Week 996

Matt Kirkland

It's week 996!

There's a work culture / system / schema that comes from China's tech industry called '996' - this means you clock in at 9am, clock out at 9pm, and do that for 6 days per week. This intense! It means these tech firms are working 70+ hour weeks, all the time. There's a part of me that loves hustle, and has respect for this grind. When you're working on something great, and time is of the essence, it feels awesome to LOCK IN and get things done.

But is that every day? Is that all the time? Of course not; that can't be sustainable for many people or in many situations. We need rest! I suspect that 996 work burns people out, and leads to a lot of clock-watching.

At BNB we are aiming for something very different: quality work, on a time schedule that makes sense to the individual, and Enough. We're a consultancy, and so we've got some basic requirements of 'how much we need to work.' But we encourage everybody to figure out when that works for them (and their health and their families and communities!). And when we've hit a good amount of time worked: stop. Rest. Recharge.

So: there's a part of me that sees the 996 hustle and is a bit jealous: maybe they are accomplishing a lot! But I think our 'enough' hustle is better for the long run at BNB. And given that we've been doing this for 996 weeks, that's probably right.