Figure/vision china
Yangcheng Evening News reporter Shen Zhao
In the internet industry, the word "retirement" has been out of the loop recently. This is very different from the "996" that people will think of when they mention Internet companies. The starting point of all this is that Tencent, the "Goose Factory", has recently announced that it will upgrade its employee care policy and introduce and improve employees’ retirement benefits. The above policies clarify the various rights and interests that Tencent employees can enjoy when they retire legally. Among them, at the node where they have been employed for 15 years, employees can choose to "retire early" even if they have not reached the retirement age, and enjoy the retirement benefits introduced before.
"Early retirement" is what many young migrant workers dream of, and Tencent’s move can be described as a stone stirring up thousands of waves. However, the Yangcheng Evening News reporter found out that while netizens are discussing "employee benefits" and "anti-involution", words such as "working overtime as usual" and "35-year-old consensus" still occupy a large proportion.
Internet giant wolf culture turn? "Anti-involution" and "Reducing Overtime"
In recent years, in the fierce competition of the Internet, in order to get more output, workers in large factories have passively "rolled up", and the practice and argument of "big and small weeks" and "996 is a blessing" are not surprising. In this year, the big factories that have always advocated the "wolf-like" culture suddenly turned collectively this year, and started to cancel the big and small weeks one after another, and some even "strictly controlled" the overtime hours of employees.
In June this year, Tencent’s Photonic Studio piloted the "first shot" against the "996" overtime culture. It was forced to leave work at 6 o’clock on Wednesday and leave the office no later than 9 o’clock on other working days. Overtime in violation of regulations will be punished. Many people think that this has given Internet companies a good start.
Sure enough, three companies, Aauto Quicker, ByteDance and Meituan, quickly followed suit and cancelled the "anti-involution" mode. On June 24, Aauto Quicker took the lead in announcing that the week will be cancelled from July 1, and employees will work overtime as needed. The company will pay overtime wages to employees in accordance with relevant regulations; On July 9, ByteDance announced that it will cancel the week of size from August 1, and teams and individuals who need it from August can submit overtime applications through the system; On July 14, Meituan’s community group buying business Meituan Optimization was also exposed to cancel the size week.
But in fact, after the above-mentioned companies announced the cancellation of big and small weeks, different voices appeared. For example, a previous survey in ByteDance showed that one third of employees supported the "big week" model. According to the company’s "big and small week" system, there are two Sundays to go to work every month, and double wages will be paid. For many employees, the cancellation of large and small weeks is equivalent to the cancellation of weekend overtime work with double wages for two days every month, and the monthly salary has been "generally reduced" by four days. According to the average monthly salary of 25,100 yuan in ByteDance, the loss of overtime pay for two days a month means that the salary will drop by 19% (nearly 5,000 yuan).
Worried about "limiting overtime workload"? Implementing actions is more important than superficial compliance.
The controversial point is not limited to this. For many Internet workers, the changes in the system seem to have no obvious impact on their work rhythm. In terms of pulse, some netizens expressed their concern: "Although the week of size has been cancelled, the workload is not small, and the off-duty time has become late. Now I walk one hour late every day."
In fact, it is a fact that "996" is illegal. On August 26th, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Supreme People’s Court jointly released a typical case of labor and personnel disputes over overtime, in which it was clearly stated that the "996" working system seriously violated the provisions of the law on extending the upper limit of working hours and should be deemed invalid. In this regard, some netizens expressed the hope that the "anti-involution" of Internet manufacturers will not only stay on the surface of compliance, but also be implemented in action.
In this regard, Dong Yizhi, a special researcher of the Network Economic and Social E-Commerce Research Center and a lawyer of Shanghai Yida Law Firm, said in an interview with the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the overtime problem of Internet companies is essentially related to the development model of Internet companies. Dong Yizhi said: "Although Internet companies in China have some innovations, their competitiveness in the international arena is still relatively weak. This mode of working overtime through employees is not recognized and advocated by everyone in the future. The adjustment of the current Internet giant is also a more realistic choice. "
Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of Ai Media Consulting, told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that this restriction on overtime work by big manufacturers is generally a manifestation of their practice of social responsibility. But in fact, due to the fierce competition between internal and external manufacturers, in practice, a lot of work must be completed in time, making it difficult for employees to really reduce overtime.
The welfare promotion measures of "anti-involution" are not limited to salary increase and equity incentive.
In addition to "reducing overtime", major Internet companies also introduced a number of employee welfare policies in the first year of "anti-involution" in 2021, including but not limited to salary increase and equity incentives.
The job market in the Internet industry is highly mobile, and equity incentive is a sharp weapon for enterprises to attract talents. The higher the level of employees, the more attention they pay to equity/option rewards. On July 6th, Xiaomi issued a new stock incentive plan after the Young Engineer Incentive Plan awarded 3,904 outstanding engineers, and awarded 119.65 million shares of Xiaomi to 122 people, including technical experts, the first batch of entrepreneurs in the new decade and middle and senior managers.
JD.COM announced in a high-profile way that from July 1, 2021 to July 1, 2023, it will take two years to gradually increase the average annual salary of JD.COM Group from 14 to 16, directly for two months. Once this salary increase notice was released, it immediately rushed to the top of Weibo’s hot search.
The news of "the strongest employee benefits" comes from Tencent. On November 5th, Tencent officially launched the employee retirement treatment plan. The scheme shows that employees can enjoy customized souvenirs, long-term service thank-you money and retirement honor money at the same time when they retire legally. Among them, the long-term service thank-you payment is a fixed salary of 6 months, and the retirement honor payment is one of "service life payment" and "50% unreleased stock option".
Soon after, Tencent once again publicly released the employee care upgrade plan, and proposed the "early retirement" plan for employees for the first time. Upgrade the employee’s "career milestone" to six important nodes: 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years and legal retirement, and each node can enjoy different physical gifts or special rights. In the node where employees have been employed for 15 years, even if they have not reached the retirement age, they can choose to "retire early" and enjoy the retirement benefits introduced before. It is also this news that makes netizens "boiling".
Is early retirement a "pie" or a welfare? How to break the "35-year-old consensus" of Internet companies?
In fact, the Internet industry has always had an unwritten "35-year-old consensus". If a person is still working in a basic post over 35 years old, then he is easily "optimized". It is worth mentioning that Pulse Data Research Institute recently released a survey to sort the average age of employees in large Internet companies in China. The results show that the average age of employees in these companies ranges from 27 to 33. Among them, the average age of Tencent employees is the youngest among the old BAT (Baidu, Ali, Tencent), and the average age of employees is only 29 years old.
Based on the above statistics, some analysts even think that the early retirement policy issued by Tencent is a welfare on the surface, but it is actually a pie. Even the deeper meaning behind it: I don’t want older employees to continue to occupy the pit. Therefore, for ordinary migrant workers with early retirement dreams, "is there any chance to retire?" "Is there enough money after retirement?" This is the real problem.
In this regard, Zhang Yi believes that Tencent’s early retirement plan not only has one aspect for employees to consider, but also has one aspect for the enterprise itself. "A large number of old employees stay in this position, and newcomers have no more opportunities for promotion." Zhang Yi said that the Internet needs constant innovation. Tencent has gone through such a long course of 23 years, and it has fallen behind in innovation. Therefore, it may become an inevitable way for the healthy development of enterprises to increase innovation, increase the promotion of young people and let old employees retire early.