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I worked for OnePlus a few years ago, managing its Amazon account. The culture leaned heavily toward 996: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. I was there during
by adamsmark 2mo ago
I worked for OnePlus a few years ago, managing its Amazon account.
The culture leaned heavily toward 996: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. I was there during a particularly tumultuous period, and by that point a lot of the staffing had already been hollowed out.
That said, the OnePlus 11, 12, 13, and 15 are great phones. The 13 and 15 in particular have insane battery life. I have never managed to drain either one to zero in a single day.
As far as I know, OnePlus and Motorola are also the only major companies selling phones with silicon-carbon batteries in the United States. It is ridiculous that Samsung and Apple still have not adopted them.
One of my biggest frustrations at OnePlus was how much of the internal tooling remained in Chinese or used poor English translations. Most of the management was also based in China and often did not seem to understand the US market very well.
Probably the most ridiculous example was an internal invoice or payment-submission portal. It was awful to use, but the terminology was even stranger. A submission apparently needed to be “signed” and then “sealed.”
I never asked anyone what the original Chinese term was, but I assumed it referred to the use of a Chinese name chop or company seal. Name chops are stone stamps bearing a person’s or company’s name that are pressed into ink and applied to documents as a form of authorization.
It was a small thing, but it captured the broader problem pretty well: internal processes designed around Chinese business practices were translated literally and then handed to US employees with very little localization.
- noja 2mo agoTell us more about silicon carbide batteries!
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- d3Xt3r 2mo ago> A submission apparently needed to be “signed” and then “sealed.” ... and delivered?
- michaelmrose 2mo agoSigned sealed and delivered?
- smlacy 2mo agoI'm yours!
- MichaelZuo 2mo agoThat doesnt make sense as an example. Nearly everyone on HN would be aware of the great seal of the United States? That all formal diplomatic letters are still sealed with to this very day, without exception. Maybe it’s just a mental shock that HQ would demand that level of formality for more mundane things?
- snozolli 2mo agoNearly everyone on HN would be aware of the great seal of the United States? That thing I see on podiums and backdrops? That all formal diplomatic letters are still sealed with to this very day, without exception. Why would anyone here know this? We've probably all seen media depicting a medieval king pressing a seal into wax, but it doesn't mean we're familiar with it as a modern legal or procedural thing. Japan has what I assume is the same thing: hanko, a personalized, carved stamp. It's always a subject of surprise and novelty for North Americans who go there to teach English.
- mananaysiempre 2mo agoA hanko is specifically a stamp (for dipping into ink) not a seal (for pressing into wax) so it is a different thing than the ones diplomats still use. I assume the Chinese one mentioned in the ancestor post is a mistranslation and should have said “stamp” instead but maybe not—I mean, the historical large and small seal scripts are so named for their usage on signets so it’s not like there’s no precedent for seals in Chinese culture either.
- MichaelZuo 2mo agoBecause there’s no reason to automatically assume the USA stopped using the great seal on the most formal stuff?
- internet2000 2mo agoWe see the president signing things into law on TV all the time: It's a signature. Nobody's sealing things other than Maker's Mark bourbon bottles anymore.
- jodacola 2mo agoAppreciate the insight. I'm really quite curious about the inverse of this from the US. HNers who don't live in the US but have worked for a US company trying to do business in local markets: what weird US-centric idiosyncrasies have you seen companies and US-based leadership foisting upon local markets?
- zorked 2mo agoThinking that they can fire people at will.
- jodacola 2mo agoAh, I've witnessed a US-based company try to fire someone it had hired in the UK and was surprised that it wasn't like firing someone in an at-will state in the US.
- natbobc 2mo agoHad an acquaintance that worked in strategy have to explain something similar for the Netherlands. They thought they could just cut everyone and be off the books no repercussions.
- baybal2 2mo ago[dead]
- annzabelle 2mo agoTangentially related, but I work for a New Zealand company that does civil engineering work, including some in the US. There's a lot of localization that we have to do around roads being much wider and different materials being used, but the main idiosyncrasy is that in New Zealand we can just call people up on the phone or via email and arrange contracts, but for large jurisdictions in the US there is a competitive bidding process that we (as a foreign company) can't just circumvent. My boss wanted to investigate some sinkholes on the runway at LaGuardia to calibrate a device, and was confused that I (the token American) couldn't just call up the Port Authority of New York and get our truck of equipment onto a runway the same week. I tried to explain to a coworker that American airports and the Port Authority in particular are very sensitive about what they allow airside, and he said "oh, so we don't get hit by a plane." I had to explain the last 25 years of American history to him.
- ChocolateGod 2mo agoHow much of that internal tooling was related or shared with Oppo?
- try-working 2mo agoI worked in the OPPO and OnePlus HQ in Shenzhen. When I had contracts to sign, I wrote my own signature and then I had to go to some procurement person and get them to stamp it with a seal.
- natbobc 2mo agoIt’s typically called notarization but in North America it is often supplemented by a witness depending on the class of document. Many documents don’t even require that.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- mancerayder 2mo ago> The culture leaned heavily toward 996: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week Why stay there even ONE week, unless you were very senior?
- whall6 2mo agoHard work is invigorating? Especially when working on something cool?
- diegof79 2mo agoA healthy life is more invigorating. You can sustain a month of 996 if your project is under fire (it may happen in a startup). But more than that is unsustainable: you have less social life and get more tired. Which means that you get more irritable, make more mistakes, eat more calories, and have more chances of depression or burnout. There is nothing heroic or productive about 996
- whall6 2mo agoYou’re speaking with authority but have no sources. What can you point me to that says working for longer than a month at 72 hrs/wk is unsustainable? Sure everything you say can happen. But also you can feel invigorated and it can be extremely healthy to feel like you have a purpose. It’s up to the person who is signing up to work to decide. And guess what? Nobody is forcing you to work 72 hrs/wk. There are plenty of other jobs out there.
- mancerayder 2mo agoSure, if it's an option for you. I have an issue when it's expected of everyone.
- whall6 2mo agoYep, agree.
- ulfw 2mo ago
- Neekerer 2mo ago>Probably the most ridiculous example was an internal invoice or payment-submission portal. It was awful to use, but the terminology was even stranger. A submission apparently needed to be “signed” and then “sealed.” The fapiao system has improved but still exists unfortunately.
- edm0nd 2mo ago996 culture seems horrible. who the heck would want to actually work like that. shit is for NPCs
- Markoff 2mo agoAs someone who works/worked for all major Chinese smartphone brands (and some major vacuum cleaner brands) over years I can tell you this is no OnePlus specific, 996 is just Chinese standard. I remember back when I lived in China some of my flatmates slept in work overnight since it was encouraged, you save time on commuting. I worked also on OP project which was handled separately from O/Rm and V/IQ, but I find in general approach of these companies very amateurish when it comes down to providing reference materials, though it could be even worse, unnamed company selling mostly in India is disaster, now they use AI to localize their phones, you are suppose to check it with no screenshots, no description, so clearly can't even check it properly, so apparently AI is doing fine since you can't really report worries anyway. And if you will drive EV from the biggest CN EV company expect same, they are not better. The most professional are H/H and X, no complaints there. They are at Nokia level professionalism from back in the days.