Along with burnout, I would imagine there's a lot of "looking busy" if you have to stay at work for 12 hours each day. The culture of "face" and personal image

Along with burnout, I would imagine there's a lot of "looking busy" if you have to stay at work for 12 hours each day. The culture of "face" and personal image is quite strong in China, and my hypothesis is that the 996 system provides signaling of "dedication" and "hard work" from leadership and employees, but the system doesn't do much in terms of achieving business outcomes. (in the sense that output is not the same as outcomes). I may be wrong though. After all, maybe your desired outcome is to signal "dedication".