TikTok's toxic '996' culture is forcing UK employees out the door and making those who remain wonder every week 'who has been fired, who has quit': FT

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that employees at TikTok's London office are leaving the company because they can't cope with the company's work culture.

According to ten current and former UK TikTok employees, the exodus began after the launch of TikTok Shop, a live-streaming e- commerce platform. A team that is now half its size has been left behind by at least 20 employees since then.

People leave every week. One current employee said it was like a game, asking who had been fired and who had quit.

China's working hours can lead to employees working more than 12 hours a day. After livestreams ended in the UK, employees had to submit feedback reports.

Workers at the company said that they were punished for taking time off. Photos of employees who worked overnight were shared in internal communications. Some people who took time off were removed from accounts they used to work on. Employees who did not handle work queries out of hours were shamed.

According to the article, TikTok made financial payments to employees to make them feel better about their working conditions. The two employees settled with TikTok after speaking about their working conditions.

A senior leader of TikTok seemed to embrace this culture. Joshua Ma, who oversaw TikTok Europe's e-commerce division and was a senior executive at ByteDance, was upset with his London employees when he said that he didn't believe in maternity leave.

TikTok Shop has only been operating in the UK for a few months, and we're investing rapidly in expanding the resources, structures, and process to support a positive employee experience. Ma took time off from his job.

TikTok did not reply immediately.

Former TikTok employees from other countries have also criticized the company's grueling work culture

The company's work culture has been criticized by former employees from other countries. TikTok's working culture was shaped by Beijing-based Byte Dance, according to employees.

Employees work six days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ByteDance told Chinese employees in October that they couldn't work after 7 pm after China's top court declared the practice illegal.

TikTok and ByteDance employees work around the clock.

In order to accommodate working hours in China and the UK, two former TikTok employees in San Francisco and New York worked late. A ByteDance employee in Singapore told Insider that she had to work past 7 pm on Fridays in order to handle requests from her colleagues in the US and UK.