The fundamental engine of growth in the economy is the continual increase in productivity. that is the increase of unit of work per staff head. Having staff w

The fundamental engine of growth in the economy is the continual increase in productivity. that is the increase of unit of work per staff head. Having staff work hard, not smart lowers productivity, and therefore profit. For example uber: IF they were a company capable of making a profit, it is because currently they have a virtually staff free monitoring and dispatch system (that is, no branch offices, no radio dispatcher, no mechanics etc.) However thats only a small part of thier overheads. The vast majority comes from paying their drivers. Adding more drivers adds cost linearly. However if they were to somehow manage to perfect driverless cars, their productivity would smash through the roof, as they can replace linear cost increases with an upfront capital cost (ie, buy loads of self driving cars instead of paying a per mile cost.) If you are working your staff 996, not only are they going to burn out, they are going to be inefficient. There are legions of studies that date back to the early 1900s that prove this. In china there is an abundance of staff, so one does not need to worry, as if you burn out 35% a year, they can always be replaced, cheaply. but you can't afford to do that if you have a limited talent pool.