Alibaba founder Jack Ma says staff should work 12 hours a day, six days a week

Not if you're employed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Key points: Alibaba founder Jack Ma told his staff that working 12 hours a day was a "blessing" It came after fellow e-commerce titan Richard Liu called workers "slackers" Mr Ma later walked back his comments after criticism from Chinese state media China's wealthiest man, with an estimated net worth of more than $50 billion, has created a stir on social media after declaring that staff should adhere to a "996" work schedule: from 9:00am to 9:00pm, six days a week. In a speech to Alibaba staff that was posted to Weibo, Mr Ma said working 12 hours a day for the company was a "blessing". China's gruelling overtime work culture His comments came as Richard Liu, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, also weighed in on the ongoing debate about the Chinese tech industry's gruelling overtime work culture, lamenting that years of growth had increased the number of "slackers" in his firm. In an editorial published on Sunday, Chinese communist party mouthpiece the People's Daily newspaper censured the Alibaba and JD.com leaders for their statements, saying that doing "forced overtime" is not equivalent to "working hard".