"I am not her mother-in-law": Baidu exec videos spark toxic work culture debate

hi there you're watching East Asia tonight on CNA now the pr Chief in the middle of the pr crisis at BYU is now reportedly unemployed it's the latest twist in a rival a viral story in China that has hit a nerve with youth fed up with long working hours Ching uh vice president and head of communications at Buu posted a series of short videos last week and speaking of her Devotion to her career strict management style and unflagging demands on direct reports the self-defined career woman shared her personal sacrifices as a working mother gloating that she forgot her Elder son's birthday and what grade her youngest son was in at school and in another video she lashed out at an employee who refused to go on a 50-day business trip during the covid-19 pandemic for reports in Chinese media say CH has since Departed the the the company and videos have also been removed from her personal throw in account in a personal statement on weat she apologized for causing what she described as a big storm and she wrote that she read all the opinions and comments from various platforms and had reflected on them well the pr executive admitted that the videos had been posted without Ba's knowledge and contained inappropriate points so Buu has not commented and for more let's bring in our Hong Kong correspondent Deborah Wong uh Chinese media report that Ching has now left the company um but not surprising that why the backlash is so bad well you know it tell at the heart of it it really is a very emotional issue because the entire episode of reunited the debate of the JoJo culture or what we know as 996 which is a 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. 6 days a week kind of a workplace practice and it is notorious because uh it actually led to a lot of uh workers collapsing and dying due to fatigue due to overwork and it actually led to the Chinese government cracking down on such a practice back in 202 one even though it is still quite widespread as we see today and so you know treat sing by drawing this up by by loing uh that it is a good thing to work long hours that is a good thing to work hard it really didn't sit well with a lot of people you know we reached out to Buu for a comment uh they are not going to be releasing any comments at the moment but today uh they've also published an article uh defending its work uh work culture and saying that you know the voice of public opinion uh will eventually pass pass and that the drive for self-innovation will never stop so it is still quite an emotional matter but they are doing some sort of PR quality control at the moment and so Deborah I mean help us understand in general right would you say that the high Lev Executives in these tech companies they are also victims of the same toxic work culture that they are perpetuating well we have to understand that it's China's national strategy to focus a lot on Innovation R&D uh Tech at the moment so Tech companies they are pressured to deliver because there is a national interest to do so and we also have to remember that these high level Executives you know they they they join they started their careers they joined the companies at the height of the JoJo Leo culture and so that's the rigor that they were used to you know they have it has worked for them they have made it to where they are today so now that the demands are even higher they also expect their subordinates to do the same in fact um an expert we spoke to says that it's a rat race trap uh Connie Jung associate professor in human resource management and Center for workplace Excellence at the University of South Australia explains it better so let's listen in I GA you know in our Asian culture if your mother-in-law have been suffering you want your daughter-in-law to suffer as well and I think leaders and manager in China or in even in Western contest is the same you know I have been doing this and that's how Define My Success why don't you do the same and and it shouldn't be you know the world is changed and we need to think smart sustainable Workforce can only achieve when you look after employees and when people we always say that health is most important def uh the factors contribute to success because if you die you have nothing left right so hearing what uh Connie was was talking about is there then a sense that young people are put off uh from joining the tech industry because because of this Joo what culture I wouldn't say so it not so much because the job market in China is tough at the moment and you know tax Still Remains a fairly attractive place for young professionals to go to because China is going big on Innovation on digitalization so these companies and what that means is that these tech companies are receiving government backing government support to expand and to push out even more projects so amid a very sluggish domestic economy that is still a career choice that most young people are willing to make because they see that there's stability and that there's also potential to grow I think even if most youth recognize that you know they have to AED to uh tough working environments they are increasingly setting boundaries uh so because I was in basing a couple of months ago I sat down with a couple of uh young graduates and and they they told me that you know uh Tech is still a place to go to uh but during the hiring process they list out their demands they said that they want uh workplace flexibility ility they want Equitable wages and and they want um a reasonable work environment as well so for instance you know if the work um Demands a longer time um at in in the workplace they are willing to put in that effort if it's necessary but say for instance if a company um ask them to to take part in um a meeting after working hours that may not be wholly necessary or take part in team building activities uh they may actually request uh to reschedule that appointment to during working hours so they do this sounds like they have set um a tighter boundaries there but in terms of this work till you drop a culture what's the real cost here and how sustainable uh is it you know for for the for companies that that deploy that I I think it also does have some sort of a impact on population growth so in the video you know tring s was working so hard she forgot her Elder son's birthday uh she also forgot what grade her younger son was in at school so that is a very extreme example but it is reflect I of the ground sentiment that it's difficult to balance both family and career responsibilities in fact some companies in China they are not keen to hire women um and if they intend to have children that is also part of the hiring process they ask women coming in oh do you intend to give birth anytime soon you know it's it's it's reflective of a very uh reflective of gender imbalance and also reflective of uh some sort of uh rigid workplace practices and it's led to uh it's exacerbated uh China's low for fertility rate you know long working hours a lack of Child Support as well uh so the government is responding by pushing out subsidies uh for marriage theyve restricted abortions and they've also urged women to take on caregiving as well as childbearing duties it isn't quite sit well with young professionals because they say all these policies are pretty backward so China does need to find a balance you know even if it pushes for Innovation because people Remain the greatest resource yeah not to mention that if you're over the age of 35 you know it's also harder for you to uh find jobs agism right there as well well thanks so very much uh Deborah Wong or Hong Kong correspondent chatting with us

Channel: CNA

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Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2024