BBC
Who wouldn’t want a job without receiving a salary, or worse still, having to pay to show up?
Yet, offering companies to pretend to work for them has become popular among young, unemployed adults in China. Consequently, there has been a rise in such service providers.
This development comes at a time when China’s economy and job market are generally sluggish. The rate of Chinese youth unemployment remains high, exceeding 14%.
With real job opportunities becoming more scarce, many young adults prefer to pay for an office than just stay at home.
Thirty-year-old Shui Zhou, whose food business venture failed in 2024, began paying 30 yuan (
; £3.10) per day in April. He goes into a mock-up office run by Pretend To Work Company, located in Dongguan, 114 km (71 miles) north of Hong Kong.
There, he joins five “colleagues” doing the same thing.
[name], based in China, commented, “I feel very happy. It’s like we’re working together as a group.”
These services are increasingly appearing in key Chinese cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Kunming. More often than not, they’re equipped as fully operational offices, complete with computers, internet, meeting rooms, and tea rooms.
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Attendees don’t just idle there; they can use the computers to look for jobs or attempt to launch their own businesses. Daily fees, typically between 30 and 50 yuan, sometimes include lunch, snacks, and drinks.
BBC
[name], a senior lecturer at a notable university commented, “The phenomenon of young adults pretending to work is now very common. Due to economic transformation and the mismatch between education and the job market, young people find themselves needing an office space to plan their next steps or handle odd jobs in order to transition more smoothly. Companies like Pretend To Work aim to fill this need.”
Shui Zhou discovered Pretend To Work The Company while browsing the social media site Xiaohongshu. To him, an office environment seemed like it would boost his discipline. Over three months have passed since he joined.
Shui Zhou sent photos of the office to his parents, and he says they now feel much more at ease about his employment status. Though attendees can come and go as they please, Shui usually arrives at the office between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Sometimes he won’t leave until 11 p.m., only leaving after the business’s manager has gone. He adds that the others there have become like friends. When someone is especially busy, such as job hunting, they diligently work. Otherwise, they chat, joke around, and play games.
Shui Zhou says that he enjoys this sense of team building and that he is much happier now compared to before joining.
In Shanghai, 23-year-old Xiaowen Tang rented a workstation at a pretend work company in Shanghai for a month earlier this year. She graduated from university a year ago and has not yet found a full-time position.
Her university has an unwritten rule that students must sign an employment contract or provide proof of internship within one year of graduation; otherwise, they won’t receive a diploma. She sent the office scene to the school as proof of her internship. In reality, she paid the daily fee and sat in the office writing online novels to earn some pocket money.
“If you’re going to fake it, just fake it to the end,” Tang says.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdd3ep76g3go?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss
