No Tet bonus, forced to sign commitment, employees are happier than receiving money

China's economy grew at its slowest pace in three decades in 2019, weighed down by weak domestic demand and trade tensions with the United States.

Specifically, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on January 17, in 2019, China's economic growth rate was 6.1%, continuing to decrease compared to 6.6% of the previous year, marking the third consecutive year of decline.

Compared to the lavish New Year bonuses given to employees like in previous years, near the end of this year, many companies in China are simultaneously firing many employees to avoid having to pay New Year bonuses. "Fire" is the hottest keyword on Chinese social networks such as Weibo and Baidu.

China is in the midst of a "layoff storm", and it's rare to see scenes of money being handed out like this (photo: Muyunzhi).

According to the electronic newspaper Chyxxnews, on January 1, the social network Weibo was in an uproar when information appeared that 360 - a fairly famous Chinese electronics company, gave its best employees a Tet bonus of... a commitment not to fire them.

The commitment is valid from January 1 to December 31, 2020. As long as you keep this commitment, no matter what you do wrong, you will not have to worry about being fired by the company, quite similar to the "get out of jail free card" in feudal times. Even if you do not come to work, you will not be fired, but of course, you will not receive a salary.

Chinese netizens don't know whether to congratulate or sympathize with the owner of this strange New Year's bonus.

“Even if there is no bonus, at least you won’t have to worry about being fired next year. Don’t forget the video last week, Shenzhou UCAR fired employees without any reason,” one Weibo user shared.

Shenzhou UCAR was named the “most arbitrary firing company” by the Chinese online community.