介绍:
Lincoln: At a job fair, people noticed an advertisement that says “Join us to get a job for life!” Wu You, what exactly is the story there?
WY: At a job fair in northeast China’s Shenyang city, people noticed an advertisement for a shipping company that says “Join us to get a job for life!” The recruiter of the company says that the so-called lifelong employment means that when the person is recruited, they will never have to worry about being laid off. And this policy is intended to give the employees a sense of security and belonging. It is better to motivate them to work harder. But nowadays there have been different opinions online, the advert has sparked hot debate, some believe that the job with the ultimate job security could help employees better plan long-term career development, some others doubt the company’s credibility and others say that they attach higher importance to a competitive salary and good career prospects over job security.
Lincoln: That’s interesting you used the word motivate there, the company says that they were tying to motivate potential candidates as well to work a little bit harder, but it seems that the enemy of motivation is kind of complacency, which is if you had a job which you presumably couldn’t get fired from, or wouldn’t get fired from.
Nick: Well it’s quite ambiguous, “a job for life”, some people could see that as job security, then there’s the question of, can you leave if you want to? Are you stuck there for life whether you like it or not, once you’ve accepted this job?
WY: To put it into context, in China we have talked about a phrase, “the iron bowl”, people believe this is more steady and with more security, and in the old days, the traditional wisdom is more likely inherited from the country’s era of a more planned economy, and the best career choice is to obtain an iron bowl job. All those kind of iron bowl includes civil servants or jobs in public institutions or state-owned enterprises.
Lincoln: The employers promise that they won’t fire you, can you imagine how hard it would be to manage somewhere like that, Nick?
Nick: Exactly, how would you manage?
WY: I think this is more just like a job advertisement, they are giving people this sense of they will not fire people out of the blue, but it doesn’t secure that you can do anything to the company. I don’t think that’s the fact. Even though couples, like a marriage, you vow “until death do us part”.
Nick: So there are conditions attached.
WY: There are conditions attached.
Lincoln: What are some of the comments online?
WY: @jiang su nan jing tao sheng yi jiu said:
“Life-long employment is really alluring considering the bleak employment picture.”
Lincoln: Yeah that’s true, that’s a good point to that. Nick?
Nick: And a second person agrees, saying "the company has made the right decision, only when the employees feel secure, can they work efficiently and plan for their future."
WY: And someone else, who is against it, said "Who will watch the employer to keep its promise? If not, don’t pin too much hope on this commitment, it could be a joke." And about the working environment in China, since the implementation of the reforms, and also opening up policy, over the three decades ago may state-owned enterprises and public institutions have also adopted contract employment similar to those fond in the private sector. In recent years, the number of people applying for civil service jobs has been declining. The total number of applicants for the civil service examination had surged from about 4,000 in 1994 to over 1.5 million in 2014, but the trend appears to have possibly peaked, with the total number of applicants this year at about 1.4 million. More than 500,000 people didn’t even show up for the examination.
