08/21/24 - I feel my life energy being sucked out of me just by sitting in an office all day.
A compilation of why working people were less depressed back in the day:
Comments say, “I used to flip burgers at a western restaurant and felt like I was Spongebob everyday. It was a ton of fun.”
“I want to quit my job and drive for Uber instead. It feels so fun. I might be lost and I might not know where I’m going, but every single one of my passengers have a destination in mind.”
“I’ve worked my friend’s shift for two days and feel like I’ve aged by a year. I’m not even kidding, I feel my life energy being sucked out of me just by sitting in an office all day.”
“After quitting from ByteDance, I rented a couple of acres in Beijing to farm strawberries. The reason I quit was because of endless status reports.”
“I’ve worked as a barista before. I had countless cups to wash every day, countless coffees to make, and I fell asleep as soon as I got home, but I was honestly happy. I was energetic when I went to work. It’s so much better than office work.”
“Honestly, growing up, parents are always talking about how nice it is to work in an office. But after being in an office for three days, my neck is about to break looking at a computer all day, and my pay is shit anyways.”
“Yeah, because you don’t get a sense of accomplishment with most office work, and you get PUA’d to think you’re worthless. The pay isn’t worth it and there’s always overtime. It’s exhausting on every level.”
“Just graduated from bachelor’s degree, didn’t make it into a postgrad program, can’t get into government work. I ran to a new town by myself and started selling flowers. I’m not even bothered by getting off of work at 1AM. I’m not upset so long as I’m surrounded by flowers.”
“There’s a one-way valve between China and Japan. All the signs on Japanese streets and all the announcements has a Chinese version. You can use Alipay at all their stores and restaurants. It’s easy for Chinese people to visit Japan.
But on the other hand, if a Japanese person wanted to come to China, they have to face countless obstacles and inconveniences and all kinds of discrimination and hate.
Although it looks like we’ve won on the face of it, in the long term, Chinese people and money are endlessly flowing towards Japan, but Japanese people and money never flow into China. We’re the ones who are losing.
We need to remember history, sure, but the purpose to remembering history is to turn that into motivation to keep progressing. We can’t turn history into foot-binding cloth, an excuse for staying conservative and passive.”
Comments say, “This is too biased. You can’t ignore factors like national interest, development, and visas.”
“I’m not too smart. Just tell me what I’m supposed to feel guilty about this time.”
“Only people who genuinely want China to do well understands this post.”
“Forced to quit my job because I didn’t look at my phone for three hours.
A new roommate moved in about twenty days ago. She saw that I hadn’t looked at my phone or returned any texts for three hours, and called my advisor and said she was worried that I was working late outside and hadn’t come back yet. My advisor is now telling me I have to either drop out of school or quit my job.
Today’s a Friday. It was supposed to be a happy day, since Saturday is coming up. I was supposed to get off of work at 6:40PM, and the manager was going to take our whole department out to dinner. By the time we were done eating, it was well past 7PM. Since nobody had to work the next day, we naturally decided to go for a couple of rounds of mahjong. Now it’s getting close to 8PM and we chatted for a bit before we got started.
Because of my job, my phone was on silent the whole time. I was just having fun and chatting with my coworkers while playing mahjong. We got along great so I never played with my phone.
My new roommate tried to contact me at 8:40PM. She started calling my other roommate who’s out of state right now a little past 9PM, asking her to call me. At 10:30PM, when I still hadn’t gotten back to her, she called my advisor.
A little past 11, a coworker noticed the screen of my phone kept lighting up. I opened up the phone, and it was filled up with calls from my dad, my mom, my aunt, al my friends. I was horrified.
I called my parents back first and learned that my advisor had called them and said he couldn’t find me. My parents thought something had happened to me and started calling all my local relatives and friends.
I explained what happened to my advisor, and he told me to either quit or drop out of school. I’m just dumbfounded. I regularly stay out late sometimes, but this has never happened before. At first, I thought they were just stricter about curfew during summer break.
On my way back to school, I learned it was because of my classmate, the new roommate who moved into my dorm for summer break. She said she was worried about me staying out late, but she also stays out until 4-5AM sometimes. She’s also staying at school over the summer because she’s working through her internships.
It’s just a random catastrophe out of nowhere, so I was out of my mind with fury. We don’t get along all that well. I don’t understand why she’d make such a big deal out of my not answering my phone for a few hours. Even the police make you wait 48 hours first. I’d understand more if she only tried to text me at 11PM or something.
I’m 22-years-old. I’m about to graduate college. As a grown ass adult, I just don’t get it.
We had a fight when I got back. She said she was worried about me, and she was upset and said she should’ve minded her own business. But I’m upset too. I just went out for dinner and played a few rounds of mahjong, and I’m being forced to quit my job? All my relatives and friends are worried about me, and I’m having to contact everyone I know to explain that they were freaking out over nothing.
I guess I learned a fucking lesson. I’ll remember to keep an eye on my phone.
It’s the middle of the night, so my brain is all scrambled.”
Comments say, “She did it on purpose. You can go to a doctor and tell them you might have depression because a roommate is always trying to control you, demanding you answer texts and calls right away or else she’d call the police. Go cry to them about how much stress you’re under and how you’re thinking about suicide. Then get a friend to go with you to your professor and tell them that you’re being pushed to suicide. See who’s scared then.”
“So she saw you were out late, got worried, and decided to call your advisor? That bitch 100% did it on purpose.”
“You do silly things when you’re in a panic. I get your roommate, kinda, I just don’t think she’s very smart.”
“Spent 9.2 RMB to celebrate a kid’s birthday.
I was walking my dog in my development, and he was rollerskating in the central garden. He wasn’t scared of my dog at all! He squat down and told my dog, “You’re so cute!”
I was really happy to hear praise like that. I was like, “Thank you for not being scared of him. A lot of people are really scared of him.”
He tilted his head and asked me, “Why?”
And I was like, “Maybe because his snout is black and his body is black, so he looks like he’s going to bite?”
And he went quietly, “But that’s just what people think.”
I thought our conversation was done so I turned to walk somewhere else, but he started walking behind me. Since he had rollerblades on, he was hobbling along while talking to me, about some game he was playing, whether or not I’d seen The Ring, or making me guess if cats were scared of cucumbers. He even asked me, “If my cat went missing, what kind of cat should I ask to help look for him?”
We chatted for maybe about an hour, and I asked him if he had to go home for dinner. And he was like, “I don’t live around here, and we don’t eat this early in my house.”
And I was like, “Oh, I just didn’t see a phone on you. It’s actually past 7PM.”
And he was like, “We eat dinner at 8PM in my family.” Then, looking a bit sad, he said, “And nobody ever hangs out with me.”
And I was like, “We (me and my dog) are hanging out with you, aren’t we?”
And he said with disappointment, “Today’s my lunar calendar birthday, but I don’t think anyone remembers.”
And I was like, “Then can I take you out to eat something? You haven’t eaten yet, right?”
And he was like, “But I don’t want to spend your money.”
And I was like, “You’re not the only one eating. I need to get dinner too.”
And he was like, “Then can we get ice cream?”
And I was like, “Sure, but I can’t have ice cream. I’ll just order something else.” And I asked him where his favourite ice cream place is.
And he was like, “We can go to Busy Snacks. It’s cheaper there.”
And I was like, “I asked you what your favourite ice cream was, not where has cheap ice cream. What you need to do right now is buy ice cream you like, not ice cream that’s cheap.”
And he was like, “But we have to be frugal, don’t we?”
And I was like, “You don’t have to be frugal today. It’s not like you have a birthday every day, right?”
He seemed to accept what I said, but once we went to Busy Snacks, he still picked out the cheapest ice cream. I asked him what else he wanted, and he hesitated for several minutes before he asked if he can have a bottle of Genki Forest [flavoured soda water]. I was like, “Sure!”
When I was standing in line to pay for stuff, he asked, “So, big sister, are we friends now?”
And I was like, “Yup, and you can call me auntie.”
He was like, “I’m 11. How old are you?”
And I was like, “I’m almost 30.”
He thought about it and said, “I still wanna call you big sister, since it makes you sound younger.”
And I was like, “Wow, thank you.”
And he mumbled under his breath, “People like you are so rare. You’re so nice.”
It made me really happy to hear. After that, he went back to my development with me and walked my dog for a little while longer. After a while, I told him that it was time for him to go home, since it was getting dark.
He was like, “I live in the next development over. Can I invite you to come over some time?”
And I was like, “Sure, but let me walk you back for now.””
Comments say, “The little kid went back to his giant penthouse and told his CEO dad and Board of Directors mom over videochat that, “You don’t even love me. You’re not even as nice as the big sister I met today. She celebrates my birthday. All you guys know how to do is make money.””
“What you need to do right now is buy ice cream you like, not buy ice cream that’s cheap. Oh my gosh, you’re so sweet, the little boy is so sweet, and your doggie is super sweet too! T_T”
“Why does most schoolyard bullying happen in middle school, and you almost never see it in high school?
And old teacher responded to me, “It automatically disappears.”
And I didn’t quite get it. “Automatically disappeared? Did they get better?”
The old teacher smiled, ”They were redirected. The high school entrance exam [Zhongkao, as opposed to the Gaokao] is where the stream is split. Kids with good grades go to high school and keep studying and improving themselves. Kids with bad grades go to vocational school. Some who refuse to give up will go to private high schools, but honestly, if you can’t handle middle school, then you’re not going to be able to handle high school either.”
I asked the teacher, “I’m talking about the people who really bully their classmates.”
The teacher said, “They’d be further redirected.”
And I was like, “Where to?”
The teacher explained, “In order to select out these kids, some vocational schools will increase their enrolment mark, so that the real bullies get selected out.”
And I asked, “So where do the bullies end up?”
The teacher said, “Either they lay flat in a technical school or they drop out entirely.
I asked, “Technical school teachers don’t care?”
The teacher went, “You can go to a technical school and see for yourself—smoking and drinking and fighting goes on every day. Imagine collecting the worst students in the country all in one place. How much can the teachers really do?”
And I got it.”
Comments say, “You think people with good grades don’t bully??”
“Bullying happens everywhere, it’s just that little kids use methods that are more direct. Just look at Zhu Ling, who got poisoned in her Qinghua dorm. How is that not bullying?”
“Bullshit. I got into a top high school, and there were a lot of kids in class who just got in because their parents had money. There was tons of school violence, cliques, and excluding people.”