The head of public relations at China’s biggest search engine, Baidu, has apologised after creating her own PR crisis with a series of videos glorifying the country’s work-till-you-drop culture.
Qu Jing, who is also vice-president at the company, said she would not take responsibility for her staff’s wellbeing “as I’m not your mother” in the videos posted over the May bank holiday on Douyin, the most popular short-video app in China. In another she said: “If you work in public relations, don’t expect weekends off.”
Qu also demanded that employees keep their phones on 24 hours a day and be “always ready to respond”, adding: “I only care about results.”
In an earlier video, Qu claimed to be so caught up in her work that she did not know what year her son was in at school. She later threatened employees who dared to question her management style, saying: “I can make it impossible for you to find a job in this industry with just a short essay.”
The videos sparked a backlash on social media and have since been taken down. On Wednesday, Qu reflected that the posts drew “very pertinent” criticism and promised to learn from her mistakes. “I sincerely apologise for the many inappropriate and uncomfortable points in the video,” she said.
She added that Baidu had not approved the posts before she sent them and admitted the videos had caused “misunderstandings of the company’s values and corporate culture”, even though she originally intended them to “do a good job”. On Tuesday, Baidu’s stock price fell 2.17% in Hong Kong, and were still trading 2.2% lower on Thursday.
Qu’s comments shed light on China’s notorious 996 working hour system, in which tech employees work from 9am until 9pm, six days a week. Jack Ma, a co-founder of the e-commerce group Alibaba, drew ire in 2019 for calling this culture a “blessing”, even though it violates Chinese employment law and has been the subject of online protests.
Chinese IT companies have long had a reputation for expecting employees to work overtime, including reimbursing taxis for those who stay late. But a younger generation of Chinese tech workers are no longer willing to embrace such extreme conditions, which have been likened to modern slavery.
Qu’s work missives were trending on the social media platform Weibo. “Employees will never feel at home at a company that doesn’t have even a little bit of use,” one user wrote in a discussion that by Thursday had drawn 150m views.
“As the company’s vice-president, [Qu] should have known that her comments and attitude would disgust her subordinates, yet she went ahead to make them public. This speaks of how out of touch she is,” wrote another user.
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Another reflected on the paradox of a PR executive causing a PR crisis for her own company: “Talk about a lack of professionalism.”
Baidu did not respond to a request for comment.
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