A foreign entrepreneur in China describes the cultural clash of introducing a 5-day workweek, encountering resistance from both management and employees accustomed to '996' schedules and wage retention practices. Explores the gap between Western standards and local economic realities.
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Foreign Boss in China Tries to Introduce Weekends Off—and Runs Into a Work Culture That Won't Stop?
When Spanish entrepreneur Adrián Díaz moved to China in 2006, he entered a business environment that challenged many of his assumptions about what a "normal" working week looks like. Years later, speaking on the podcast ConPdePodcast, he described a workplace culture shaped by constant availability, intense productivity expectations, and practices that can feel startling from a Western perspective.
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One of Díaz's earliest surprises came when he tried to apply a simple idea: giving employees weekends off. In his telling, the proposal itself sounded irrational to the people around him—not because rest was undesirable, but because stopping machines for two days out of seven seemed like a needless loss. Díaz explained that he wanted to keep Saturdays and Sundays free, yet local expectations pushed in the opposite direction: if there is work that can be done, then not doing it looks like waste.
That mindset surfaced quickly in his own office. He recalled how his first secretary reacted to the idea of staying home while her family continued working from Monday through Sunday. For her, not working did not feel like a benefit; it felt like being left behind. Díaz framed this as a broader cultural gap in how time off is understood: in the environment he encountered, rest was not automatically treated as a right or a sign of balance, but often as a lack of productivity.
To explain where these attitudes come from, Díaz pointed to a work pattern widely referred to as "996," especially common in technology and manufacturing contexts. The label describes a rhythm of working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. While China's labor laws set a minimum weekly rest requirement, Díaz suggested that everyday reality can still involve weekend availability, driven by competitive pressure and the need to maintain economic stability.
Beyond long hours, Díaz highlighted another feature he considers characteristic of the labor market he works in: wage retention. In his account, some companies hold back the first months of pay as a way to keep employees from leaving too quickly and to recover training costs. In his own factory, he said, three months of salary are retained. The accumulated amount is paid together at the end of the Chinese year, and only then do workers decide whether to stay or leave. He connected this approach to a context of labor scarcity and high turnover, where workers may switch jobs readily if they find better conditions.
For Díaz, these experiences add up to a lesson about how hard it can be to transplant Western workplace standards into a different economic and cultural logic. When he proposed a Monday-to-Friday schedule, he encountered resistance not only from management expectations, but also from workers who saw weekend shifts as a chance to earn more. The clash, as he described it, is not simply about what employers demand—it is also about what employees expect and what they see as practical.
A final caution is worth adding: Díaz's story can sound like "Chinese employees don't want weekends," but broader evidence suggests the reality is more mixed. Research using national survey data has examined employees' willingness to work overtime in China and finds that attitudes vary by factors such as income, perceived control, and job conditions—pointing to trade-offs rather than a single, uniform preference. At the same time, recent reporting shows some major employers, like Midea, have begun pushing back against long-hours norms with mandatory clock-off policies and five-day workweeks, reflecting both legal scrutiny and shifting business pressures—hardly a sign that "weekends don't matter."
In other words, what Díaz encountered may best be read as the viewpoint of the specific people and setting he dealt with; individuals often weigh weekends and overtime through a practical lens—personal financial needs, career stage, industry expectations, and whether extra hours come with meaningful overtime pay or other benefits.
What impression has working in China left you with?
Source: Activos, Reuters
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