“Work harder” Is Not A Good Attitude
My brother in law is 12 years old. He will start middle school next year. He likes school but is not a fan of homework. Like many parents in China, my father and mother in law are worried about his middle school entrance exam. For them, getting in a good middle school means a better chance to get in a good high school, which means a better chance to get in a good university, which means a better chance to get in a good first job, which means a better chance to get a good second job, and so on. They are worried because they think life is more life a dominoes. If you fail one challenge, all your life would be ruined. So they setup a lot of classes for my brother. He has to go to classes and study everyday even during summer holidays.
Their worries are not nonsense. HRs in China do judge people by their education, the reputations of the companies they worked before. Some even judge people by their gender, whether they are married, whether they have children if they are women.
In Shanghai, for most fresh graduates, if they don’t have master degrees from top Chinese universities, or study overseas, it would be super hard for them to get decent jobs and get paid equally.
So my father and mother in law should be worried. Many parents share the same worries, especially for middle-class.
Your classmates are all studying hard, day and night. What could you do to win the competition? You need to study harder than everyone else. It’s the only way you can stand out.
Many parents think like this.
Many IT companies think like this.
We are a startup/small company. People in our competitor companies, people in those big companies are working hard. What could we do to win the competition? We need to work even harder, harder than everyone else. We need to do more, ship more features.
Even though we are the leader in this industry, but our competitors are catching up. They work day and night, at least 60 hours a week. We need to stay the leader in the competition. What could we do? Let’s also work at least 60 hours a week. Let’s work harder than them. Our customers will be super happy if we make more features for them. We need to work together. Because we are a family.
Many Chinese managers think in this way. Many Chinese leaders think in this way. Many Chinese companies think in this way, even the largest ones.
Are they wrong? Are they insane? No, not at all. They are normal. Because it is the reality. But what is reality does not make it right.
No matter what your company can offer you, it’s not your family, and it will never become your family. You can be very close to some of your colleagues, have great friendships. But you work to support your real family. So the company should be a supporter to your family. A good company should let you put your family first, and encourage you to have a balanced work-life time.
Then, what should a company do? What should we do? Work smarter. There are books like Rework, The Effective Engineers. They talk about this work smarter mindset, and tips you can apply to your own practices.
I’m still trying to figure out what more suitable to me. I’m lazy. When I get home after work, all I want is to relax, playing games and watching TV. But I know, you have to do what you love to do in your life. It’s the only way to relax, to enjoy life. If you love coding, that’s perfect. But if you love to spend time with your family, a job occupying a lot of your nights and weekends will never work for you. It will only burn you out. If you like playing games, push yourself, stop playing games, and use that time for studying, you will not be happy. We are much more productive when we are enjoying things around us.
My name is Guanshan Liu. I’m an iOS developer at Booking.com. I will share more about Chinese apps, the different culture elements, the different mindsets in Chinese companies, etc. I’m a developer after all, I will also write about Swift and develop for Apple platforms. If you are interested in these topics, you can follow me on Twitter @guanshanliu.
