Premium special: To Ali (致阿里)

An employee's leaving note that's shaking up Alibaba

Thought this might be of interest to premium subscriber since it’s fresh from the China tech watercooler.

On 6th March, the Alibaba intranet got a ~5,000-word post from an employee who quit the next day. His blistering and funny critique of Alibaba’s culture failings has been causing a ruckus. The post has gone to Zhihu and has been hotly discussed in Mai Mai (tech employee blind convo app). Fractions are appearing inside Alibaba, taking different sides of the argument (there is a donkey fraction).

I’ve translated the bulk of the article below (leaving out the last 30% since there was no value-add there), note that the tone is very chatty and not my typical work. My readers will recognise previous themes of frustration around 996 work culture amongst a new generation of workers. I do not believe these issues are unique for Alibaba but it is particularly damning since they are seen as an industry leader.

TLDR: Alibaba’s culture is brutish and not innovative. Employees feel underappreciated and unvalued. They should leave to pursue better opportunities elsewhere.

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I had the idea of writing this post for a while but was afraid to. Today I’m finally happy to share some thoughts I have about the company with folks. 

First of all, I think when we joined Alibaba, we all had expectations. No matter what we thought about Alibaba afterwards, when we were on the outside, we all had some admiration for the company’s scale, volume, and performance. While limited in presence internationally, it is for sure a world-class domestic internet company. This caused my first confusion as I entered Alibaba. Such a sizable company, but why the constant anxiety around sales?

I believe that everyone in Ali has a deep understanding of anxiety. After all, the 361 system [refers to Alibaba’s internal performance system] is designed to create anxiety. At this point, some of you who are on the higher pay grade will probably say ‘ 361 is not about exploiting employees but to better help them grow’. Seriously? Do you even believe that yourself? 

My confusion in Alibaba is that for a company that publicise its authenticity every day, I’ve never heard a word of truth. I think it's amusing. I don't know whether the management is too old or too lazy to think. Why can't we talk about these things openly and fairly, but we have to talk about helping you grow, helping you progress and even about transferring talents to society?

In short, you do 361. We don't object; we can’t object, right? Either we stay and accept, or we leave. I think everything is fine. The company just needs to come and say we’re looking for workaholics, and we’re an anxious company. Our goal is not to make employees comfortable because comfort will make the company lag behind. Our ideal is to surpass Amazon to become the fifth-largest economy globally, creating 100 million jobs to support 20m people. 

You may wonder, what the difference is? From your perspective, you’re deceiving me in order to exploit me, and I’m exploiting you. Aren't we all exploiting each other? There is still a big difference. Maybe most of the senior management is post-70s or post-80s and they don’t understand the post-90s and the coming 00s. These younger people grew up under the wind of free culture. We don't like this kind of official and polite manner. 

You assume I am a donkey pulling the grinding mill. You whip me to keep me going. I think it is normal. No one thinks it is abnormal. I am a donkey. You are the master. I want to be lazy, that’s normal for a donkey. You don't want me to be lazy, that’s normal for a human. You keep me fed, so you are allowed to whip me to force me to work harder. That’s understandable. But the question is, you can’t whip me while asking me to love you at the same time right?

I believe that at this point, all the young folks at level P6/7/8/9 [Different pay-grade in Alibaba] know what I’m talking about. But I don’t think the senior management get it, so I’ll explain it again. 

Twenty years ago, Ali was just starting. Then, Ali was an actual start-up. It faced all the risks of start-up companies such as not being able to pay wages. When the company started, it must have calculated the outflows for this month, the next month ad infinitum. During then Ali recruited the type of person who would still work if they didn’t get paid for half a year. The type of person who Mr Ma will say will have the attitude of ‘It’s ok if you don't approve of Mr Ma, but you must approve of what Mr Ma wants to do. You must approve of Alibaba.’

But the times have changed, the Qing Dynasty has died.

Ali has been developing for 20 years, and China's economy has been developing for 20 years. At that time, the people who worked for you had starving elders. Now 80% of people who work for you have parents who can support their sons and daughters. Now if you ask a person, come work for a great company, they have a very strong culture and can help you reach your potential. But they wouldn’t be paying you any wages for half a year. Do you think you’ll get any response?

So 20 years ago, you bought a donkey. You must make sure that the donkey loves you.  Because you can't make sure the donkey will be getting a stable meal, so if the donkey doesn't love you when you can’t feed the donkey, it’ll run away. 

But 20 years later, you buy a donkey, all you need to do is feed it. All the donkeys in the market are smart, and there are many markets. It’ll go where there’s good food. All these places give the donkey the same food and the same whipping. But the difference is that you are forcing people to say they love you. The other places are straight forward, you don’t have to love me and I don’t have to love you. Just work for me and I’ll provide the meal. You are donkeys. Which mode is Alibaba doing?

So speaking of authenticity, I don’t see whether the company is authentic. 

Many topics to cover. Let me talk about the question of the donkey first. I compare Ali's employees to donkeys. I'm sure the smart kids won't blame me. I'm saving face by not comparing us to dogs. I'll focus on explaining to some executives who are fragile and don’t think they are donkeys.

I’ll say one thing. Donkeys can’t be forced to carry values. Do you think Ali employees are better than donkeys? The second item of Ali's values is called employee second, second only to customers. Mr Ma once said that the company wants to raise wages for the bottom of society because when you give RMB 5,000 senior executives, they don't care. When you give the bottom strata RMB 5,000, he can improve his family’s conditions. I want to ask Ali employees, how many have actually had an RMB 5,000 wage increase. Ali only adjusts salary once a year, and the range of the adjustment is well known. Even if you are a top executive, how have you actually seen your own salary increase?

Salary adjustment aside, how about work conditions and the work stress intensity of Ali. What is Ali’s salary relative to the industry? At this time, many people started to propose a 375 equity incentive policy [excession stocks given to employees that vest over 4 years]. To be honest, isn't the equity package only a negotiation tactic when you’re changing jobs? After four years of tax and inflation, do you think that's a lot?

If you still insist that’s OK, after all, some people think it is a massive amount of money. Then I will tell you about an economic term called opportunity cost. If you’re hearing about it for the first time, you can look into it. If you understand the concept, when how’s Ali's treatment for you?

Everyone who can see this post is an Ali employee (阿里人). Although Ali’s treatment is mediocre, Ali’s recruitment standards are top-notch. As everyone knows, the only thing Ali boasts about is our high recruitment standards. I say this because, for ordinary people, their opportunity cost is low, it’s difficult for them to do anything else but go to work. But for you, 985/211 [Elite college shorthands in China, similar to Ivy league or Oxbridge] graduate school overseas-returnees, the opportunity cost is infinitely high. Have you ever thought that there are countless Huang Zheng [Pinduoduo founder], Cheng Wei [Didi founder] and Wang Xing [Meituan founder] lurking around you? Even if you left Alibaba, your skills and experiences are still far beyond most of your peers. You’ve cleared hurdles after hurdles since the college entrance examination and have remained standing. So must you waste your precious time, day in, day out, on writing PPTs?

What does Ali give to its employees? Respect? Benefits? Welfare? Take a closer at any one of these and Ali doesn’t have a leg to stand on. That’s normal for a small company but for Alibaba, a company that claims to be the fifth-largest economy in the world, to be failing on all these points? I'd like to ask the low-level Alibaba people here when was the last time you took more than 10 days' annual leave? What? You’re saying it doesn't matter?

The year before last, not long after Mr Ma retired, he came back to post on the intranet, saying that he wanted to save the elephant. He was saying the living space of elephants is getting squeezed, and conflicts from humans are increasingly serious. Ali with all their people and resources must be able to do something for the elephants. I thought it was funny. Mr Ma, please look at your employees when you are not busy, Your employees' living space is also getting squeezed, and the conflict with an ideal life is becoming increasingly serious. Can Ali do something for your employees with its many people and many resources?

Mr Ma said that we needed to reflect on this. I wonder what would happen if we reflected on the welfare of 130k Alibaba employees. Mr Ma has become the richest man in China, you can save the elephants and elevate your image further. The stock price may rise. What use is that for us? 

The survival of the elephants compared to my children not being able to get into houses in good school districts, which is more important? Why do my children have to travel for half an hour longer, get home half an hour long and go to bed half an hour longer than other kids? Do you think Ali's employees' lives are too comfortable or too perfect?

I remember my first Dragon Boat Festival at the company. The canteen spontaneously gave one zongzi to every employee who went to dinner. Now the company doesn’t have any more zongzi for the festival. Of course, with Alibaba's size of 130k people, a gift card per person would easily top RMB 13m. But look at it from the employee’s side. They want to feel remembered. Even if I have no ability and I dare not start a business. I've worked hard to be a donkey on a millstone for you. I still have to say I love you while I'm working. At least the company can remember me during every festival. Even if you send a greeting card with a company logo to employees, it's better than nothing. 

Oh, the Dragon Boat Festival is not important? Fine. Then I didn’t say anything. 

When a boy is chasing a girl. The girl always comments that though many things are small, it doesn’t mean you can not do them. When you don’t do the small things, it means you don’t care about me. I hope the higher-ups of the company can hear this. In a company with 130k employees, getting a good welfare system is not easy, but it is not difficult. Why aren’t you doing anything?

So in the end, Alibaba is a giant baby who hasn't grown up. From GMV, Alibaba is number one for the domestic internet. As for self-confidence, Alibaba has none. You can say, if you want to develop, you can’t be too confident. Is that why you instil anxiety into all the bottom employees? How often do we have to reinvent-the-wheel at Alibaba? Does it bring innovation or wasted resources? What is the nature of this phenomenon?

Programing is a common and unusual job - because every programmer sees some value in their job.  What does it mean? In short, overtime is not a problem for programmers. I believe that anyone who likes to code will understand. Sometimes you get into flow and time stops. But the question is, under the destruction of the 361 system, will you choose to write your favourite code or write code that can earn you money? Why do we keep reinventing the wheel? In short, the cost of innovation is too high so that everyone will choose the vested interests.

Alibaba may feel aggravated by all this because some of the problems I'm talking about are common tech companies problems. But there is a saying that we are Alibaba. The annual growth rate of Alibaba's financial report has been striding forward. Why is such a company with large volume, good growth and relative youth willing to be so mediocre? Even refusing to try and be the leader of an industry? Just because everyone’s doing it, does that make it right? All tech companies are inducing anxieties in their employees. Is Alibaba the same as every company on the market? Yes, if I put all these traits on a start-up of a few hundred people. I don't think I will have so many complaints, because a small company is small. It doesn't need to have any sense of responsibility for the industry’s mission. It is a mayfly in the chaos. It is OK for others. But this is about Alibaba. If it doesn’t seem like even Alibaba can make it, doesn’t it all feel hopeless? If the boss of an industry refuses to stand up and say or do something. Where is this industry’s hope and future?