996jiǔ jiǔ liù

9 to 9, six days a week

yòu shì 996 de yì zhōu.又是996的一周。Another 996 week.

996 is a work schedule: 9 in the morning to 9 at night, six days a week. Chinese tech workers made the number a name for long overtime, and people now use it for any job with very long hours.

Took off: 2019
Started in: A GitHub project
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

Read the digits as times: start at 9, finish at 9, work 6 days. That is at least 60 hours a week.

Say it jiǔ jiǔ liù. It works as a noun, as in 这家公司是996, “this company is 996”, and as a verb, as in 天天996, “working 996 every day”.

How people use it

It is now everyday Chinese, and not only in tech. 996 is usually a complaint: you say your job is 996 to explain why you are tired, or ask about it before you take a job offer.

琦琦

新工作怎么样？
xīn gōng zuò zěn me yàng?
How’s the new job?
钱多，但是996
qián duō, dàn shì 996
Good pay, but it’s 996.
那你还有时间学中文吗？
nà nǐ hái yǒu shí jiān xué zhōng wén ma?
Do you still have time to study Chinese?
只能在地铁上学
zhǐ néng zài dì tiě shang xué
Only on the subway.

More examples

这家公司是996，我不想去。
zhè jiā gōng sī shì 996, wǒ bù xiǎng qù.
That company works 996. I don’t want to go there.
天天996，周末只想睡觉。
tiān tiān 996, zhōu mò zhǐ xiǎng shuì jiào.
996 every day. On weekends I just want to sleep.

For the word itself and how to reply to it, see 996 in the slang dictionary.

Where it came from

The schedule was common at internet and tech companies. In March 2019 a GitHub user opened a project called 996.ICU, a warning that if you keep working 996, you end up in intensive care.

The project had more than 1,000 stars, GitHub’s version of likes, in its first hour, Sixth Tone reported, and other developers translated its page into English, Spanish and other languages.

At the end of 2019, 咬文嚼字 put 996 on its list of the ten popular phrases of the year.

The original. A GitHub repository called 996.ICU, opened in March 2019, with a short page against the 996 schedule. Sixth Tone’s report describes it. Sixth Tone