realized

China promised them very happy with day 996. Until they realized that it was shot in the foot

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You enter to work at 9 in the morning and leave at 9 at night. So Monday to Saturday, with a single rest day. 72 hours per week. It may seem crazy, but it is known as Day 996 They have followed many Chinese companies in the technological sector for years. The Chinese government ended up taking letters in the matter Upon realizing that the endless days were not only bad for workers, they were also bad for the country. Culture 996. A few years ago, working 12 hours a day was common in Chinese technological. Richard Liu, founder of JD.com He described these “blessing” and Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, said that “if you don’t work from nine in the morning at nine o’clock at night when you are young, when are you going to do it?”. The term 996 was coined in 2019 following a protest against this work model to which they baptized 996-Icua word game that referred to that day would take workers to the ICU. This movement unleashed a wave of criticism at the national level and it is believed that it was the seed that The Government prohibited it. The change. In 2021, with the marathon days at the point of view of the government, there were many companies that turned back and brought back the weekend of two days. There were also companies like Tencent that cut the daily work hours from 10 to 6 in the afternoon, from 996 to 1065. Why this change? Fed up workers. Day 996 has been gasoline for the growth of the Chinese technological sector and its end responds to several reasons. The most obvious is that the workers were fed up in these exploitation conditions in which there were even cases of deaths due to exhaustion. The government said in its ruling that “workers are entitled to rest and take a vacation”, but we must not forget that it is the same government known for go against unions and imprison activists. National consumption. Inhuman working hours were a shot in the foot for the Government’s development objectives. In 2021, Xi Jinping promoted the idea of the “Common prosperity”an initiative that intended to grow the economy both outside and within its borders. However, promoting internal consumption was not compatible with 12 -hour working days. Technological workers charged more than in other sectors, but if they spent all their awake weather inside the office, they had no chance to spend it. Birth. Birth problems in China come from afar, but before the problem was that There were too muchnow it is Just the opposite And schedule 996 did not play in his favor. They counted in This articlethat in Chinese companies there is an entrenched idea that they call “ascend or out.” This is the belief that if a worker does not rise to a high position before having children, he runs the risk of replacing him with someone younger. In addition, men who have children and work with these schedules cannot take care of them or home, which in many cases expels women in the labor market. This makes many workers delay the time of having children, some even completely renounce. All happy? Ending 996 benefits workers, but also plays in favor of these objectives. The labor market expands because there is no age roof so low, birth rate and domestic consumption rises. All perfect, or almost. The end of 996 has not left many workers for free, when Bytedance announced that its employees would not work on weekends, He did it together with a 20%salary cut. In addition, for many workers the nightmare is not over. Last year, the head of Baidu media published a series of videos in which he denounced that he was forced to be available 24 hours a day. Culture 996 is still rooted above all in citiesmaking many young people choose to go to smaller nuclei where life is calmer. Image | Amparo Babyloni, Xataka In Xataka | Deepseek marked a turning point in the AI race. Now another Chinese company wants to imitate its success: Kimi K2 is born

More and more are those who visit Antarctica. We have just realized the magnitude of the problems they cause

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We often hear about the damage suffered by the Antarctic ice layer, especially as a consequence of climate change. However, the icy continent is not only changing on the surface. The impact of the human being can also be noticed in the depths New images. A team of researchers He has published images of the seabed in the immediate vicinity of the Antarctic coast in which the effects of human activity in the region can be seen. Specifically they show us the impact on the marine soil that the anchors of the ships that arrive in the coasts of the southern continent. The problem is not simply landscape, it also affects the sea life of the seabed. The team showed special concern for the communities of sponges that inhabit this remote region of the ocean. Unprotected environment. The trail of human activity in this region is the result of various changes in the environment of the Antarctic Ocean. On the one hand, climate change has made waters that once remained vetoed to navigation are now accessible not only to oceanographic ships and breakfast but Also to tourist and recreational vessels. According to the team, during the 2022-23 season, at least 195 tourist, scientific and fishing vessels approached the coastal region in which possible to throw the anchor (areas with depths of no more than 82.5 meters). After the trail of ships. The group of researchers used underwater cameras to study 36 points of the seabed located in the vicinity of the Antarctic Peninsula and San Pedro Island (or Georgia del Sur). As explained, The images Captured to different depths showed disturbances both in the seabed and in underwater life, a consequence of the anchors of the ships that arrived in the environment. “The documentation is late, given the importance of these ecosystems and the protection we assign. The impacts of anchoring are infrastudiated and underestimated globally. It is important to recognize and mitigate the impacts throughout all industries and limit planned anchors,” explained in a press release Sally Watson, co -author of the study. Analysis details have been published Through an article In the magazine Frontiers in Conservation Science. Sponges in danger. The anchors are a risk to the life that extends in the seabed. According to the team, the affected areas showed few signs of marine life. What they did find were the traces of colonies of crushed sponges By effect of the arrival of humans. In contrast, in the adjacent areas “marine life flourished”, they emphasize. Especially vulnerable. An added problem is in the fact that life in these cold environments (part of this endemic life of the environment) tends to be slow growth, which makes it especially vulnerable to these types of problems. An example is found in volcano sponges (Anoxycalyx Joubini), A species found by the team in their expedition to which specimens belong that can be considered among the oldest living animals: they can reach 15,000 years of age. In Xataka | Thousands of marine ecosystems depend on only one thing: the pis and the whale droppings Image | Jeremy Stewardson / Matt Mulrennan / Kolossal

Japan has realized that to welcome 60 million tourists, something lacks: workers in the hotels

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Japanese tourism does not come out of accounts. Not at least if the government maintains its goal of reaching in 2030 the 60 million of foreign tourists, considerably above record which already registered last year. An Apir study shows that reaching that goal would require that many (many) work in the tourism sector. Birth crisis and where the accommodations They already drag A personnel deficit. Thus Japan takes risks to have to reth OMOTENASHI. A figure: 36.8 million. 2024 was a memorable year for the Japanese tourism sector. The popularity of destiny, the Paulatina recovery of international trips after the pandemic stop and the Weakness of Yen allowed Japan to reach a New record of tourists and expense. Its flow was so high that in some regions it caused friction with the local population, as in Fujikawaguchiko, where they reached Install a screen To cover the views of the Fuji. The figures help to better understand how the year was. In 2024 Japan received 36.8 million of international tourists, above the record reached before the pandemic (in 2019 they were counted 32 million) and with a total expenditure that exceeded the 51,000 million of dollars. 2025 has not started badly. According to the National Tourism Organization in January, the 3.8 million of foreign visitors. An objective: 60 million. The 2024 balance is high, but Japanese authorities seem to know little. Your goal is to maintain the trend and reach the 60 million of foreign visitors in 2030, a data that expects it to arrive accompanied by an expense of billions of dollars. The goal is so ambitious that it has already caused a certain debate. At the end of 2024 a columnist of The Japan Times He wondered If the country is “prepared” to receive that flood of travelers and in February another newspaper, The Mainichipublic An editorial in which he stated that Japan should “change the focus” of the sector to the increase of visitors. As? Going from “quantity to quality.” One question: Is it possible? That is what they have wondered in the Asia Pacific Institute of Research (Apir). What exactly does the entry of 60 million of tourists? What size and resources should the sector have to assume such demand? To answer these issues, they basically set the muscle of the Japanese tourist tissue. Its conclusion is curious: with the current trend and if it maintains the goal of the 60 million, the sector will find a deficit of hundreds of thousands of workers, a work emptiness that will affect hotels and food services. A prognosis: 536,000. To be accurate the estimated workers’ deficit is 536,000 employeeswhich would mean a problem to address the flow of tourists that the Government aspires to move in five years. Many vacancies may seem, but two trends that “throw” in the opposite sense are understood: on the one hand it is expected that the flow of tourists will increase, on the other that the templates of the hotels and food services are in 2030 a 1.9% lower than last year. A challenge: employment. According to The data collected by The Asashi Shimbunone of the main newspapers in the country, to meet the increase in demand and compensate for the labor deficit, the level of productivity of the sector should increase 2.8% per year. Apartages, the reality is that companies face two draft challenges. One is the demographic derives of the country, which It has been for years losing inhabitants and lime its population of employment population. The other challenge is the capacity of the sector to capture workers. Right now there are accommodations that already drag a considerable template deficit. In 2024 Nikkei spoke more specifically businesses that lack more than 20% of the labor they would really need. “We are definitely seeing a shortage of personnel in the industry,” I recognized Recently a This Week in Asia Masaru Takayama, responsible for a travel agency based in Kyoto. “Many companies in the tourism sector had to fire personnel during pandemic and those people found employment in other sectors,” Takayama abounds. “Now tourism has returned to normal and, with more activity than ever, we have lost those people who have gone to new careers. We have lost their skills and knowledge.” A proposal: 40 million. APIR is not limited to pointing out the personnel deficit to which Japan risks if it maintains its goal of reaching 60 million tourists. The organism also launches A recommendation: rethink that goal, reduce it to 40 million and change the approach. Your proposal goes in The line of The Mainichi: No matter how many tourists arrive (if there are 40, 50 or 60 million) as what they do with their portfolios once they are in Japan. “Instead of focusing on the number of foreign visitors, we should encourage them to spend more,” Yoshihisa Inada points outfrom the University of Konan and responsible for the study. A question: What would you mean? The calculations They are clear from the institute. With 40 million the flow of foreign tourists would still be 8% higher than that of 2024 and the country would continue to suffer from a labor -handed deficit in the tourism industry, but much lower: in that case APRI estimates it in around 138,000 people. To meet demand, there would therefore an increase in annual productivity of 0.7%. Beyond the number of visitors and their symbolic value for the country, the big question is … staying at 40 million and renouncing those extra tourists would stop stopping entering a lot of money? After all, the Government not only aspires to move 60 million travelers in 2030. He wants that farm to arrive accompanied by a tourist expense of around 15 billion yen, about 101,000 million dollars. APRI Calculate That to maintain that goal with 40 million visitors, traveler spending should exceed 227,000 yen (€ 1,400) from 2024 to 375,000 (2,300). A conclusion: “You can”. For a little there are few doubts. “If we improve the … Read more

In the US they have realized that Covid has had an unexpected effect on its restaurants: it has triggered its production

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The Covid has not sat badly at the US bars. At least if we talk about productivity levels. Even though pandemic He hit with viciousness to the hospitality of half the world (including the Spanish), He sank the billing From the sector and condemned not a few businesses at the close, American premises reached during the health crisis a level of labor productivity by 15% greater than they had before COVID, a notable increase that has not been diluted. The explanation is very simple: express visits. The Covid heritage. That the pandemic was devastating for the hospitality and forced to close Many businesses It is clear. However, however, a group of researchers from Chicago and New York universities asked a question that goes a little further: Did Covid-19 influence the productivity of the premises? And if so, in what sense? Is that effect still maintained? Their conclusions were reflected in A study that has just published the National Bureau of Economic Resarch (NBER) with a quite eloquent title and that gives a clue to which direction its findings point to: ‘The curious increase in productivity in US restaurants’. A percentage: 15%. The team of economists has not only found that effectively the performance of restaurants seemed to increase during the years of the health crisis. Has even encrypted that increase, as they need in The conclusions Of its report: “We verify that, after being practically constant for almost 30 years, real work productivity in restaurants increased more than 15% during the Covid-19 Pandemia.” The data is interesting because it does not only reflect a specific and past reality, related to the worst years of the Coronavirus. After sliding that percentage (15%) the researchers clarify that this turn has not yet diluted its effect. “This increase has been maintained even when many conditions have returned to prepondondemic levels.” And what was the reason? Clarified and calculated the increase in productivity, the following doubt was obvious: what was the reason? What did he answer? To answer all these issues, experts examined about 100,000 restaurants distributed by the US, focusing on aspects such as sales or the number of consumers attended by each employee. They also had access to information about visits thanks to mobile phones. The sample is wide, but presents certain characteristics that should be taken into account. To start the experts set in a very specific business profile, the Limited service hospitality (LSR), the one in which the interaction between the staff and the client is minimized, as in many premises of Fast food. The study in fact that focused on three subcategories: restaurants in the style of Taco Bell or McDonald´s, buffets and coffee shops such as Starbucks. For the sample to be wide, they covered more than 600 brands. Why this choice? The study It clarifies that the LSRs represent about 45% of the employment and sales of the sector in the US already throughout the last decades its productivity has evolved in a “very similar” way to the whole of the restoration sector. In addition, limited services offered an extra advantage: economists have complete information on their visits. Combing (thousands of) data. With all that information about the table, economists began drawing conclusions. And the first were striking. “Microdatos reveal significant growth in productivity, already measured in sales per employee or even in a more basic/physical average of the total number of customers per employee,” he says The study Published by Nber, which also rules out that this rebound can be explained by economies of scale, a greater weight of the sector or changes in demand. The experts also found that if the employees sold more it was not because they spent more time in their positions. When they were proven that the average weekly hours worked between July 2022 and June 2024 was 25.1 hours, “the same”, they clarify, that from 2006 to 2008. “In fact the current hours per worker are actually a bit below the pre-covid average from 2018 to 2019”. What is the cause? The rhythm. Or rather, the duration of visits. The researchers appreciated “significant descents in the amount of time” that customers spent in restaurants, with an increase especially pronounced in the group of consumers that remained in the premises 10 or even less minutes. That phenomenon was found during the pandemic years and did not seem to dissipate once the health crisis has been overcome. “The average permanence time of customers decreased and most of the reduction was due to the increase in the percentage of visits that lasted less than 10 minutes,” says the study. Your reading It is therefore clear: the increase in the performance of the restaurants “is strongly correlated” with the reduction of the time that customers pass in business, especially with express visits, which do not reach the quarter of an hour. Beyond the minutes. The data of the minutes clarified part of the mystery about the increase in performance (shorter visits translate into the possibility of attending a greater number of customers without increasing the templates), but letting another equally important question be bumping: why? Why was that increase in fleeting visits, 10 or even less minutes? Researchers are clear: leading food. “The frequency of these carrying food clients increased during the COVID-19, even in restaurants in Fast foodand it has not decreased “, They conclude Economists. The key would therefore be Deliverythe increase in orders made by telephone or customer apps that then collect their orders to eat them at home, office or any other place. “If businesses can satisfy these fast customers, in addition to the usual ones, with the same labor, the data will reflect a clear and legitimate increase in productivity,” economists add in their article. An advance with nuances. The 15% yield increase is positive for business, but there are experts who already invite you to value it with perspective. Douglas Hoktz-Eakin, president of the US Forum of Action, I pointed After examining the study that there is … Read more

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