Reflections on Workplace Involution, 996 Culture, and Strategies for Engineers and Managers

Recently the topics of "involution" and the 996 work culture have been widely discussed; this piece shares personal thoughts on why involution forms, how it affects companies and employees, and what can be done to mitigate it.

Why involution forms : Within companies, tasks lack uniqueness, leading to interchangeable hiring of senior staff or fresh graduates, which reduces depth of expertise and fuels repetitive competition.

Impact on product and talent : Continuous replacement of senior engineers with newcomers prevents accumulation of deep knowledge, resulting in mediocre products and a workforce that cannot develop lasting skills.

Personal experience : The author recounts a ten‑year career spanning Alibaba, a foreign enterprise, and a US startup, noting periods of heavy workload balanced with personal learning, open‑source contributions, and family time, and expresses opposition to forced 996 practices.

Consequences of forced overtime : Persistent 996 leads to burnout, limits creative thinking for senior engineers and architects, hampers managerial empathy, and ultimately harms both individuals and the organization.

Balanced overtime : Short‑term, project‑driven overtime is acceptable, but long‑term, mandatory overtime should be avoided; managers should encourage rest and flexible schedules.

Advice for engineers to avoid involution :

Build solid fundamentals regardless of background.

Develop strong programming habits.

Improve writing and communication skills.

Establish a trustworthy professional network early.

Deepen expertise in a specific domain (e.g., backend systems, mobile platforms).

Read extensively, including research papers and classic books, rather than relying solely on paid courses or excessive LeetCode practice.

Within three years, acquire these capabilities to better discern industry directions.

Technical direction suggestions : Future backend development will revolve around cloud and open‑source. Contributing to well‑maintained open‑source projects (Apache, CNCF) is preferable to building from scratch. For newcomers, languages like Go or Rust may offer faster growth than Java or C++.

Advice for managers to prevent team involution :

Avoid mandating constant overtime; focus on sustainable productivity.

Provide growth opportunities, such as challenging features, speaking at meetups, or writing design docs.

Respect employees' personal time, family, and health.

Engage in regular 1‑on‑1s to understand needs and offer tailored development paths.

Reject discriminatory hiring practices based on age or personal circumstances.

By fostering a culture that values deep technical work, continuous learning, and humane management, companies can reduce involution, improve product quality, and retain motivated engineers.