IEEE Software
Volume 38, Issue 2, Pages 96-106, 2021 

Impact Factor: 3.847

Understanding the Working Time of Developers in IT Companies in China and the United States

Abstract:

In this paper, we perform an initial study on the working time of 
software developers by investigating the timestamps of commit 
activities in IT companies on GitHub across China and the United 
States. We identify three temporal patterns shown in commit 
activities among these companies. We find that Chinese companies 
are more likely to follow long working hours than American companies;
in China, developers in large companies are more likely to work 
overtime than those in small companies; developers in Chinese companies 
tend to work more in regular off-hours during the Chinese New Year 
than in other dates. We also conduct a survey on the trends of, 
reasons for, contents of and results of overtime work. Our study 
could provide references for developers to choose workplaces and 
for companies to make regulations.

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@article{Zhang:IS2020,
author={J. Zhang and Y. Chen and Q. Gong and A.Y. Ding and Y. Xiao and X. Wang and P. Hui},
journal={IEEE Software},
title={Understanding the Working Time of Developers in IT Companies in China and the United States},
year={2021},
volume={38},
number={2},
pages={96-106},
doi={10.1109/MS.2020.2988022}
}

Jiayun Zhang, Yang Chen, Qingyuuan Gong, Aaron Yi Ding, Yu Xiao, Xin Wang, Pan Hui "Understanding the Working Time of Developers in IT Companies in China and the United States", in IEEE Software, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 96-106, 2020, DOI: 10.1109/MS.2020.2988022.