Company says it will improve supervision after manager tells employees to work on weekends

Jiangxi Construction Engineering Group pledged in a statement on Tuesday to further strengthen the management and education of its cadres after a design director from its subsidiary told staff members in a post in a work-related chat group that they should expect to perform tasks on weekends.

Screenshots of the post showed that Wen Yanbin, the director of the design and research institute of Jiangxi Construction Engineering Group in Jiangxi province, made the remarks in a DingTalk chat group, which garnered a lot of attention.

In the post, he expressed his displeasure with employees who did not respond to messages on Saturday mornings, stating: "Do not think that Saturday and Sunday are non-working days. You should not have the traditional concept of weekends".

Wen also said: "I really dislike people who treat weekends as non-working days and only seek enjoyment without understanding the source of that enjoyment." Meanwhile, he also emphasized that "salaries are paid monthly, not based on 22 days of work".

Wen even said in the chat group that he tentatively decided to implement a Saturday and Sunday work system starting next year. Those who don't want to work under this system should consider resigning, he said.

A statement from the group said that Wen's remarks were made after a delayed response to the work tasks he had assigned, which had a negative impact on operations. Jiangxi Construction will handle the incident in accordance with relevant regulations, it said.

The company said it will learn from the incident and further improve cadre education and management, strictly adhere to relevant laws and regulations such as the Labor Contract Law, and effectively safeguard the rights and interests of employees.