡。雖然并沒有確定是勞累過度導(dǎo)致的死亡，但該公司對(duì)員工的要求引起了外界強(qiáng)烈反對(duì)，本月早些時(shí)候，一名姓譚的工程師自殺，情況進(jìn)一步惡化。

Shortly afterwards Pinduoduo also fired an employee, named as Wang Taixu. Wang said he was fired after posting a photo online of an ambulance parked outside the company’s Shanghai officer building with the caption “another brave Pinduoduo warrior has fallen”. Pinduoduo reportedly disputed his characterisation of the medical incident and said Wang was fired for “extreme comments made with obvious malice”, violating company rules, and unrelated to the ambulance video. But another video which he posted after he was fired, criticising the intense work culture at the company, was viewed nearly half a million times according to Sixth Tone. Pinduoduo denied the accusations in the video.

不久之后，拼多多還解雇了一位名叫王太虛的員工。這位員工說，他是在網(wǎng)上發(fā)布了一張救護(hù)車停在公司上海辦公樓外的照片后被解雇的，他對(duì)圖片的描述是“又一個(gè)勇敢的拼多多戰(zhàn)士倒下了”。據(jù)報(bào)道，拼多多對(duì)此進(jìn)行了否認(rèn)，稱王某被解雇的原因是“發(fā)表了帶有明顯惡意的極端言論”，違反了公司規(guī)定，而與救護(hù)車視頻無關(guān)。但據(jù)第六聲（澎湃新聞國際版）報(bào)道，他被解雇后發(fā)布的另一條批評(píng)該公司緊張的企業(yè)文化的視頻觀看次數(shù)達(dá)到了近50萬次。不過拼多多否認(rèn)了視頻里的指控。

Yan said companies got around labour laws in globally familiar ways: hiring people as contractors rather than employees, and incentivising people like delivery drivers to work long hours more often, with bonuses and games, rather than forcing them to do it.

閻晗說，好多企業(yè)都會(huì)采用全世界都熟知的方式規(guī)避勞動(dòng)法:盡量聘用合同工，而不是正式工，通過獎(jiǎng)金和游戲等方式激勵(lì)快遞員等頻繁地加班，而不是強(qiáng)迫他們加班。

He said as a chief executive he understood the pressures companies were under to increase output, but disagreed with the systematic culture of overwork, and saw the touching fish movement as a form of safe resistance.

他表示，作為一名首席執(zhí)行官，他理解企業(yè)面臨的提高工作效率的壓力，但卻不認(rèn)可加班的系統(tǒng)性職場文化，他認(rèn)為摸魚運(yùn)動(dòng)只是比較安全的抵抗方式。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://nxnpts.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處


“People do that because they have no way of talking to the management.”

“人們沒有辦法與管理層溝通，所以才出此下策?！?/b>

Current leading business people are still fans of 996. Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, has said the practice is key to being successful in competitive industries. Xibei Canyin chief executive, Jia Guolong, said people should in fact be working “715” (15 hours a day, seven days a week). In 2019 a Huawei executive boasted that employees asked to work past 10pm. But it has drawn opposition from state media, including Xinhua news and the com...st party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily.

現(xiàn)在的商界領(lǐng)袖仍然是996的粉絲。阿里巴巴創(chuàng)始人馬云表示，996是在競爭激烈的行業(yè)取得成功的關(guān)鍵。西貝餐飲的首席執(zhí)行官賈國龍表示，人們實(shí)際上應(yīng)該工作715(每天15小時(shí)，每周7天)。2019年，華為一位高管自豪地說，員工要求工作到晚上10點(diǎn)以后。但這遭到了包括新華社和《人民日?qǐng)?bào)》等官方媒體的抨擊。

Yan said the tech industry was having a reckoning with how it was enabling the 996 culture, for example by building the technology which exploits delivery drivers. Github, a software development hosting site, has a project called 996.ICU (work 996 and you’ll end up in the intensive care unit), which documents companies enforcing excessive overtime. Yan suggested the project, co-created by his wife Katt Gu and other IT developers and to which he contributes, was in part a way for engineers to make amends.

閻晗表示，科技行業(yè)正在思考如何實(shí)現(xiàn)996文化，比如打造剝削快遞員的技術(shù)。網(wǎng)絡(luò)開發(fā)托管站點(diǎn)Githu有一個(gè)名為“996.ICU”項(xiàng)目，如果996，你就會(huì)被這個(gè)項(xiàng)目記錄在案，可以對(duì)強(qiáng)制執(zhí)行加班的公司進(jìn)行記錄歸檔。這個(gè)項(xiàng)目是由閻晗的妻子顧紫翚和其他IT開發(fā)人員共同創(chuàng)建的，他也參與其中。閻晗說，這個(gè)項(xiàng)目在一定程度上是工程師彌補(bǔ)過錯(cuò)的一種方式。

“There are more and more engineers who are like the Github starters and want to contribute something to society, not to create algorithms to kill more delivery guys,” he said.
“There’s progress. I think my generation, when they become employers and CEOs they’ll have more humane ways of management, they’ll try to fix the system.”

“越來越多的工程師像Github的新手一樣，想要為社會(huì)做點(diǎn)貢獻(xiàn)，而不是創(chuàng)造算法來殺死更多的快遞員?！?br /> “有進(jìn)步。我認(rèn)為我們這一代成為雇主和首席執(zhí)行官時(shí)，會(huì)有更人性化的管理方式，會(huì)試圖修復(fù)這個(gè)體系?！?br />