06/18/24 - Only managers are allowed to turn on the AC in the summer.
A compilation of why you should never hire uni students on summer break:
“I was working at YH Tang [boba tea place] before and got fired for no reason. I got so mad that I ate all the fruit they were going to prep for the next day, took all the Alice merch they have, hid all the backup phone chargers in the store, and made myself several cups of free boba tea before I left.”
“I used to work by myself on the night shift in a boba tea place, and every time my boss would act like a bitch, I’d give out free boba tea to hot guys.”
“I used to work at a spicy hotpot place, and whenever my boss isn’t paying attention, I cram extra food into all the takeout orders. I’ll throw in a giant bucket of veggies on a 20 RMB order.”
“I worked for 2 years at a supermarket. Something came up and I had to go back to my hometown, so I asked for half a month off, and my boss told me I was fired instead and took 500 RMB out of my pay as my “uniform fee”. He won’t let me just turn in my uniform once I’m back. I got so mad that while I was unemployed, I’d wear my official uniform while putting up a stall selling stuff by the supermarket’s back door. A lot of people ask if these are supermarket goods, and I told them all yes. Then my boss told me to stop being an embarrassment and wanted me to give back my uniform, but he won’t give me my 500 RMB. So I’d go to the store every time I was free in my uniform to get bottles out of the trash cans there. And whenever a customer asks me where something is, I’ll scream at them to find it themselves.”
“I worked at a fried chicken place and I’d throw in a ton of disposable gloves and chilli packets with every order. After a few days, an older worker in the store asked, “Why are we going through our chilli and gloves so fast?” And I was like, “Maybe business is just really good lately?””
“I was at a supermarket once and ran into a uni student working there. I bought some chicken wings, and after he finished weighing it up, he reopened the bag and stuffed more chicken wings in. I was like, “It’s okay, it’s okay! I don’t want you to get in trouble with your boss!” And he was like, “It’s fine, I’m just working here for my break. I’m leaving tomorrow.” Don’t know how the place pissed him off.”
“Worked my summers at Good Me [boba tea place], and when they gave me my pay check, they didn’t tell me beforehand that I wasn’t getting paid for my one week internship. I was so mad that I ate the most expensive fruit and drank their most expensive tea every day. I’ve eaten 15 creme brulees in one sitting.”
“I quietly killed my boss’s fortune tree.” [A potted tree for fengshui purposes that’s supposed to bring in money.]
“When I was working summers at Haidilao [hotpot place] the year before last, my boss was a total asshole. So instead of putting down a thick layer of ice and then putting meat on top, I’d just fill plates up with solid meat. Customer would order 150 grams of beef tripe and I’d give them 500 grams.”
“I used to work as a cashier and deliberately “forgot” to scan a big box of vitamilk and a couple of bags of snacks. The customer was stunned. The next guy in line looked super excited.”
“Was late to work at a hotpot place by 2 minutes and they threatened to take away my attendance bonus that month. I never put ice under the tripe after that. The day I left, I even took customers into our competition’s store.”
“I’ve worked part time at Auntea Jenny, and every time my boss pissed me off, I’d put extra fruit and toppings into everything. I’d put in half a cup of toppings into a cup of boba tea, half a cup of fruit into every fruit tea, add in extra milk powder in every milk tea. I was basically serving my customers sweet porridge.”
“I worked as a video editor for half a month and my boss refused to pay me. I had a habit of keeping spreadsheets on hand, and between all the companies I’d worked at, I had nearly 200 of the company’s accounts and their passwords. They make money off of the video views on these accounts, so after I quit my job, I’d go through all the accounts and delete all the most played videos. The company changed all their passwords overnight.”
“I add in extra yogurt at fruity mix places [a dessert that’s basically diced fruit mixed with yogurt], because yogurt is the most expensive.”
“So, the temperature’s been getting to 27. 28C around noon lately, and we have a lot of people every row in our company, and most people are eating lunch. It feels super hot and I’m sweating to death at my desk, to the point that I didn’t even bother eating lunch today.
I was wondering why no one turned on the AC so I went and switched it on, and then, like, 2 hours later, I got pulled into a group chat and had my ass chewed out.
Before this, there wasn’t any announcements about company policy on AC. These regulations weren’t written in anything I ever received from the company. I’m absolutely sure of this. If it wasn’t for the fact that I got pulled into the group chat over this AC thing, I didn’t even know we had such a group chat.
Either way, I’ve been working here for half a month now, and they’re telling me that only managers are allowed to turn on the AC in the summer. Should I run? I’m just worried that if I don’t stay until pay check day, they might not pay me at all.”
Comments say, “Fuck this company. They won’t even let you turn on AC? Are they trying to give people heat stroke?”
“I’m sorry, you need prestige before you’re allowed to turn on the AC now?”
“You might want to worry whether they could afford to pay you even if you stayed…”
#Shopee announces a worker’s sudden death internally. On the afternoon of the 17th, information and pictures started spreading around the internet claiming that a R&D employee at international shopping platform Shopee passed away sudden. [As in, “Sudden Death”, typically considered to be as a result of exhaustion and sleep deprivation in China.]
A Shopee Shenzhen employee told Jiupai News reporter that at 8PM on the 17th, he received an important notice from HR saying that, “This afternoon, an R&D employee at Shopee suddenly felt unwell. His team and the company immediately called 120 [emergency ambulance number] and took him to the hospital, but sadly, he was unable to be resuscitated and has left us forever.”
The screenshot shows that the announcements continue to say, “We are all very sad and shocked by this. Currently, the company has already established a committee to work with the family to settle his affairs. If anyone needs any help, please get in touch with your HR representative. In these difficult times, we also need to remind people to respect your coworkers’ privacy and don’t spread any unconfirmed information and personal photos on any platforms.”
The worker says that this year, Shopee has started involuting too. They often need to work overtime until 9-10PM at night, without any pay. They don’t get any rest even if they work all night, unless they stay until after 2-3AM, in which case they can get half a day off the next day. But they’re still better than more other tech companies.”
Comments say, “I remember just a few years ago, Shopee was still a great company to work at, super chill.”
“They pay you a lot, but you don’t get to spend any of it, and just leave your family in grief. The capitalists will keep on partying. Your own health is the most important! The most important! The most important!”
“What’s the Department of Labour doing now?”
#Gaokao student complains about seeing fake terracotta soldiers. “On the 16th of June, Netizen Zeng wrote on his social media that he had planned on travelling to Xi’an after his exams to see the terracotta soldiers, but he was taken to the Dream of Qing Tourist Attraction by his taxi driver, and saw a man-made display. You could take photos with and touch all the terracotta soldiers here.
A doubtful Zeng later found out that the real terracotta soldiers were 2km away. “What the hell? All the terracotta soldiers and burial sites we saw were fake! They were totally recreated!
Zeng claimed that the taxi driver had taken them to the ticket counter for the Dream of Qing Tourist Attraction and swore up and down that, “This is where you see terracotta soldiers.” They sold adult tickets for 198 RMB and student tickets for 98 RMB.
Finally, Zeng made a complaint to the Xi’an Mayor’s Hotline, and the tourist spot has refunded him his tickets. After searching, our reporters find that more than one person has been taken to the Dream of Qing Tourist Attraction. “There’s been victims 7-8 years ago…I didn’t realise it was still there.”
Afterwards, Jingshi Livestream’s reporters reported this issue to the Xi’an Tourism Bureau, and the workers there say that if people should report the issue to the Mayor’s Hotline, and relevant departments will deal with it. A worker at Xi’an’s Tourism Comprehensive Service Centre says that, “Taxi drivers can recommend tourist spots all they like, but they can’t spread false information and push people to spend money. This driver was clearly lying. We’ll get in touch with the tourist attraction and make them refund tickets. And we’ll contact the Traffic Bureau to find this driver and deal with him too.
Jingshi Livestream’s reporters got in touch with the Traffic Law Enforcement Team, and a worker there claimed that they have received complaints about drivers taking tourists to the Dream of Qing location before, but for the most part, legitimate taxi companies would follow company guidelines and take passengers wherever they request going. It’s usually only unlicensed rideshare app cars that’ll do this kind of stuff.
“If it was a legitimate taxi, we usually suspend their license for 7 days and make them attend a 7 day course, and then punish him for fraud or breaking regulations. If it’s unlicensed, the at worst, it’ll be a 8000 or 10K fine.””
Comments say, “I hope the relevant departments take this seriously and return some justice to our terracotta soldiers. Don’t let some people affect their image with their illegal behaviour.”
“Tourist traps are everywhere. Students are just too naive and don’t know enough evil yet. I got on a legitimate licensed bus at a proper bus station to go see the terracotta soldiers, but somehow, buying a ticket automatically signed me up for some tourist group, and they kept pushing me to go see all kinds of performances that I needed to buy tickets for. Took me to the jade shop in the tourist spot too and I resisted any attempts to make me buy anything. If you travel in a group, you spend all your time waiting on people and hardly any time on exploring.”
“How embarrassing for Xi’an, there are fakes of one of the Eight Wonders of the World everywhere. We really need to punish these short-sighted people.”
“Don’t scan the QR codes on your delivery boxes!
I scanned mine out of curiosity [the QR code promised a free mug] and got scammed out of 100 RMB. I reported that account on Zhifubao [Chinese Paypal] afterwards, but I’m not getting my 100 bucks back. It wasn’t a huge loss, but I still want to remind everyone to not scan any suspicious QR codes!”
A compilation of comments, “Can’t we look into who’s sticking them on things to begin with?”
“I’ve always been curious about them too. Thanks for answering the question for me.”
“Every time I’d go pick up my packages, the sorting centre would have repeating announcements to not scan the QR codes.”
“It’s ridiculous that these QR codes have been around for this long even though everybody knows about them. There’s no way nobody knows that there are shady advertisements all over delivery boxes, but no one’s ever reported this. I guess you just gotta not fall for cheap tricks like this.”
“I also ignore all the little cards they send with my stuff promising rewards or discounts if I scan the QR code. I throw them away as soon as I get them. I just remind myself that there’s no free lunches in the world. Why the hell would someone be this eager to give you free money? Do you think they’re just doing charity? Aside from the automatic rewards you get from shopping platforms for leaving reviews, don’t believe anyone who contacts you.”
“Those cards are usually some kind of raffle to get free coupons. I’ve scanned them before and it added me to a group chat. And you can get like 1-2 great coupons before they start trying to scam money out of you. That’s when I’d drop out of the group chat. Then next time I get a card, I join back in, take my free coupons and leave. Then they must’ve blacklisted me or something, because now, whenever I scan the cards, I get kicked out of the group chat as soon as I get in.”
“Moved in with my college roommate after we got together.
We’ve been dating for half a year now? It feels much longer than that. Our long-distance relationship is finally ending. She hasn’t come over yet, I’m still waiting.
She still hasn’t told her family yet. I guess we need to take our time on that. I’ve bought a house at the location she picked. Now we’re getting ready to remodel it. We have a cat together too.
Remodelling is such a pain though. Gives me a headache. I don’t have time to find a good company either. I’m talking to a ton of people in group chats every day, preparing to lay down piping for water and electricity.
We were supposed to start work on Wednesday. I told the remodelling company to wait until she comes, but they said that there are no lucky days after that on weekends. And I said that so long as she’s here, every day is a lucky day.
The remodelling company people came over real early, and we got up early to buy some fruit for our new place too. Because of this, we didn’t even dare to stay up too late the night before.
After work officially got started, she asked me to take a photo of her holding a bouquet of flowers. I ended up making her look super short and stumpy in the photos, so she’s kind of upset about that.
I feel very complicated right now, very contented, but also full of anticipation, and also exhausted. But just remembering that I’ll get to wake up in the same bed as my beloved every day now makes me happy.”
Comments say, “I want to stab my roommate every day, and you married her!?”
“Love is love. If it weren’t for kids, it’s honestly much comfier to be together with your own gender.”
“It’s true love if you can fall in love with each other despite being roommates.”
#Applying for Journalism Major. “Because of one line from Zhang Xuefeng last year [He first gamed internet fame by saying, “Never apply for a Journalism Major, that industry is rotten to the core.”], Journalism Majors have fallen out of favour. But this year, people should consider taking the path less walked. Less popular majors have less competition, so it’s easier to get accepted.
Study some news media, and you don’t even wait until you graduate. You can start using your knowledge to become an influencer while you’re in uni. Although it’s pretty easy to become an influencer these days, and there’s all kinds of freaks out there, there’s very few influencers like Dong Yuhui [former teacher known for being incredibly poetic in the way he puts things]. You can study news media to become an educated, sophisticated influencer like Dong Yuhui.
If you really have a journalism dream, you can really make something of yourself by studying news media! A lot of traditional media complains that all the attention is being taken away by influencers and social media, but it’s not that social media and influencers are competing traditional media, it’s that a lot of news reporters are just way too lazy! They only know how to copy-paste someone else’s news while sitting in an office. No one is stealing their traffic—they’re giving their own traffic away to others.
Compared to influencers and social media, a proper journalist who has a degree in journalism has their own competitive edge—their journalist license. Don’t look down on this license. It gives reporters the right to conduct interviews. Influencers and social media have no right to interview. If reporters actually made use of their license, they can easily win against influencers. But if they don’t want to actually put in the work and would rather enjoy the AC in a nice, comfy office, then yeah, they don’t have much of a competitive edge.
Why do I say you can make something of yourself in journalism? A simple example. For a lot of the hottest issues in China, the official announcement is generally only 3-4 highly summarised lines. Obviously, anyone in news media would know that people want much more information than just the brief summary the police gives out. So, who’s going to get people that information? Reporters gotta go out there and start interviewing people. So, you can be incredibly successful at journalism, it’s just that most reporters don’t want to be.
Look at the Russia-Ukraine War, the Israel-Palestine Conflict, all kinds of chaos going on in America. There’s a news gold mine here ready for digging, but a lot of reporters are sitting on top of this gold mine, complaining about how nobody reads the news anymore. It’s not that journalism has no future. It’s that some of the people studying journalism has no future.”
Comments say, “You think a journalist license constitutes a competitive edge? Are you even a Chinese native at all?”
“Influencers are talented, pretty, funny, or make lots of interesting expressions. Journalists are best at delivering takeout.”
“Nobody can find any work after graduating from a journalism degree. And even if you try for the influencer route, you’d probably only get 15 minutes of fame at most before you’re forgotten by the market.”
#Jiang Ping’s Maths teacher speaks out. “17-year-old technical school student studying fashion design, Jiang Ping, has made it into the top 12 in an international maths competition. As the finals are looming, what does her maths teacher, Wang Runqiu, want to say?
If Jiang Ping doesn’t place as well as people hope in the final round of competition, I hope people won’t be too harsh on her.
I hope Jiang Ping can enjoy her competition and do her best.
I’ve participated in this maths competition too, but I didn’t place as well as Jiang Ping in the first round.
I think this is pretty normal. Not all students have to do worse than their teachers.”
Comments say, “Great words. People need to give Jiang Ping a little more personal space.”
“This girl and this teacher are all such nice people. They really made each other.”
“Just the fact that she got in at all is amazing enough! No one has the right to talk shit about her.”
#School responds to how students need to pay to turn on AC. On the 17th, Zonglan News’s reporter called up Huizhou’s Institute of Economics and Technology’s logistical department, where a worker explained that the school’s classrooms used to not have any AC at all. Many students and teachers complained that it was too hot during class, so the school installed ACs that require payment in every classroom. The electricity bill incurred by all these ACs aren’t a part of the school’s budget. If they provided AC for free to everyone, then it would cause quite an exorbitant electricity bill for the school. As a result, the school decided to allow student to pay for AC to help shoulder the cost.
The worker explained that the student’s complaint that it cost 24 RMB to use the AC for one lecture was not true. The student merely prepaid 24 RMB. After the lecture ends, it would refund him his money based on how much electricity he had used.
“Our lessons run 45 minutes long, with 40-50 people per classroom. The fee for this kind of class is usually about 2.5 RMB. In a big lecture hall for more than 100 people on the top floor, the total cost still shouldn’t exceed 24 RMB.” Whether that cost comes out of a class budget if up to the students to negotiate between themselves.”
Comments say, “Sure, we can turn off all the AC in offices too. After all, it’s not in the budget.”
“If you can’t afford to keep your AC on, just close down your school. What’s the point?”
“It’s really not that big a deal. Does the principal have AC in his office? Does the superintendent? Just make sure it’s all fair and equal.”