Sources and scope
This page collects workplace experiences, questions and discussions submitted by users. Dates shown are submission dates, not periods of employment. Individual reports do not describe the entire company.
Read the community guidelines1. Veteran employees can dump everything they don’t want to do on newcomers.
2. Veteran employees can take out their frustrations on newcomers. Very. Ter.ri.fy.ing.
3. Back in my day, the boss would usually arrive at the company close to 10 a.m., leave around noon for lunch, and generally not come back in the afternoon. If there was anything to handle, it was done remotely by phone.
So the veteran employees didn’t even start eating breakfast until 9 a.m., and took their lunch break promptly at noon.
The veterans’ mornings:
They would enter the office at 9, chat while steaming buns or similar food in the company kitchen,
then return to their seats to apply skincare products. After that, they would eat breakfast, chat, and check email at the same time,
until the boss arrived at the company.
4. Veteran employees could sleep during work hours.
When the boss was away on a business trip or otherwise not coming into the office, the veterans would have nothing much to do after breakfast,
and would get sleepy… Then… out came the little pillows and blankets, and they would put their heads down on their desks and sleep. They really did eat and sleep.
They would sleep until after 11, get up to drink some water and check their email, handle a little work, and then take their lunch break promptly at noon.
5. The veterans were the ones who actually decided whether to recruit anyone.
Back in my day, there was an incident where the boss kept telling the veterans to find people. The veterans replied that they were looking,
but in reality, the job opening wasn’t even posted on the employment bank!
6. The company had no performance evaluation system, and whether they found anyone had little impact on the veterans.
The boss would ask, “Didn’t I tell you to find people?” and the veterans would whine in response:
“There’s nobody! Nobody applied! There really~~ is nobody!”
Privately, they did not care.
They didn’t have to take responsibility, and the staff shortage had little impact on them. They still collected their salaries.
7. How could the veterans slack off to this extent?
Because the office was on the ninth floor of an apartment building. Before entering the office, the boss would press the intercom on the first floor,
and the intercom had a screen, so looking at it would tell them who was standing at the entrance on the first floor.
It also took the boss some time to ride the elevator from the first floor to the ninth…
Moreover, there were OA partitions in front of every workstation. The veterans all sat in the second row, with a wall and windows behind them,
and there were no surveillance cameras in the office back then.
Time for the boss to get upstairs + cover from the partitions + no surveillance cameras = prime slacking!
8. The veterans had truly taken slacking to a whole new level.
Some would run errands outside and buy groceries along the way.
Some still wouldn’t have shown up by nearly 10 a.m.; when called, we would discover they were still at home sleeping.
Some were so bored during work hours that they played video games or watched videos.
Others used the company phone and computer during work hours to arrange their children’s cram-school classes,
plan family trips, make appointments at cosmetic medicine clinics, and shop online.
9. One veteran employee would cut her fingernails at her desk.
I still haven’t forgotten that click-clack, click-clack sound… It was disgusting…
10. A classic day
On a day when a cold front came through, the boss was away on a business trip and would not be coming into the office.
The veterans arrived at the company at 9, first preparing breakfast in the kitchen,
then returning to their desks to turn on electric heaters, check email, and apply skincare products at their desks.
The atmosphere was relaxed, and everyone chatted happily… then it gradually became quiet…
Because… the veterans started eating breakfast… They had food in their mouths, so they quieted down…
A little after 10, a client called asking for veteran employee C. When I went to ask veteran employee C to take the call, I discovered…
She… she… was curled up under a small blanket, sleeping with her head on the desk. I had no choice but to tell the client she was in a meeting.
This veteran employee, who was catching up on sleep during work hours, slept until almost noon.
After waking up, she first went to get some water, then drank it while checking email.
When noon arrived and it was time for lunch,
she said to veteran employee B: “It’s so cold today. I want rice noodle soup and black-and-white cuts from Muzha Market.”
Then they went out to lunch together.
Since they were going out to eat, I had to stay behind at the company, eat, and answer the phone.
In the afternoon, I needed to find veteran employee B, only to discover that she was the one sleeping this time! It was after 2 p.m.!
Were you so tired from walking around Muzha Market at lunchtime that you had to catch up on sleep now?!
Veteran employee B slept until almost 4 p.m…
The first thing she did after getting up was take her wallet downstairs to FamilyMart and buy two medium hot coffees,
one for herself and one for veteran employee C, and chat while drinking them… (Afternoon tea!?)
At 6 p.m., when it was time to get off work, I heard veteran employee C—the one who had napped in the morning—complain:
“I feel like today has been so long. Time is passing so slowly. I’ve been watching the clock all day—how is it still not time to get off work?!”
An extreme imbalance between work and leisure.
Having to handle the boss’s personal errands.
No overtime pay and no compensatory leave.
If you don’t let it exploit you and refuse to continue, it feels that its rights have been infringed and will assert its rights.
This company is no stranger to consulting lawyers.
If an employee received a notarized legal letter after resigning or was taken to court, I wouldn’t be surprised. That seems exactly like the kind of thing they would do.