TikTok's parent company has internally announced that it will cancel its "Big/Small Week" overtime policy, which has required workers to work six days in one week, followed by another more moderate week, according to a ByteDance spokesperson.
The new regular work policy will be effective starting Aug. 1. ByteDance had previously sent out an internal survey about whether to abolish its infamous overtime policy. About one-third of the surveyed employees said yes, and one-third said no. Workers who preferred work-life balance had already anticipated the cancelation of the big/small policy, but those who opposed the abolishment complained that they would be subject to the same amount of workload but less pay.
"Big/Small Week" is an overtime policy as common as the punishing "996" schedules adopted by Chinese tech companies. ByteDance's announcement followed its nemesis Kuaishou's decision to forgo the same policy a month ago. A game studio owned by Tencent recently also rolled out a similar pro-worker policy that mandates employees clock off at 6 p.m. every Wednesday and take weekends off.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE