Read a bit lower, and there are promises of perks galore: competitive compensation, free meals, free gym membership, free health and dental care and so on. But then comes the catch.
Each job ad contains a warning: “Please don’t join if you’re not excited about… working ~70 hrs/week in person with some of the most ambitious people in NYC.”
The website belongs to Rilla, a New York-based tech business which sells AI-based systems that allow employers to monitor sales representatives when they are out and about, interacting with clients.
The company has become something of a poster child for a fast-paced workplace culture known as 996, also sometimes referred to as hustle culture or grindcore.
In simple terms, it puts a premium on long working hours, typically 9am to 9pm, six days a week (hence “996”).
Nope no way. I work alternating 3 and 4 day weeks of 12 hour shifts and I prefer that. I love having 4 days off. It makes it easy to take a nice small trip without taking time off or just relax. I’ve worked overtime up to 6 days a week plenty of times (at my choice, rarely because the company asked) and its doable but miserable. 12 hour days leaves little time to get stuff done before or after work, so the only chores that get done are put some dishes in the washer or take out the trash. So that leaves 1 day to do a bunch of stuff, cook, clean, go to ths store etc. Usually by day 6 I’m in a rythm and with one day off that can carry over, but the weekend after that I’m just dead. Still its nice to have the option if you want to save up for a trip or something or have a big expense and don’t want to dip into savings. If it were my normal schedule or the company ever asked me to do that regularly, I’d be gone in an instant.