On the evening of February 22, a 28-year-old ByteDance employee died suddenly in his workplace gym, according to a post on social media.
On the morning of February 23, ByteDance responded on their Intranet, stating that the employee had dizziness and vomiting after working out. The coach called 120 and sent him to the hospital for emergency treatment. As of 12:30 on February 23, he was still in the hospital. On the afternoon of February 23, Bytedance announced that employee Wu died at 13:43 that day, after attempts to save his life.
ByteDance said that the company has undertaken all medical expenses and fully provides support to the family.
The cause of Wu’s death has yet to be determined, and ByteDance has not responded to relevant issues. But Wu’s family claimed that he “worked a lot of overtime and was under too much pressure.”
Legal professionals suggest that companies should establish a perfect medical emergency system to reduce risks.
Prior to this accident, there had been a number of accidental deaths in Chinese Internet enterprises in recent years. Since last year, Internet giants in China such as Kuaishou and ByteDance had proposed abolishing the “big/small week” policy to reduce overtime issues, where most of their employees work a six-day week every second week. These measures provoked a storm on Chinese social media.
