Vietnamese workers don’t work overtime, which annoys Chinese bosses. How do you view the domestic overtime culture?

Recently, a Chinese boss who is doing live streaming in Vietnam told his entrepreneurial story in a documentary called "Going to Sea". He said that after leaving the "big factory", he went to Vietnam to set up a live broadcast company and hired some Vietnamese employees.

I thought Vietnamese people would work as diligently as Chinese people, but soon he discovered that these Vietnamese employees were unwilling to work overtime. They started to arrive one after another after 10 o'clock in the morning, and got off work on time at 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Leaving aside the time for lunch and rest, these Vietnamese employees only work 5 hours a day. After much thought, the boss finally discovered that he was the most diligent "worker".

In addition, the boss also couldn’t understand that in China, everyone is very active at work and is very willing to work overtime. Some people in the workplace even take the initiative to ask to work overtime in order to express themselves, so as to obtain more income and get promotions in their positions. But why is this not the case in Vietnam?

I think the Vietnamese may be more willing to enjoy life or they don’t have as much pressure and competitiveness as us. So how should we view the overtime culture in China?

First of all, I don’t like this kind of endless overtime work. It’s understandable to work overtime occasionally, but if it continues like this, life will become boring and boring. At the same time, health cannot be guaranteed, and living can only be alive.

An authoritative media report ranks the average daily working hours of countries around the world. The report shows that Germany has the lowest working hours, with an average of 5.2 hours a day. The working hours shown in reports in our country are 9.2 hours, which is among the longest working hours.

In recent years, there has been endless discussion about overtime. Previously, there were media reports that someone worked overtime and died suddenly (for example, in 2021, a 23-year-old woman from a "big factory" worked overtime until early in the morning and then returned home. Sudden death on the road, a 22-year-old girl from Hangzhou died because she worked overtime for 4 or 5 consecutive days, etc.).

Bloody examples are before us, but we still cannot avoid the occurrence of overtime. What is even more disgusting is that some overtime is unpaid. I have experienced it many times. For example, my boss woke me up at 11 o'clock in the middle of the night and asked me to write a speech because there was a meeting tomorrow; because of some personal matters, he asked me to get up in the middle of the night and drive him to a certain place. In order to give my boss a good impression and get a promotion and a salary increase, I was helpless.

Working overtime and overdrafting your health is a dangerous struggle. Later, I realized this problem and gradually declined. Compared with promotion and salary increase, I think health and life are more important. Many people actually realize this, but our generation is under so much pressure, with mortgages, car loans, wives, and children (adoptive parents). Many times, we simply don’t have the courage to say “NO” to the boss’s proposal to work overtime.

It is impossible for me to suggest that everyone should not work overtime. That is unrealistic. I just want to express that if you have a choice, try not to choose a job that often works overtime. At the same time, we also hope that the relevant departments can further improve the regulations on overtime and prevent workplace workers from becoming "machines".