China's Richest Man Jack Ma Expects Staff To Work 72 Hours Per Week

China's richest man expects his employees to work 72 hours a week to - we can see why he's the wealthiest man in the country.

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, praised his staff for the effort they put in around the '996' work schedule which expects employees to complete 12-hour shifts from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Sounds... delightful, doesn't it?

He also says that their willingness to work these hours is a 'blessing' - it would be difficult not to think that, as you watch your bank balance increase by the second.

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The MailOnline reported that Mr Ma made these statements as he was discussing the perceived lack of work-life balance among Chinese high tech workers.

In the chat - that was subsequently posted on the company's WeChat account, he told employees: "I personally think that being able to work 996 is a huge blessing.

"Many companies and many people don't have the opportunity to work 996. If you don't work 996 when you are young, when can you ever work 996?" Erm... never?

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Let's do the maths here, there are 168 hours in a week and 72 of them would be spent in work. To put that into perspective, the UK average working week is 42 hours. That's a huge difference. I love my job but c'mon now.

And he didn't stop there, the former English teacher continued: "In this world, everyone wants success, wants a nice life, wants to be respected.

"Let me ask everyone, if you don't put out more time and energy than others, how can you achieve the success you want?" He's got a point, but people also want a life as well, some down time. That kind of thing.

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According to the MailOnline, Mr Ma was a Chinese entrepreneur and former English teacher struggling financially when he convinced friends to give him $60,000 (£45k) to start a Chinese e-commerce firm.

And I struggle to convince my friends to make a brew or drive me home.

Fast-forward two decades and Alibaba is so successful that Mr Ma is among the world's richest men. Bet he pals are glad they took a risk and parted with their cash in this instance.

That is of course if he paid them back... which we're sure he did.

Topics: News, Interesting

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

@RJShepherd94