work day in my life 👩🏻💻 as a project manager at bytedance/tiktok
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ม.ค. 2022
- insta:@tapioca.press
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This is a very real and personal account of a day in my life working for a Chinese tech company, while on a work trip to Shanghai. Most Chinese tech companies are known for their 996 work culture, where employees work from 9am to 9pm for 6 days a week. In this vlog, I hustle to balance my work responsibilities, passion projects, and wellbeing, but ended in exhaustion after working for 16 hours. I also share my reflection on 996, involution (内卷), and how I attempt to escape the vicious cycle of overwork in China.
I DO NOT work for 16 hours every day. I chose to film this particularly busy day to provoke myself to think deeply about 996, and to demonstrate to you the harsh realities of working in the tech industry in China. Please be reminded that working 16 hours a day is NOT a virtue. It's not a sustainable way to work, and it's detrimental to your wellbeing.
If you feel burnt-out from work, please always prioritize taking care of yourself. It's okay to say "I can't do this". It's okay to take a mental health day. It's NOT okay for anyone to push you to the point of burnout, and make you feel like you are still not enough.
You are enough. You are more than just work. You are empowered to change what's not right.
with love,
Evelyn
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i have a cookie company!!!
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Grace Chiang - biking to the beach - thmatc.co/?l=632C23F9
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✨SPECIAL THANKS✨
...to Queyue and David Carey for letting me use their song 94 Revolution.
This song is released by nugget records as a part of a charity tape set that supports musical education for severely underprivileged children in the Sichuan province of China. If you would like to purchase the charity tape set, please visit this link: weidian.com/item.html?p=iphon...
Thank you for sharing the love🤍
🙋🏻♀️ HELLO
hi i'm Evelyn. thanks for stopping by!
➭ what do you do? i'm a tech project manager
➭ where are you located? Beijing
➭ what's your weird accent? i grew up in china, and lived in the US for 8 years
➭ why are you in Beijing? COVID threw my entire life off course, so I decided to give up my past life in Chicago, and start over in Beijing
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for vlogs about living in China, working in technology, and other adventures of a twenty something trying her best to adult + build a life in Beijing - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
So proud of you that despite having a very demanding job you have a thriving cooky business❤ whilst knowing trying to break the 996 cycle and focus more on what makes you happy❤ it takes guts for sure. Happy new year😍
Thank you so so much - and happy new year to you too!!
You make a great point: make the adjustments to help you get healthier. So I made a New Year’s resolution to not work overtime the whole year. Physically, mentally and spiritually I feel SO much better-and so does everyone and everything around me.
Good for you! And so proud of you for taking the right step for yourself. Keep it up:)
I've always wanted to work in China but am afraid of leaving my comfort zone here in the US so I admire you a lot! I have always heard of the 996 work culture but you are so positive and even have time to focus on other projects, which I hope take you out of the corporate world someday. Thank you for this vlog! 加油!
i work in nyc and i've always wondered what it would be like to work abroad so thanks so much for sharing!!! i work in a super intense industry so totally resonated with all the things you said 😭
Tbh my American colleagues work very hard too😆 hope you enjoy what you do, and if not, hope you find a way out soon!
Love your work day outfits! So comfy yet trendy!
Hahaha LEGGINGS!!!
I Love your honesty. Tech never sleeps and the backlog is always full. 🤯 I wish you the best with your entrepreneurial ventures. 🤗
just found your channel a few days ago and i’m hooked! thanks for sharing your journey w us :) sending love from Canada 🇨🇦
Thank youuuu!!! Love from Beijing💕
so happy to see you upload!! i totally get what u mean with the corporate chase -- practices similar to 996 are also experienced here in singapore : ( i hope in this year you get to see some sort of light in this realm!!!
Ahhh :( all the best to you too!! I’m still hopeful😊
You are so strong💪and you can be very proud of yourself!
Thank you😇
Very englightening vlog indeed. And yeah, given the uncertainties of our future, it is indeed, necessary to look on what we have right now and be grateful for it. :))
7 days of vacation and you have to work an additional day when there's national holiday, right? In Poland if you have a degree you work for 2 years and you have 26 days of paid leave in a year (before that it;s 20) and sometimes that's not enough, feels like... I also work in a tech company and it's not perfect but I am at the same time so grateful because they gave me a chance and they do not overwork me. 40h a week and they do not expect me to do more (my team leader says that if we need to work more that means she's not doing her work correctly). After the cafe meeting you looked so sad my heart broke. You deserve to have time to rest because burnout is one thing but 16h days will just simply kill you way sooner (there are studies that prove it). I feel like there's some change in my generation. When someone says "I worked on the weekend" they get semi-jokingly disapproval look from their peers and a frown. No praises, no "oh yeah I did that too!" type of thing and it makes me proud that people understand and value their private lives so much. I wish for you to be able to show that to your peers and you can start evolution with others in your country. Small steps!
🤍🤍🤍
That's good to hear that ppl in Poland are treating work like people in America. Not every company/team are the same, but on the teams I've worked on here in the states, we also don't praise those with unhealthy work-habits. Working odd-hours or working too much are negatives.
I was enjoying some china content and then found out that chinese people work really hard wastefully. This makes this a job rather than a career. At a certain age you can not compete with younger employees and you have to have an exit strategy, and that is only once you've already internalized that you are agreeing to trade your youth/life for money. This makes me appreciate the EU and US federal labor laws that allow for people to have lives, hobbies, families, and long careers.
The best video by far that I have learned about China. Amazing! I look forward to visiting this beautiful country one day. Thanks. Columbus, Ohio USA ♥
love the video! actually ive been deciding wheter I want to go into that corporate world because it does have nice things. but, idk if I would feel trapped. maybe ur right about feeling trapped because of something else. idk. i guess this is my year for self discovery.
Yay another video
Good luck keep it up 👍👍 your video is amazing 🙂
Thank you😊
I love Shanghai too! Take care
Meaningful video. keep it up.
Go girl! You are talented and beautiful. You can do so much more. You are right. Follow your heart and you will feel more fulfilled and satisfied.
🤍🤍🤍
Kudos to you for starting to set healthy boundaries! Just curious, how is the work life balance for your colleagues who have kids? Especially working moms - are they also expected to 996?
My company is incredibly young, and I only have a couple of colleagues who have families. Unfortunately, I do see them work 996 too😭
Awesome. U deserve 1 million subscribers.🙂♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
Recently found your channel, watched a couple of videos, subbed, this shows a completely different side of you than the videos I watched before. Nice and interesting insight in chinese work culture. Is it normal in China to work remotely and just drop into the office for meetings or has this to do with the pandemic? I used to picture chinese office work culture as being in the office is more important than being productive.
Thank you!!! I think during the peak of COVID working from home became kind of a norm, but companies seem to have gone back to offices soon after. One of the reasons I chose my job is because of the flexibility it offers - which still seems to be unusual in China
wow, super insightful video. Love hearing your honest thoughts. instant subscribe!
I had to cancel my year abroad doing my masters at Sichuan university due to covid after only 3 months and also a follow up phd. Despite that I really enjoyed living in china and am looking for ways to get back there and currently studying mandarin in my free time. I currently work as a data scientist, so probably good chances of finding a job there if I wanted to. But still, single digit holidays are kind of a no no for me. In my current job I have 30 xd
Ahhh it sucks that you had to cancel the year abroad...And so jelly for your 30 day holiday!!!
I want to move to China for CS how can I do it
really like your videos - real life and stay positive which is very encouraging! Technical project manager job could be very tricky. I don't know your background, but if you don't feel comfortable on all of the technologies / systems / integrations... my overall suggestions are to 1. understand the project tech flow in a logical way, pay NO attention on the detail technologies on how it happens. just image the flow as a few ( or more ) boxes and draw the arrow along those boxes. Understand which team owns which box. soon you will find those so called "engineers" (at least some of them who speak the loudest) might not have the bigger picture that you have! and 2. build a good relation with your project tech lead. and 3. pay more attention and build better relations with all the stakeholders. GOOD LUCK!
Appreciate the advice!
don't burn out. take good car of yourself,
This is my fear of working in tech because the tech industry really puts pressure on their workers. It's also such a mixed bag because Ive heard some good stories of a good work life balance but its also common for people to work overtime. We dont have catchy names for it here in the U.S but Ive heard horror stories of time off not being approved. Crunching happens a lot in the gaming industry. I was making plans to maybe work in the tech industry here in the U.S get some experience and then move to China but i def need to think harder on it.
Depends on mostly the company in US. Amazon has very horrible WLB in most of the teams, while Google or even smaller ones like Intuit(Where I work as SWE) is a lot more relaxed in most cases
Dang that feeling when watching this video and haven’t finished and see the “I quit” video pops up
You are super cute btw!
hahaha too real huh
I heard about 996 in a documentary one time. I never thought it still occured in China due to better social regulations.
In all honestly I think most people in the tech industry have it way worse than me. Especially now the tech industry is going through a wave of layoffs. Most people would rather work 996 than not have a job at all. There's a great vice video that documents 996: th-cam.com/video/l8wWoQ3_F00/w-d-xo.html
There is glory in slavery. Fancy breakfast, hotel, business travel, wearing a suit, having a Macbook.
Do you work 996 every week? I thought I read it was being dismantled last year. Do you also run your cookie company while working 996?
Yea! I heard the same!
What's your salary in China
❤
I am based out of India. The Giant tech and financial services companies take advantage of desperate employees here. I personally worked for an average 14-15 hours 5 days a week. I left the job bcoz I was missing my personal life. I liked the job and it was my first job.
Agreed... in China the fierce competition in the labor market makes it very difficult for any individual person to fight against working overtime. All the best at your new job!
@@tapiocapress All the best to you too for all the beautiful ventures ahead.
Is it Bytedance😄
I thought 996 were scrapped?
Yes, last year the government did attempt to out a stop on 996, and many companies issued statements of change. However, unfortunately 996 is still very much alive in practice
as i see you came to work at 10 and left 6pm, thats 8 hrs...
Wow.. you also worked there…
You only get one life, so you should enjoy it! I don’t think working for such a demanding company is worth it. But it’s easy for me to say from the sidelines.
I agree with you! I've moved to a new company recently and it's been an improvement:)
为什么你不能吃肉啊
I hate 996!!!😵💫😵💫😵💫
🤩 P r o m o s m!!!