According to Business Insider,TikTok's alleged overwork culture is taking a toll on employees in different places around the globe.
It should be noted that ByteDance, which is located in Beijing, China, had a significant impact on TikTok's working culture. Employees in Chinese tech companies work six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., or what is usually known as the "996" schedule.
While China's top court declared the "996" work practice illegal last year, prompting ByteDance to announce that its employees would not be allowed to work after 7 p.m., this is not the case for the social media giant's employees outside of China.
TikTok's U.K. Employees Quit Every Week Due Overworking
Citing a Financial Times report, Business Insider reported that according to 10 current and former UK TikTok employees, the exodus began in October, when TikTok's UK e-commerce division launched TikTok Shop, a live-streaming e-commerce platform. The team is now half its size after some 20 staff left.
These employees, who spoke with Financial Times, claimed that they had to adjust their schedules to China's, which often meant working more than 12 hours per day.
Just recently, a ByteDance employee in Singapore told Business Insider that she was frequently required to work past 7 p.m. even on Fridays, so she could respond to requests from her U.S. and U.K. colleagues. This claim was supported by the publication's report last month where two former TikTok employees in San Francisco and New York said they often had to stay late to accommodate working hours in China and the U.K.
Read also: Pinduoduo Ex-Employee Suicide: Chinese Marketplace Giant Hit by Toxic Workplace Allegation
A Senior Executive at TikTok Europe Embraces the Overwork Culture
As per the report of Business Insider (via Financial Times), Joshua Ma, who oversaw TikTok Europe's e-commerce division and was a top executive at TikTok's parent company ByteDance, recently enraged his London-based staff by saying that as a "capitalist," he "didn't believe" in offering maternity leave.
In addition to this, workers who spoke to the publication held that the social media giant "celebrated overworking and punished employees who took time off."
TikTok's Senior-Level Employee Quit His $220,000 Job
Pabel Martinez, a former TikTok senior-level employee who earned $220,000 a year, also claimed that managers obligated employees to work 12-hour days six days a week.
"I do think that the culture of working too much or not having as much of the work-life balance does permeate throughout the organization, and it is often encouraged you work 'after hours'," he said in a separate Business Insider report.
Martinez also admitted to feeling under pressure from bi-monthly revenue and growth targets.
"I was made to feel like I was never doing enough," Martinez said. "At TikTok, no conversation started with 'How are you? ' It was like, 'How's the revenue? What are we doing to drive more growth? '"
