Fire me: young people in China yearn for sack to beat work stress, get payout and escape horrors of fierce job market
- Young people seek the sack to get compensation and time off companies are obliged to give them under the law
- Trend seen as extension of tang ping, or lie flat, phenomenon in which young people do as little as possible to get by
As China’s economy labours under high unemployment, some young people are seeking the sack from their jobs so they can enjoy the resultant time off and contractual compensation.
The phenomenon has caught on to such an extent that the topic “young people are expecting N+1” made the top of the mainland social media platform Xiaohongshu’s search list on August 14.
The term “N+1” refers to the compensation of severance pay plus one month’s salary, which companies in China are obliged to pay by law.
Social media has seen a flow of people expressing the desire to be sacked by their companies so that they can justify their wish to be liberated from stressful jobs and go completely tang ping.
Meaning “lie flat” in English, the term tang ping describes young people who do the bare minimum to get by in life.
On the mainland social media platform Douban’s discussion group titled “Today is another day thinking of resignation”, a person named @Yongyouyibeikuaileshui said she wanted to be laid off by her company.
