Startup staff sleep their way to top of tech
Print Edition
DAI Xiang has been sleeping around for years. The 40-year-old Beijinger got his start as an engineer, pulling 72-hour shifts at a machinery company while catching naps on the floor.
After a switch to the tech industry and around 15 years of catching naps on desks and other flat surfaces, Dai co-founded his own cloud computing firm, BaishanCloud, last year.
One of his first orders of business — installing 12 bunk beds in a secluded corner of the office.
“For technology, it’s more of a brain activity. Workers need time to find inspiration,” Dai said. “Our rest area isn’t just for sleeping at night, the midday is also OK.”
For China’s technology sector, business is booming faster than many startup firms can hire new staff, forcing workers to burn the midnight oil to meet deadlines.
“The pace of Chinese Internet company growth is extremely fast. I’ve been to the US and the competitive environment there isn’t as intense as in China,” said Cui Meng, general manager and co-founder of startup data company Goopal.
The company’s programmers, in particular, work overtime every day, he said. To get them through, they are allowed to sleep around lunchtime and after 9pm, either facedown at their desk or by commandeering the sofa or a beanbag chair.
At its most extreme, some tech company employees even live at the office during the work week.
Liu Zhanyu at DouMiYouPin, a recruitment and human resources platform, bunks down in a converted conference room from Monday to Friday to avoid the daily commute of more than an hour to his home in Beijing’s far eastern suburbs.
The head of the “large clients” department usually retires to the room shared with one or two others between midnight and 3am.
“We have to get up at 8:30am because all our co-workers come to work at 9:30 and we wash in the same bathroom everyone uses,” said Liu.
While workers across companies said the potential pay-off of working at a startup was worth the long hours, they aren’t without a social cost.
“My kid misses me, I get home and he lunges at me like a small wolf,” Liu said, speaking about his 3-year-old son who he only sees on weekends. “That makes me feel a bit guilty.”
Programmer Xiang Shiyang, 28, works until 3 or 4am at least twice a week at Renren Credit Management, which uses big data to help firms manage financial risk, leaving little room to socialize outside of work.
“I don’t have that many opportunities or much time to find a girlfriend,” he said.
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