The recruitment website is jazzy, awash with pictures of happy young workers, and festooned with upbeat mini-slogans such as “insane speed”, “infinite curiosity” and “customer obsession”.
Read a bit lower, and there are promises of perks galore: competitive compensation, free meals, free gym membership, free health and dental care and so on. But then comes the catch.
Each job ad contains a warning: “Please don’t join if you’re not excited about… working ~70 hrs/week in person with some of the most ambitious people in NYC.”
The website belongs to Rilla, a New York-based tech business which sells AI-based systems that allow employers to monitor sales representatives when they are out and about, interacting with clients.
The company has become something of a poster child for a fast-paced workplace culture known as 996, also sometimes referred to as hustle culture or grindcore.
In simple terms, it puts a premium on long working hours, typically 9am to 9pm, six days a week (hence “996”).
For most of us, that would be gruelling. But according to Will Gao, head of growth at Rilla, its 120 employees simply don’t see it that way.
“We look for people who are like Olympian athletes, with characteristics of, you know, obsession, infinite ambition.
“It’s people who want to do incredible things and have a lot of fun while doing so,” he says.
