The head of public relations for China’s biggest search engine Baidu has apologized after causing a PR crisis for himself with a series of videos glorifying the country’s “work to death” culture.
Qu Jing, who is also the company’s vice president, said in her most popular short video, Douyin, that she is responsible for the health of her staff “because I am not your mother”. A Chinese app that said it would not be responsible. In another article, she said, “If you work in public relations, don’t expect weekends off.”
Qu also asked employees to keep their phones on 24 hours a day and “be available at all times,” adding that they “only care about results.”
In an earlier video, Ms. Khoo claimed that she was so absorbed in her work that she did not even know what grade her son was in school. Later, she told her employees who dared to question her management style that “all it takes is a short essay to make it impossible for you to find a job in this industry.” Threatened me.
The video sparked a backlash on social media and has since been deleted. On Wednesday, Khoo reflected that his post had drawn “very appropriate” criticism and vowed to learn from his mistakes. “I sincerely apologize for the many inappropriate and offensive points in the video,” he apologized.
She added that Baidu did not approve the post before submitting it, and that despite initially intending to “do a good job,” the video caused “a misunderstanding of the company’s values and corporate culture.” I admitted that. Baidu stock fell 2.17% in Hong Kong on Tuesday and was still trading 2.2% lower on Thursday.
Qu’s comments shed light on China’s notorious 996-hour working day, where tech workers work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. Jack Ma, co-founder of e-commerce group Alibaba, “celebrated” the culture in 2019 despite violating China’s employment laws and being the subject of online protests. I provoked anger by calling him that.
Chinese tech companies have long expected employees to work overtime and had a reputation for paying taxi fares for those who stay late. But China’s younger generation of tech workers is no longer willing to accept such extreme conditions, which have been likened to modern-day slavery.
Qu’s messages about his work were trending on the social media platform Weibo. “Employees never feel comfortable in a company that doesn’t help them in any way,” one user wrote in a discussion that had garnered 150 million views by Thursday.
“As our vice president, [Qu] She should have known that her words and behavior would be disgusting to her subordinates, but she made it public. This shows how out of touch she is,” another user wrote.
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“You’re talking about a lack of professionalism,” another person reflected on the contradiction of a PR executive causing his company’s PR crisis.
Baidu did not respond to a request for comment.
