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Young employees rebel against Chinese work ethic by being lazy, refusing overtime, and hiding in the toilets. They call it ‘touching fish’
- Young staff slack off by not working overtime, delivering average-quality work, going to the toilet often, playing with their phones, or reading novels at work
- They say it is a silent rebellion against the culture of working overtime for little reward and a reflection of their disappointment with their salary
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Alice Yanin Shanghai
China’s Generation Z is setting its own rules in the workplace by encouraging a growing philosophy of being lazy.
They call it “touching fish”, a term borrowed from a Chinese proverb that states “muddy waters make it easy to catch fish”, which means one should take advantage of a crisis to chase personal gain.
The philosophy gained prominence in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic as the country struggled to deal with its economic fallout. Young people slack off by refusing to work overtime, delivering medium-quality work, going to the toilet frequently and staying there for a long time, playing with their mobile phones, or reading novels at work.
They say their laziness at work is a silent rebellion against the culture of working overtime for little reward. It is also a reflection of disappointment with their salary, which they believe is far from enough to realise their dreams, such as buying a house.
“I ‘touch fish’ every day and I am happy with it,” wrote one user on Weibo, China’s leading microblogging platform. “Why does my boss only give me one cent but expects me to pay my 10-cents-worth in effort?”
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