In the last month of 2020, Meng Meng (a pseudonym) left her job from Poundland. She gave up the hefty year-end bonus that would be paid out only a few months later, without a trace of lingering. “It felt like, I’m ‘out of jail.’ “
At the beginning of the new year, the incident of “98 year old female employee passed away after working overtime” gave a blow to the heart of many workplace people, they lamented the loss of young lives, but also the prevailing “996” Internet factory can do nothing about it.
On January 3, 2021, after learning the sad news, Meng Meng liked and retweeted more than 20 related microblogs, and even once felt “guilty” – she thought that she, as a member of the previous, had also contributed to the overtime culture in disguise.
Recently, several former employees of Pindo restored their real work status to the reporter, they believe that the Pindo, which has been soaring, will not change because of the sudden death incident, and there will still be people from the outside world who are looking forward to the big factory. Pindo is still the Internet company favored by many young people, and the salary that exceeds that of BAT and other big Internet companies still makes it competitive in the job market.
Pindo’s performance in the capital market also side-by-side confirms this: on January 5, Pindo’s share price soared against the trend, hitting an all-time high of $187.2 per share, and its market value reached a record $230 billion.
Meng Meng lamented that everyone has their own hardships, but everyone also has the right to choose to leave. “Some people choose to continue to make money, while I may be more life conscious. “
Young people’s work status: hardcore struggle mode, from 996 to 007
Three months after leaving the job, Jie (a pseudonym) has not yet eased from the tight state. Previously he was also in more than buy food items, although the 98-year-old girl with the name “Run Lung” Zhang Moufei passed away, but similar experiences make him heartbroken. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the market. “He said bitterly that Shanghai cab masters know that it is best to pull work here in the early hours of the morning because Poundland employees are off work.
In the summer of 2020, Poundland went online to buy vegetables, which is the latest business of Poundland in the field of agricultural products, and also the most important business.
Meng Meng recalls that several waves of employees were internally deployed to support “Duoduo buy vegetables”. The first batch was the boss’s “handpicked” general to lead the team in the past; the second batch was the boss of each team saying that those who wanted to go to buy vegetables could go voluntarily; after that there was even an internal “unwritten rules”, to buy food can be transferred, otherwise not transfer salary. “The basic point to the name will have to go over. There are operations did not go, and sure enough, there is no mid-year salary adjustment. “
Xiao Jie is a back-end development, his original department colleagues are mostly transferred to the “more to buy food”. “Newcomers are basically past, part of the old people stay to do the old e-commerce business. “Within the company, it is very common to pull forces to support new projects at any time. “You can understand that there is no fixed position here, change very quickly, the company let you go where you want to go. “
The shift came after the competition in the e-commerce community group buying became white hot.In October 2020, Huang Zheng, chairman of Poundland, mentioned in his speech on the company’s fifth anniversary that buying food is a good business, a hard business, a long-term business, and a touchstone for Poundland people. The company also called on Poundland to “open the hardcore struggle mode” for all employees.
The most intuitive change of “hardcore struggle mode” is from the original “996” into “007 The most intuitive change of “hardcore struggle mode” is to change from the original “996” to “007. A number of employees confirmed that employees in the grocery business line had previously implemented a super-sized week (working 13 days off a day) that later evolved into a full restless day, working basically 12 hours a day.
On the pulse, a certified Poundland employees revealed that some buy food colleagues longest continuous working hours up to 30 hours, basically open eyes on the work, close eyes on sleep.
Less people is a big feature of Poundland. Among the TOP5 Chinese Internet companies, Poundland has the smallest number of employees, only 6,000 people. And according to public data, Ali in 2019 the number of employees reached 108,000, Jingdong staff number more than 220,000.
Jie said, “There is a lot of work, even if 7 * 24 hours, it is not done. “Jie docked the most is the front-line product colleagues, front-line needs like a snowball pounced on, the task received today is often scheduled to a week later to do.
Driven by the high salary of young people “struggle” daily: 10:00 p.m. is the earliest to leave work
In the grocery business, it is difficult to see older employees. Jie said, looking at the entire company, in addition to management and leadership, the age of 27, 28 already belongs to the “older”.
The grocery staff travel is the norm. Even as a back-end development of the small Jie, may also be 1 month out of the trip. While the product and operations, almost resident in a place “open city” – some people a week or two to change Some people change cities in a week or two to continue to support, and some are always stationed in one place.
“Open city” is the primary task of the community group buying business, which means more market share if you seize the next city first. In past media reports, “buy more groceries” was often described as “the speed of the army” and “the fierce fighting style “. Some media statistics, online less than a month, more than buy vegetables has cut into central and northwest China market, in Xi’an, Xianyang, Huanggang, Huangshi, Ezhou, Xianning, Xiaogan nine markets fully spread. In the Baidu encyclopedia records, “During the 2 months of trial operation, DuoDuo buy vegetables has been supported by consumers in a total of 31 cities in 13 provinces. “
Jie from the back-end demand can feel the sense of urgency of front-line colleagues. “For example, just opened Xi’an, and immediately went to open Guiyang, Nanchang and second-tier cities. “Further back, the task has changed from a pressure one to a multi-line process and a full-scale rollout.
Meng Meng described the experience of buying food colleagues as “going to the countryside”. She cited various scenes that made people laugh and cry, such as: HR sister went to the front line to learn to drive a forklift; development products sit in the warehouse to write requirements, put down the computer can become a second porter …… “what is missing, what to do. Open city is like going to open up the wilderness. “
Front-line colleagues often need to work in the early hours of the morning. In accordance with the model of more than buy food, consumers order before 23:00 on the first day, the next day you can pick up the nearest self-pickup point to retrieve the goods. And front-line employees often early in the morning to each warehouse location, in addition to help sorting, but also to keep a close eye on the workflow, if there are problems, to promptly and the back to reflect the optimization.
Restless days lasted for some time, Jie had a clear sense of discomfort, often depressed, sometimes the heartbeat suddenly accelerated, they really can not carry, they clocked out at 10 pm. “10 o’clock is the earliest time technicians can go. “
“Sick leave is also available, but there are prerequisites. “Jie said, after the start of the full hardcore struggle mode, the department’s “invisible goal ” is “not less than 300 hours of work per month. “Calculated on the basis of 30 days a month, equivalent to 10 hours of work a day, the whole month without rest. Jie said another colleague who is not in the grocery shopping, due to health reasons will call in sick one day a week, equivalent to 4-5 days off per month. “Even so, that person still has to complete 300 hours of work per month. Just save up by working overtime on a regular basis. “
But most employees are afraid to take a break. Several employees said that every month employees’ performance will be publicized, and working hours to meet the standard is only a part of completing the KPI.
In this company where the average age of employees is 27, it means that many employees come here for their first job after graduation. Meng Meng said that there are fresh employees who fight until 2 am every day; there are also female employees who have serious endocrine disorders as a result and do not come to menstruate once for several months.
Jie does not know whether this is good or bad for freshers, they may reap a salary far higher than their peers, but at the cost of their own lives are gone.
Even with such a work pace, the fast-growing Poundland is still the Internet company favored by many young people. According to Xiao Jie, Predo freshmen get about 30-50% higher than BAT, to technical posts, for example, more than 150,000 year-end awards are already considered “low level”. And from the BAT jump slot in the past, the monthly salary of 40,000, 50,000 is also the norm. “Of course, before is not the current state of work, the original is 996.”
The high salary attracts people outside the “walled city”, but the “walled city” part eventually. The “inside” part of the siege eventually chose to escape from here. Meng Meng can’t even wait for the year-end bonus. Last year, it was the day before the Lunar New Year that the overtime pay for the whole year + the bonus written in the contract for two months was issued. “Jie is “envious” of the numb people. “If you can always be numb and get used to it, it’s good. “
The constant high pressure: monthly working hours up to 300 hours show as “this employee”, late a minute deducted 3 hours salary
Just recently, the market value of Poundland broke 220 billion dollars, becoming the third largest Internet company after Tencent, Ali. For this company, which was just established 5 years ago, efficiency is important enough.
Meng Meng recalls countless mornings of running. According to the company’s requirements, the starting time was 11:00, and three hours’ salary was deducted for one minute late. “Precisely to the second, after 11:00:59 are considered late. Meng Meng’s workplace is not in the headquarters, she said that her department can even be considered “high in the mountains, the emperor is far away “, is relatively easy department.
The changes are gradual. Meng Meng remembers that at the end of August 2019, during the mid-year communication, the supervisor implicitly expressed that “everyone should work harder” and made it clear that she would pay more attention to the working hours. “Previously, we would leave work earlier on Sundays, and then we mentioned that we would not be allowed to leave early on Sundays. “
The working hours are also regarded as the “proof” of the degree of effort of each department, each group must ensure that all staff to meet the standard, the whole group to meet the standard. On the eve of leaving, Meng dreamed of “relaxing” a little, clocking out at 8:00 every night. A week before she left, the group leader approached her to showdown, she had the pressure of working hours, I hope she can support the last few days. “Even if you are not afraid to deduct penalties, that will not work, because the statistics are linked, one person will drag the whole group. “
Meal times also began to be shortened. In the time of hardcore struggle, the two-hour meal break slowly “invisible shrinkage” to one hour. Meng Meng remember, the department also for this matter also specially “stressed”.
The access control on each floor has become a new statistical tool. “HR will count the time of the lunch break brush access control, to see if the meal is too long. The leaders of the departments are often reminded not to come back too late. “Xiao Jie said.
In Poundland, Huang Zheng emphasizes the “proper”: when the employee’s monthly working hours reach 300 hours, the system will show “You have been this point”; in the 5th anniversary conference, Huang Zheng mentioned again, “this point is First of all, we have to figure out our own positioning, for whom we create what kind of value, who we depend on to live, and what our responsibilities are. “
Many employees gave their own understanding of “proper”: follow the rules, don’t go out of your way, don’t bad-mouth the company, and work overtime honestly.
The “proper” permeates the personal relationships between colleagues. Meng Meng remembered that when she joined the company more than two years ago, because there was no internal forum, colleagues were keen to form interest groups and alumni groups in WeChat, but these groups were found by the company and disbanded one by one.
“Many people have been doing this for a year or two, and they don’t even know the real names of their colleagues around them. Because everyone uses fancy names. You do not even know that the opposite side of this person ‘is an enemy or friend’, as infernal. “Xiaojie said.
Previously, Poundland issued a note on the passing of Zhang Moufei, saying that “the heart is like a knife” “deeply missed”.
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