As fears of AI-induced obsoletion set in across industries, tech employees are working more and more hours (or at least claiming to)—whether to try to maximize their income before that happens, or to prove their worth as human assets to their companies.
That hustle has recently taken the form of “996,” a schedule that entails working from 9 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week. The trend originated in China’s tech industry, but it is becoming increasingly widespread in Silicon Valley. The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion’s Co-Director, Carolyn Chen, spoke with KQED host Alexis Madrigal about “the way work can take on a kind of religious purpose and meaning for people.” Chen appeared alongside tech journalist Lora Kelly and fintech economist Ara Kazharian on Forum, a radio program in which guests share their expertise and local Bay Area listeners weigh in.
The hour-long program dug deeper into the historical foundations of the “996” trend, along with the latest contributing factors. Although the pandemic temporarily led to a drive for work-life balance, mass layoffs in 2023 resurfaced Silicon Valley’s founding values. Chen underscored: “this idea of working really, really hard and of work being your life— this is not anything new to Silicon Valley. It’s always been part of the playbook, particularly in startup culture… this idea where work is your life and that there are no boundaries between work and life, and work devotion. I think this is fuelled by this belief [by] folks in tech [that they] are not just working, they are on a mission to change the world… that kind of thinking feels really religious… [and is] baked into the DNA of Silicon Valley work culture.” She continued, “One of the most famous articles written about Silicon Valley was by journalist Tom Wolfe in 1983. It was about Robert Noyce, who is the inventor of the silicon chip and founder of Intel and [Fairchild]. Tom Wolfe talks about how early founders like Noyce came from small, deeply religious Midwestern towns—Noyce’s father was a minister—and they brought the practices and the logic and the habits of these deeply religious places.”
Such habits have taken new forms over the intervening decades, including a honing of self-betterment. Madrigal mentioned the popularity of supplements that are supposed to maximize physical and mental productivity and efficiency. Chen concurred: “There’s always this interest in optimizing the self: the mindfulness, the cold plunge baths, the fasting. This is part of a culture where you’re called to produce at superhuman levels... These are all actually [practices borrowed from] ancient religious traditions… practices to modify the self to transcend human limitations.” Of course, Chen underscored, AI tools are attempting to do just that; other guests and callers noted the irony of working extra hours on technologies whose success might just put you out of a job.
Chen’s research on how tech brings religion into the workplace, including the 2022 book Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley, has garnered contemporary media attention. Forum dedicated a full show to the book around its publication: “How Big Tech Turned Work Into a Religion.” Chen was also recently featured in a New York Times article titled “Would You Work ‘996’? The Hustle Culture Trend Is Taking Hold in Silicon Valley.” The most recent Forum show, along with a partial transcript, can be found on the KQED website: “Hustle Culture is Back in Silicon Valley. But Can Workers Sustain a 996 Grind?”
Marlena Gittleman is a Future of Higher Education Postdoctoral Fellow with the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry.