Chen Hao (325)

I came across this while organizing notes and wanted to keep it on the blog.

Author: Anonymous user
Link: https://www.zhihu.com/question/29614511/answer/45025842
Source: Zhihu
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This has to be anonymous. I’m conflict‑of‑interest close to people on Haozi’s team and know a few things.

Roughly: Alibaba Cloud ECS had a project called VPC; it had been going about a year and still wasn’t launched. From the start it was on the wrong track—I heard Haozi argued early with ECS that their technical approach was wrong, but the project was huge—maybe 30–40 people across many teams—and Haozi couldn’t steer it. In my friend’s words, “there are too many gods at Alibaba Cloud.”

From day one the overtime was brutal—Monday through Sunday, until 2–3 a.m., for three to four months. Hard to believe.

My friend was on that project too; we complained daily about silly technical mistakes—some so bad only a non‑technical person would make them.

Haozi couldn’t control the project, so he wouldn’t let his own people work those hours—he thought the crude errors came from overtime, and everyone knew he opposed excessive OT. I heard he half‑joked to the team: if you work past 8 p.m., that’s a 3.25 performance rating and a “C” on values. (I think he was mocking people chasing KPIs at any cost.)

The project still failed—apparently major rework even now. After three months it was all bugs and couldn’t go live; leadership got involved and heads rolled. The lead told the big boss part of the reason was Haozi’s team “not pulling their weight”—they wouldn’t work until dawn. The next day the boss tried to transfer my friend and others on Haozi’s team to the team that stayed until dawn every night. They talked all day; nobody wanted to go.

In reality? The two people from Haozi’s team finished their modules on time without that overtime, and their bug count was a small fraction of the total.

The outcome? The boss forced a decision: they didn’t have to move, but work would be assigned by the other side—Haozi was effectively sidelined, and his team was gone in practice.

After Haozi criticized that winter‑layoff PR piece on Weibo, company PR got involved; his new boss reassigned his whole team without Haozi or my friend knowing. Alibaba’s management can be pretty rough.

That’s probably the kind of “values” persecution Haozi hinted at on Weibo.