The director was fired, but she dressed well every day, went to the financial center alone for four years to talk: Knowing the real reason why everyone is sad

The strange director and the story behind it

A video showing the image of a well-dressed, elite-looking woman talking about financial literacy in the lobby of the Shanghai International Finance Center (IFC) is causing a stir on Chinese social networks. At first glance, this woman looks like any other financial industry worker in Shanghai.

But what is actually unusual is that this woman has come to IFC every day for the last four years just to talk about things like currency exchange, annual profits and fund management alone.

Most of the IFC staff knew about this woman. “She used to be the director of a financial company in this building, very able and educated, a family of teachers. She herself is also very diligent and works hard, from the position of clerk to director.

However, when he was promoted and his salary increased, he was suddenly fired because the company’s business was not good. “This woman couldn’t get over the shock and became mentally ill, but still couldn’t forget her job,” a worker surnamed Tran commented under the video.

This woman, surnamed Vuong, about 30 years old, wearing the same luxurious clothes as when she was director, goes to the lobby of the old company building and stands there to share the same content as when she met in the past. . Sometimes Ms. Wang pulls out her phone or notebook to make calls or write reports. This woman’s tone was a little excited mixed with disappointment and reproach.

Ms. Vuong almost didn’t pay attention to everyone else, even though the IFC lobby security guard repeatedly persuaded her to leave and contact her family and friends, it still didn’t work. Those who walked through the IFC lobby expressed their condolences every time they saw this scene. Maybe this woman has been under a lot of pressure for a long time and was suddenly attacked badly, so she has a new spirit. Such instability.

“Life can ‘hit’ you at any time and put you in an irreversible situation. “This is also the time when the last drop of water will fall and accumulated tensions will suddenly explode,” wrote writer Tieu Yen in Chinese magazine Reader.

Earlier, China Newsweek reported on a girl in Sichuan province who couldn’t find a job after graduating, so her parents forced her to sit the civil service exam for five years in a row. After repeated failures and long exam pressure, the girl behaved strangely, stammered and boasted as the head of the company. The girl was later diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia.

“Crash” before work pressure

The pressure on young people to find work in the billion-euro country is increasing. According to data released by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission in early April 2023, the city recorded the number of master’s and doctoral students surpassing university students for the first time, out of a total of 285,000 who will graduate this year.

Meanwhile, China’s youth unemployment rate hit a record high of 20.4% in April. Analysts at investment bank Goldman Sachs estimate that the unemployment rate is likely to peak in July and August on a surge in new college graduates.

Chinese social networks have often caused a stir before there were stories about masters who had to work as a freight forwarder to earn a living. According to the South China Morning Post, by 2022 there will be about 60,000 master delivery workers for Meituan (an online platform for buying and delivering food in China). Before that, in the first half of 2021 alone, there were at least 65,000 Chinese masters and 170,000 bachelors working for this delivery company.

“A lot of pressures around me, like money to pay for my life, money for rent … got me stuck,” an 8X man surnamed Tran, who has a master’s degree and works as a trucking company, told China Youth Daily.

Those lucky enough to get an office job, many of whom also struggle with the 996 work culture (9am to 9pm, 6 days a week). In the first half of 2019, around 45.8% of companies in Germany with more than 10,000 employees went through this work mode.

According to a 2018 government mental health survey of 403 tech workers, 50% of participants said they felt tired. They struggle with many vision problems, memory problems and spinal disorders. Many people believe that the 9x and 10x age groups are under more pressure than previous generations, SCMP reported. The pressure to earn money to buy a house, or to work hard to earn enough money to get married, is “encircling” young people in this country as the cost of living continues to rise.

How not to be mentally exhausted from work?

according to dr Liu Xiangyu, a member of the Chinese Psychological Association, it is common for an adult to collapse in an instant due to the accumulation of too much pressure in work and life. The cycle of life has led many people to ignore their own feelings and become exhausted both physically and mentally.

“When the pressure of work reaches a certain level that people can no longer bear, they go into a state of burnout. Then there is depletion of motivation, fatigue and impotence. “Mental health is like a rubber band: when exposed to too much external pressure, it becomes unable to stretch to ‘recover’ and continue to struggle with new pressures,” said Luu Tuong Vu.

This doctor said that everyone has to watch out for “abnormal signals” when under pressure for a long time: very stressed including at bedtime, sleeping in a curled-up position, teeth grinding. At this time, you should take the necessary time to rest and pay more attention to your own feelings. At the same time, find ways to reduce outside pressure through practical measures, and seek the help of experts or experienced people in coping.

Adrian Low Eng-ken, a Hong Kong psychologist who has done research on workplace stress, says there are five things you can do to reduce the risk of burnout at work: morning meditation, rest at lunchtime, get up for a walk when stressed, stay calm during a conflict and take regular deep breaths to manage stress.

Chinese young people have turned away from the 996 culture with many movements in recent years, e.g. B. by leaving the street to return to their hometown, “lying still”…ignoring social pressures to live a more balanced and happier life.