A new report from the Wall Street Journal casts a shadow over TikTok’s working methods in the United States. According to various sources, employees of the Los Angeles office of the social network most used by young people say they have developed various disorders due to grueling shifts, including sleep deprivation and relationship pathologies. In addition to this, the WSJ reports an average of 85 hours a week dedicated to meetings and having to “keep up with colleagues in China”, so much so that they also have to work shifts on Sunday evening when it is already Monday in Beijing.
According to the report, TikTok pushes many offices in the United States to follow the programming of their Chinese counterparts, for example to make updates and corrections available, also following reports of abuse, in real time, in both countries. This would have led to “paranoia about falling behind colleagues or frustration when projects don’t see the light,” writes the Journal citing a former employee. One of these, Lucas Ou-Yang, wrote on Twitter that he was aware of a dozen product managers who left the company after a year because they were expected to follow the schedules of their Chinese colleagues. Some of the information is not new: last year, a CNBC report described the ‘996’ work program, also mentioned by the WSJ.
The reference is at the beginning of the day at 9 and its continuation until 21, six days a week, a common practice for several companies in China, until the government considered illegal programming. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has therefore reduced the working week to 63 hours, from 10 to 19, five days a week. It is unclear whether the change also affects the United States where, as the WSJ notes, “many employees say extending working hours is something to be expected.”