Former Alibaba Executives Oppose 'Burnout for Growth' Model, Striking a Chord

(Central News Agency, Taipei, June 10) Two former senior executives of DingTalk, the mobile office platform under Alibaba Group, have recently published open letters criticizing the company's corporate culture. Among them, former DingTalk Vice President Ma Ruila explicitly opposed the business model of 'using everyone's burnout for growth' and questioned whether he was just 'consuming his body to catch up with an ever-advancing rhythm,' sparking heated discussion and resonance among many Chinese office workers.

According to a compilation of reports from media outlets including The Paper, Southern Metropolis Daily, and Sanyan Technology, last week, former core product manager for DingTalk's 'ONE Project,' Teng Yaxin, published an open letter titled 'Inside the Ding' on the company's internal website. The letter, totaling 75,000 characters, detailed the process of the 'ONE Project' from its inception, success, to failure, and also mentioned the high-pressure corporate culture within DingTalk.

Following the publication of 'Inside the Ding,' former DingTalk Vice President Ma Ruila published an article titled 'Outside the Ding' on June 8. He stated that he had originally written nearly 20,000 characters but, after careful consideration, deleted 18,000 characters that could not be said, leaving only a little over 500 characters that could be shared.

Ma Ruila said he had completed his resignation procedures on May 15 and officially left DingTalk. He stated that he fully understood the high-pressure atmosphere within DingTalk described in 'Inside the Ding': high-frequency reporting, rapid iteration (generational change), yet with little visible results, where young employees 'exhaust their energy but gain nothing.'

Ma Ruila mentioned that the direct reason for his resignation was 'long-term overload operation': working 7 days a week, 'starting work at 9 am, returning home at 2 am, sleeping only 5 hours.' After repeated reflection, he found it increasingly difficult to confirm whether he was 'creating products or just consuming his body to keep up with an ever-advancing rhythm.'

The philosophy proposed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma – 'Customer first, employees second, shareholders third' – was also questioned by Ma Ruila. He said that 'employees second' had become 'employee needs always give way to business needs.'

Ma Ruila concluded by explicitly opposing the model of 'using everyone's burnout for growth,' arguing that 'creativity' is more important than 'simply stacking work hours.'

The two articles went viral on the Chinese internet, sparking heated discussion and resonance among many office workers. Many people said the articles articulated their own situations, 'reflecting the voice of the working masses,' and pointed out that the culture of many Chinese companies is comparable to DingTalk's. Some even bluntly stated that they were already burned out but ended up unemployed.

According to reports, in response to the discussion sparked by the two articles, the Alibaba Partnership Committee published an article on the internal network titled 'Loyalty, Righteousness, and Growth – That's the Alibaba Culture.' The article severely criticized the management style of the DingTalk team, stating that this 'is not what Alibaba culture should look like,' and claimed that 'only by fully respecting the individual value of employees can we truly create customer value.' (Editor: Chiu Kuo-chiang / Yang Sheng-ju) 1150610