“If you want to leave at 5 you are not at the right work”

The debate on the balance between working and personal life has gained strength in recent years, especially Among the new generations They are looking for one greater flexibility and well -being.

However, new Figures by Silicon Valley as Lucy Guo, millionaire and co -founder of Scale AIThey discard that balance hugging a much more demanding work culture, inspired by the Chinese labor model known as “996” (From nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week). He is not the only founder who is doing it.

Guo, who recently It was recognized by Forbes As the youngest millionaire made to herself, she has made her Extreme workday An example to follow for other startup founders. His lifestyle is generating an intense debate about what professional success really means in the technological era.

The founder’s passion for work

The co -founder of Scale AI, and CEO of Passes Since 2022, he does not believe in the balance between working and personal life. Tal and counted In an interview for Fortune“I probably don’t have a good balance between my working and personal life. For me, work is not really work. I love doing my job.” This perspective has led her to defend the working hours of up to 90 hours a week as The new standard for those who aspire to succeed in the world of startups.

Guo argues that, if a person is looking forward to five in the afternoon to go home, “you may not have the right work.” According to his experience, true motivation arises when work feels like A natural extension of lifenot as an obligation to escape when the day is fulfilled.

According to what he told FortuneGuo The day begins At 5:30 in the morning with an intense exercise session. By nine in the morning he is already in the office, and lunch on his desk, without leaving the office. His workday ends towards midnight, when he finally closes his laptop and goes to sleep. Even working 90 hours a week, he says he finds “one or two hours” to be with family and friends: “You always have to find time for that, regardless of how busy you are.”

One of the reasons that Lucy Guo keeps in that “always available” state is his obsession to offer the best customer service in his startup. She herself gives her team only five minutes to respond to customers before doing so: “Offering exceptional customer service is what distinguishes the startups from large technological ones. Even if you have fewer customers, it is very possible that the executive director responds to everything, which increases the fidelity of the people. Today, it is impossible for an executive director like Uber’s. That is my mentality,” Guo explained.

Although it may seem an extreme approach, Guo is not alone in this way of working. More and more Ceos de Silicon Valley are hugging models that They demand their employees Days of more than 80 hours per week, convinced that passion and total dedication are the Key to success in the technological sector current.

The “996” takes over Silicon Valley

The traditional work culture of China or Japan, which linked work with values ​​such as honor, respect or loyalty ended up deriving in a culture in which employees They fell collapsed in their workplaces after supporting long days. Days they obeyed to the “996” model in which the long days do not leave time to rest, live, socialize or form a family. There is only work.

This philosophy, to which He is getting veto In the main countries that promoted it for its social impact and demographicis now openly defended by founders and CEOS de Silicon Valley, who consider that It is the only way to highlight In an increasingly competitive global market.

The drift of Silicon Valley towards this model eternal days is not new. In 2018, Michael Moritz, president of the Capital Fund Sequoia Capital, did An allegation in it Financial Times On how Chinese technology companies carried the concept of hard work at an unthinkable level for Silicon Valley. “Here, the senior managers get to work around 8 in the morning and, often, do not leave until 10 at night. Most do it six days a week,” Moritz praised.

Reference companies As a goal either Microsoft They are hardening the Performance assessments of your employees to Encourage them to work harder. The opposite path that Companies have started of those countries that They already know the effects to apply such extreme days.

Europe threw up to the wave

The “996” wave is also expanding to Europe, where some technological founders rise as apostles of this new labor current, arguing that Europe is sentenced to a secondary role if more hours are worked on. Some countries already They have bought that speech.

The Swedish Joel Hellerk, CEO of the Sana Labs artificial intelligence company, He said to his employees that “60 hours per week is the ideal point”, making the message that Serguéi Brin He had imposed In Google. Harry Stebbings, founder of one of the main risk capital investment funds, I also advocated for the “996” day model.

“7 days a week is the necessary speed to win right now. There is no margin for the slip. Do not compete against any German company, etc., but against the best in the world,” Stebbings wrote in Your LinkedIn profile. In similar terms, Martin Mignot, a partner of Index Ventures, expressed a risk capital fund based in Switzerland. “Forget about 9 to 5, 996 is the new standard for startups”, wrote in LinkedIn.

Nevertheless, There are also discrepant voices With this turn of Silicon Valley and Europe for hardening the working days. Suranga Chandratillake, principal partner of the British investor Balderton Capital, pointed out that this approach was counterproductive for the growth of startups. “All versions of this publication that I have read are of risky capital investors who have never created a technological company. I remember well those ‘advice’ when I was a founder. If you are executive director, do not listen to a hooded finance magnate who has never done your job and tells you how to do it,” assured the investor to Fortune.

In the same sense, Amelia Miller, co -founder of the IVEE Employment Platform, which assured that This approach was a “flag network” To invest in a startup. “Only the bad founders work 7 days without stopping. It is a bad time management and a quick route towards exhaustion. Exhaustion, one of the 3 main reasons why companies fail in an initial stage. It is literally a bad reason to invest,” says the founder in your profile of LinkedIn.

In Xataka | China became famous for its eternal working days. The solution has been to throw employees at their time

Image | LinkedInUnspash (Annie Spratt, luminum dissemboweler3000, Israel Andrade)