A 75,000-word manifesto titled 'Inside DingTalk' has sent shockwaves through China’s tech industry, peeling back the veneer of efficiency at Alibaba’s enterprise messaging giant. Written by Teng Yaxin, a former core product manager for the AI tool 'ONE,' the viral post details a descent into 'involution' where technological tools meant to liberate workers were instead weaponized for surveillance and performative productivity. The account follows years of growing public resentment toward the '996' work culture, but this time the critique comes from the very architects of the system.
At the heart of the controversy is the failure of 'ONE,' an AI project designed to streamline workflows but which ultimately prioritized management control over user experience. The essay describes how features like synchronized 'read receipts' evolved into a form of 'read anxiety,' effectively tethering employees to their screens 24/7. When AI was meant to filter out redundancy, it instead provided leadership with a more precise metric to identify—and punish—any perceived delay in response, turning a productivity tool into a digital leash.
The internal culture described by Teng is a textbook case of 'Big Tech Disease,' characterized by what she calls 'Double Narrative.' On the surface, the team produced sleek PPTs and frequent updates for executive review; beneath it, they were trapped in 'performative overtime' and the 'Wangshu Action'—a mandate to stay in the office as long as competitors' lights were still on. Decisions were often dictated by the 'chef-style aesthetics' of senior management rather than market data, leading to a cycle of constant, meaningless iterations that burned through human capital without creating value.
This exposé resonates because it captures the 'neijuan'—or involution—that has come to define the Chinese white-collar experience. The narrative depicts a workplace where loyalty is measured by submission and busywork is equated with value. Managers are described as 'Golden Snitches,' patrolling the office to catch employees using non-work software, while the actual quality of the product withered under the weight of upward-facing bureaucracy. It is a stark illustration of Byung-Chul Han’s 'Burnout Society,' where the drive for achievement morphs into a self-exploitative prison.
The fallout from 'Inside DingTalk' coincides with a pivotal shift in Chinese policy. In 2025, the central government officially included the 'comprehensive rectification of involution-style competition' in its work reports. As the state begins to enforce stricter labor oversight and mandate rest periods, the DingTalk scandal serves as a warning to the tech sector: the era of growth through raw, inefficient human endurance is ending. For companies like Alibaba, the challenge now is to prove that their AI can actually serve the laborer, rather than just the overseer.