Work Culture Divide East and West

Work Culture Divide East and West | Generated by AI

Home 2026.03

Question: Why can big Western banks and corporations afford to have employees (including contractors in China) work 9-to-5, while Chinese startups and big tech companies push their software engineers to work 9-to-6 or even 9-9-6? Is it because established companies have decades of infrastructure, or are Chinese companies simply squeezing their employees?

Answer:

This is a great question that touches on economics, corporate maturity, culture, and labor dynamics. The honest answer is: it’s a combination of both factors, not just one.

1. Established Companies Have Structural Advantages

Large Western banks and multinational corporations (think JPMorgan, HSBC, or IBM) have decades — sometimes over a century — of built infrastructure. This means:

Stable revenue streams: They don’t need to sprint to survive. Revenue comes in reliably from existing clients, contracts, and products.
Defined roles and processes: Big companies have established processes and procedures that help keep teams organized and productive, with smoother workflows compared to startups.
Workforce depth: They can hire enough people so that no single person has to carry the whole company. The workload is distributed.
Brand leverage: Talent comes to them, so they don’t need to push workers to the extreme to outrun competitors.

In short, a well-established firm is playing defense, maintaining a position — not scrambling to build one.

2. Chinese Companies Are Often Playing a Different Game

The 996 culture (9am–9pm, 6 days a week) did not emerge simply because Chinese bosses are cruel. It emerged from intense, hyper-competitive market dynamics during China’s rapid economic growth phase.

As China’s rapid economic growth accelerated through the mid-2010s, the 996 schedule became widespread, as companies pushed to outpace competitors and scale quickly.

The culture of 996 has become an unwritten standard for many of the country’s tech firms, driven by “winners take all, big fish eat small fish, fast fish eat slow fish” competition that has caused countless workers to pay a huge physical and mental price.

So yes — part of the reasoning from company leaders is: “If we don’t move fast and outwork the competition, we die.” This is a real pressure for companies in growth markets, especially in e-commerce, fintech, and software.

3. It Is Also Employee Exploitation — Let’s Be Honest

At the same time, it would be wrong to frame this only as competitive necessity. There is real exploitation happening:

Chinese labor law actually sets limits, and the 996 system was deemed illegal by China’s Supreme People’s Court in August 2021. However, scholars cast doubt on whether the ruling would be enforced.
Most extra hours under 996 are unpaid — workers do not receive overtime compensation, and long shifts become the norm rather than the exception.
One study likened 996 culture to “modern slavery,” formed through the combination of unrestricted capitalism and a Confucian culture of hierarchy and obedience.

So there is a cultural and power element too — workers feel they cannot say no, especially in China’s competitive job market where the fear of falling behind is deeply embedded from childhood education onwards.

4. It Is NOT Unique to China — It’s a Startup/Growth Phase Phenomenon

Crucially, this pattern is not purely a “Chinese” thing. It is really a growth-stage vs. mature-stage company phenomenon:

Most startup employees, regardless of country, put in 50–60 hours per week, and many founders work 60–100 hours per week.
In 2025, China’s outlawed 996 work model has taken hold of many Silicon Valley AI startups, with organizations rushing to establish themselves in the AI space and capitalize on investor funding flowing into the field.

Even Western contractors working for big banks in China follow 9-to-5 schedules because those banks are mature entities with defined scopes of work, compliance frameworks, and fixed project timelines — it’s the client’s culture, not the contractor’s hustle, that sets the pace.

5. Summary: The Real Factors at Play

Factor	Big Western Banks / Corps	Chinese Tech Startups & Big Tech
Market maturity	Decades-old, stable revenue	Rapid growth phase, fierce competition
Workforce structure	Enough staff to distribute load	Lean teams wearing many hats
Labor protection	Strong unions, enforced labor laws	Laws exist but poorly enforced
Cultural norms	Work-life balance increasingly valued	Confucian hierarchy + fear of job loss
Competitive pressure	Low urgency to outrun rivals	Existential urgency to scale or die
Employee leverage	Workers have more bargaining power	Abundant replaceable talent pool

The bottom line: Established Western companies can afford 9-to-5 because they’ve already won their market. Chinese startups and fast-growing tech companies are still fighting for survival or dominance — and in many cases, they are also exploiting workers who have few legal protections and limited choices. Both things are true at the same time.

References:

Back Donate