Most of China's white-collar laborers work overtime, a survey reveals. (Photo : www.thenational.ae)
According to a recent survey, over 60 percent of white-collar laborers in China work overtime in weekdays, making lending extra time at their jobs a routine.
Meanwhile, another 40 percent work more than regular office hours on weekends, the survey added.
The survey, released by leading portal NetEase, also showed that around 14 percent said that in a month, they only enjoyed half the weekends. Those who said they had no day off in a month comprised 3.4 percent.
The survey was based from data culled from 800 million users and from over 38,000 questionnaires.
Working overtime is defined as working outside the period of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Additionally, employees who work overtime during weekdays mostly came from Beijing, and Guangdong and Zhejiang Provinces. Those with the highest average number of monthly overtime days are Hong Kong, Shanghai and Jiangsu Province.
One of the detriments caused by working for longer hours is the compromise in the laborer's health condition.
In a report posted in Zhaopin, a Chinese human resource website, 56.6 percent of white-collar workers have no time to exercise.
Nonetheless, Zhaopin's senior career consultant Huang Ruoshan said that working overtime is only dominant in particular industries, including finance, real estate and the Internet.
"Those industries are developing very rapidly, which demands employees work hard under pressure and work extra time. Take the e-commerce industry as an example: It actually demands that employees be available 24 hours a day seven days a week," Huang explained.
In another Zhaopin report, it also showed that more job seekers are considering moving to smaller cities and avoiding working in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to elude from the "working overtime" routine.
