DRONEMAKER DJI and home appliance giant Midea Group are mandating their employees to clock off on time, which is a trending topic on China’s social media platforms recently.

DJI reportedly launched a campaign Feb. 27 to mandate their employees to leave the office at 9 p.m. Managers and human resource staff at the company headquarters in Shenzhen would urge the employees to leave office as soon as the clock strikes 9, while the company’s Shanghai branch would go to extremes to turn off lights in the entire office, according to Chinese reports.

Some employees shared on Chinese lifestyle app Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, their experience of being driven out of the company at night, while others said they were astonished to find an empty underground car park when they clocked off at 9 p.m.

An R&D employee named Cai Min at the company’s Shenzhen headquarters said he used to clock off at 11 p.m. or midnight but recently he found that almost all the 100 plus workers on the same floor leave work by around 9:10 p.m.

Coincidentally, that home appliance giant Midea Group mandates its employees to clock off at 6:20 p.m. also trended on China’s X-like platform Sina Weibo on Monday, sparking heated discussions.

The company published at the beginning of this year six rules to simplify work procedures, including a ban on meetings after work and unnecessary overtime.

Fang Hongbo, chairman and CEO of the company, released in January a document requiring staff to simplify work processes and shun formalism. “Don’t overuse PowerPoint in work report,” one rule stipulates.

It is noteworthy that since the beginning of this year, sentiment against the rat race have been growing.

The government work report unveiled during this year’s two sessions said China will take comprehensive steps to address rat race competition while trying to develop a fair unified national market.

(SD-Agencies)