On December 4, multiple social media posts revealed that a course consultant from New Oriental Education & Technology's Hangzhou branch published a lengthy complaint in an internal company group. The post criticized issues including excessive overtime, unrealistic performance targets, and chaotic work arrangements.

The letter explicitly stated that since autumn, the course consultant team has been trapped in a "996 single-day-off" cycle, with daily work hours consistently stretching from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM or later—over 12 hours becoming the norm. The promised two-day weekends specified in employment contracts have rarely materialized, while China's legally mandated 8-hour workday has become "a distant dream."

The employee described their predicament: inflated performance metrics, forced overtime, and disorganized workflows. All extended work hours were labeled as "unfinished tasks," effectively becoming uncompensated "voluntary overtime." No overtime pay or compensatory time-off was provided, despite the expectation of 12-hour high-intensity workdays. The letter condemned management for setting impossibly high enrollment targets with unrealistically tight deadlines—these "mission impossible" metrics were then used to evaluate employee competence, with failures attributed to "insufficient effort."

Requests for comment sent to New Oriental Education & Technology regarding these allegations remained unanswered at time of publication.