This year’s Singles Day, China’s version of Black Friday, is scheduled to break sales records, but the employees of one catering company in Chonqing will not be able to spend as much money on discounted items as they would have liked, because their employer decided to hold their paychecks until after the holiday, so they wouldn’t spend their hard earned money on junk.
Workers recently found out about management’s controversial decision through a notice posted at the main entrance of the company. The document mentioned that instead of receiving their paychecks on November 10th, as usual, they would have to wait until next month, but only because their 31-year-old boss was worried that they would waste their salaries on junk they didn’t even need. He let them know that he himself had spent almost 20,000 yuan ($2,942) during last year’s sale, which included a 8,000 yuan ($1,176) computer he never even uses. So to keep them form making the same mistake, he decided that their money’s safer with him.
Shanghaiist reports that the unnamed manager had noticed that many of his employees were already picking out things that they planned on Singles Day (November 11th), so he was almost certain that they would spend their November 10th paychecks on them. He noted that most of his workers are around 25-years-old and don’t have much money saved up, adding that they are at a point in their lives where the cannot afford to waste money on useless products.
Convinced that he was actually doing his employees a favor, he let them know that they would be getting this month’s paychecks in December. However, he also clarified that if anyone had any emergencies and really needed the money, he would provide their salaries immediately. I’m willing to bet most of them came up with the most elaborate stories to convince their boss to pay them on schedule, just so they could get that new smartphone they had been salivating over for months, at a discount.
But while most of the company’s employees believe that their boss shouldn’t deprive them of their right to consumption, a few actually support his decision and admit that they would otherwise engage in unhealthy spending behavior.
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