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Text/Zhang Mengyi
Source: Leopard Change (ID: baobiannews)
For most people, resigning from the previous company and then moving to a new job is a very common thing. However, after some people resigned, due to some reasons, the time away from the job became one or two years, or even longer. Their lives also began to change, and gradually deviated from the original life track.
At midnight on a winter night, 38-year-old He Wei sat in the driver’s seat, lit a cigarette, and took a deep puff. The diffused smoke ring wrapped He Wei like a safety cover, making him feel relieved for a while.
After working on a sports car for 16 hours a day, he is used to sitting quietly in the car for a while, smoking a cigarette, and then going upstairs to go home to face the reality of a lot of feathers-wife, son, mortgage, and a family Huge expenses.
Ten years ago, He Wei’s life was not so mundane. At that time, he was working as an editor in Beijing’s media. After finishing the manuscript late at night, he would invite friends to have a drink or two in the East Third Ring Road. Youth flies by, and the prosperity of the capital seems to pass away. After many years of drifting north, he finally lost to housing prices.
At the age of 30, He Wei moved to Changsha and found a publicity copywriting job in a public institution, with a monthly salary of more than 7,000, including food on weekends.
He Wei likes this job, it is enough leisure, enough to feed his spirit and body, but this salary is not enough to support his family. At the end of 2019, he resolutely resigned, intending to find a job with a higher salary. Unexpectedly, not long after, the new crown epidemic broke out, and major cities across the country went all out to fight the epidemic. He Wei could only rest at home. What he didn’t realize then was that this period of unemployment would last a long time.
The epidemic has changed people’s living habits and the fate of some people. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to October this year, the national surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.6% on average, and the unemployment rate of the labor force aged 16 to 24 and 25 to 59 was 17.9% and 4.7%, respectively.
Behind the data are ordinary people who are running around for their livelihood. Some of them are employees of state-owned enterprises, college graduates, and some are elites in the urban workplace. After leaving their jobs, their lives face different forks in the road.
“Leopard Change” chatted with several people who have been away from the workplace for a long time, trying to track the difficulties they have encountered in finding a job in recent years? And what exactly does this change mean for them?
refuse to lie flat
After the epidemic in 2020, He Wei traveled all over large and small companies in Changsha, and suddenly found that he was over 35 years old and could no longer find a job. Employers don’t like older people, and they can’t compete with young people. After more than two years, his job is still unavailable.
But the cramped reality is right in front of you. My son is more than 4 years old. The tuition fee for kindergarten is 3,000 a month, plus living expenses, toys, and interest classes, and the monthly expenses are 6,000 to 7,000. My wife often takes her son to do massage for children to treat colds, and the set meal costs several hundred dollars. Although He Wei feels sorry for the money, he dare not neglect his son’s body.
“Now I can’t make ends meet. I didn’t know that it costs so much to raise a child. I was shocked when I calculated it. It’s really difficult to have money everywhere.” He Wei said with emotion. In addition, he has to pay more than 1,000 yuan in housing loans every month, while his wife who is temporarily employed by the government has a monthly salary of only more than 3,000 yuan. The elders in the family are old and living on retirement wages, so they cannot help.
Even if He Wei wanted to lie flat, he couldn’t do it. For many late nights after that, he regretted it very much, “Thinking about the job before, it was quite good, and now it is good to have a stable job.” As soon as he finished speaking, he lit another cigarette. He Wei now smokes a pack of Jiaozi for seven yuan, which is his bottom line. When he was sitting in the office, he smoked a pack of Furong Wang for 25 yuan.
Simi also regretted it. She is a fresh graduate majoring in accounting in 2020. She graduated from a secondary normal college in a prefecture-level city in Sichuan. The school’s geographical location and attractiveness are average. rare. The accounting major is very introverted, there are not many jobs in the market, and most of them are small companies. Most of them only need part-time jobs such as bookkeeping agents, with low salaries and poor growth.
“When I applied for this major, I just listened to my family’s opinions. I didn’t expect the professional prospects to be so bad.” In the school that I attended in Simi, the university provided little vocational education for students, and children from ordinary families basically had to explore and find career plans by themselves. , make long-term plans for the future. After many weighings, Simi gave up the postgraduate entrance examination and plunged into the job market in 2020, when the epidemic was the worst.
Through the school recruitment, Simi entered the credit card center of China Merchants Bank as an account manager. The job content is to handle loans for customers and review customer loan information, similar to back office positions. After two years in a boring job, Simi felt like he hadn’t learned much at all. After the epidemic, Simi’s wages have also been reduced, and it is difficult to maintain a normal life in Chengdu.
Simi also considered changing jobs as a credit clerk, but seeing that the leader had worked as a real estate clerk for seven years before climbing up to the position of department manager, she felt that she would not survive that day. “To be in his position, emotional intelligence and communication skills To be particularly strong, you must have customer resources.” Impulsively, Simi resigned naked in April this year.
When she was just looking for a job, she was still picking and choosing, and every time she seriously asked whether there were five social insurances and one housing fund, weekends, and the specific working hours and overtime frequency. But she soon discovered that she was too optimistic. Chengdu is a human resources-oriented city, only customer service and sales positions are constantly recruiting people, and other industries are very introverted.
In the second half of this year, the situation took a turn for the worse. Due to the fluctuating epidemic situation and the visible reduction in jobs, some small companies that were still recruiting in the first half of the year stopped recruiting, and some have closed their doors. On the recruitment website, only sales and customer service in Chengdu are still recruiting. These positions are either closed for one week or less, or only have social insurance, or five social insurance and one housing fund after becoming a regular. Simi is unwilling to let go of any interview opportunity, but several The first time I went downstairs to the company, only to find out that it was an outsourced manpower company that recruited many people for interviews just to complete the KPI.
During the months of being out of work, Simi was often anxious, but she did not envy her peers who had jobs around her. A friend of hers in Chengdu works as customer service at China Merchants Bank. She has a stable job and won’t lay off staff casually, but there is no room for advancement, and sometimes she has to work overnight shifts. There is also a friend who works as a merchandiser in a foreign trade company, and the pressure of performance appraisal is very high. The company’s business has declined sharply due to the impact of the epidemic, but he dare not resign and has been stuck in his post.
Simi has his own ideas, he doesn’t like meaningless work, and he doesn’t want to end his exploration of the outside world early, go back to his hometown to take the civil service exam, and live a stable and endless life. But after being unemployed for half a year, she really couldn’t eat anymore. Every time I call my family to report the recent situation, the local accent on the other end of the phone always comforts her, “The economy is really bad, and it’s hard to find a job.” Then she transfers some living expenses into her bank account wisely. At first, she still feels embarrassed. A month later, she took the offer as a matter of course.
Most of the time, Simi just feels that college students are too worthless. She saw in the news that some young people even work as security guards, dormitory supervisors, and cleaners. “Do you know the trick? Four thousand yuan can’t recruit a gentleman, but it can recruit a college student.” Simi said with a wry smile.
the other side of unemployment
Naked words, then what?
It’s not that Simi hasn’t thought about this issue. She likes video editing, and when she has nothing to do, she cuts some small videos and posts them on social media. In order to change careers, she also enrolled in online classes to learn editing techniques and thinking before resigning. But it is still difficult to find a relevant job. “The company requires applicants to have industry experience and past projects, but the company does not hire them. Where can they get the industry experience? It is an endless loop.” Simi said with emotion.
In May, Simi found a company that made promotional videos for an internship, but more than half of the company’s employees were in the probationary period, and they were all inexperienced newcomers. After the probationary period, they were dismissed as unqualified. The degree of involution in the industry is not lower than that of accounting. The industry is highly saturated with talents, the supply exceeds demand, and there are fewer and fewer traditional jobs. More are emerging short video clips, which do not have high requirements for clipping technology, and are more inclined to the assembly line, mainly based on volume, but require applicants to be able to shoot and write copywriting. This has also led to the fact that some video editing talents who have worked in the industry for seven or eight years cannot find a job. Simi had no choice but to give up transforming the video editing industry.
After repeatedly hitting the wall, Simi started thinking about doing odd jobs. Whether eating or lying in bed, Simi will scan Alipay’s part-time job channel more than a dozen times, the same city job search group and Boss direct employment, “there are more takeaway delivery, express sorting, followed by shopping malls and store promotions, and then security guards. It mainly recruits boys.”
Later, she set her sights on a part-time job as an exhibition attendant. These exhibitions usually last for three to five days, no more than half a month at most, and the time is flexible, which is convenient for job hunting. At a wine fair in Chengdu, Simi placed hundreds of goblets a day. After the meeting, the cups that everyone drank were recycled into plastic boxes. After get off work that day, Simi picked up her mobile phone, and her sore hands twitched uncontrollably, “To put it bluntly, it’s doing odd jobs, and it’s not a long-term exhibition. I can only earn one or two thousand pocket money.” But she still regrets not starting earlier. Part-time.
Unemployment doesn’t just experience abject poverty; it also reveals a cruel side to the world. After the epidemic at the beginning of 2020, Bai Yang, who had worked as a blind date agency for eight years, never opened an order again. Seeing that in May 2021, his work showed no signs of improvement, Bai Yang simply found an insurance company to work, “I think Selling insurance is similar to introducing clients, so it’s not difficult to do.”
In the beginning, Bai Yang was full of passion. She lives in Daxing outside Beijing’s Fifth Ring Road, and it takes 3 hours to go to Guomao CBD. The company requires her to arrive at 8 o’clock, and she has never been late once. The first thing I do when I come to the company every day is to hold a meeting. The lecturer will give a PPT lecture to the employees on the podium, introduce the benefits and functions of insurance, and teach everyone how to sell. After the lecture, Bai Yang and his colleagues practiced with each other, imitating the identities of brokers and clients, and repeating the words they learned. In this insurance brokerage company, insurance brokers can sell any brand of insurance, as long as they can sell the insurance, they can get the corresponding commission.
But after listening to the lecture for a month, the company has not paid her salary yet. Most of the insurance of my colleagues was sold to their relatives. Some people simply bought insurance for themselves in order to improve their KPIs. “Isn’t this a bit like a pyramid scheme? It’s unreliable.” Bai Yang pondered for several nights, and never appeared at the lecture again.
A month later, Bai Yang went to work in Mrs. Anxin’s housekeeping company, and the place of work was further away, in Songzhuang, Tongzhou. The position is a sales consultant with a basic salary of 4000. If you successfully introduce the aunt to the employer, you can get a commission. After working for more than a month, she felt that something was wrong. Only franchisees came to the company every day, and there was no employer. “The company has no customers, so how does it make money?”
She privately asked a well-connected supervisor when the salary would be paid. Two days later, the supervisor replied to her on WeChat, “Last month’s work was fine, but it’s estimated that the next half month’s work will come back.” Later, he added, “You’d better make plans early.”
On Bai Yang’s last day at work, several police cars were parked downstairs, and a dozen serious-looking men and women surrounded the company’s main entrance. There were several people in police uniforms sitting near the welcome desk. It turned out that franchisees from other provinces sued the brand headquarters. Amidst the chaos and noise, Bai Yang walked out of the office building with his leather bag in his hand, and bid farewell to his 40-day part-time job.
It’s not over yet. One day a year later, Bai Yang received a call. The other party claims to be a film and television company. The boss of the company is a director, and the partner is also from the film and television industry. He has studied in Japan and is a native of Beijing. There are more than 100 employees. He has made many blockbuster films and has not yet released them. Bai Yang was a little surprised, because she had never submitted a resume and didn’t understand the film and television industry, but the other party said, it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand, and you can learn when you come. Bai Yang felt that there was no job anyway, so he might as well give it a try.
On the first day there, the boss instructed her solemnly: “The most important thing for a newcomer is to study. Only after learning well will the company know what position she is suitable for.” Bai Yang’s main task every day is to teach her how to invest in the film industry. If you invest in a movie shot by a company and sell it well, you can receive a huge return on investment.
One time at lunch, the leader said insincerely, “Look at Brother Wang, I invested 100,000 before, but I earned millions back. I’m already rich and free.” He advised her to invest quickly. After working for a month, Bai Yang only felt that a circle of people surrounded her every day and said “investment”. She became impatient and asked if she could arrange a specific position, but the boss said: “You haven’t graduated yet, so you can’t work in the film and television industry. Later, a friend persuaded her to leave quickly, “They have no money to make movies, so they want to let employees invest. Do you think you have the ability to pay you wages?”
changed life
After lying at home for half a year, He Wei thought that since he couldn’t find a job, he might as well work for himself, so he joined a dry cleaning and housekeeping shop in the community. Range hood and curtains.
There are a lot of repeat customers in the dry cleaning shop, and the business is good. After the franchise store receives the clothes that need to be dry cleaned, they will send them to the franchisee’s factory for washing. However, after a few months of dry cleaning, the quality of the factory is declining. More and more people come, and over time, there are no customers.
After a year, He Wei made a calculation for himself: Not to mention the fact that he didn’t make any money, he also paid 60,000 yuan in the franchise fee and owed a credit card. He simply closed the store, and since then he has learned a lesson. Those who open a store should never engage in any franchise. “I spent money to buy a lesson, anyway, I won’t touch it in the future. Toss and toss, it’s better to lie down.”
In order to support his family, he started to make money by driving a ride. The journey was 300 kilometers across urban areas, and he could pick up four customers at a time. He could earn five or six hundred yuan for one trip. Once a customer was in a hurry, He Wei drove for 6 hours straight, from Yiyang, Hunan to Yongzhou, and ran more than 400 kilometers in one breath, which made his eyelids fight.
But not every day is so lucky, there will be a customer just to pick up, and sometimes the customer who can’t wait for the return trip for a day, he can’t get home that day, so he can only sleep in the car, “Actually, the most tiring thing is not the sports car, most of the time you have to wait guest”. He Wei leaves at 8 o’clock in the morning every day and can only come back at 10 o’clock in the evening, and if he is a little later, it will be 12 o’clock in the middle of the night. After the epidemic, the mobility of people has decreased, and He Wei’s customers have also decreased.
“You can’t make a lot of money by driving a ride. Six or seven thousand a month is not bad. There is no five social insurance and one housing fund, so it’s not stable.” He Wei misses his previous job even more, and wants to delay the relationship and return to employment later, but he is not sure , “Who knows if I can go back?”
After being unemployed for half a year, Simi finally chose to compromise with reality. She had never considered sales and customer service positions before, because this kind of work can be done with a high school degree, the threshold is low, and the room for advancement is not high. But because she has no other way out, now she feels, “Wherever there is a job, you can try it.”
Simi plans to accept an offer from a salesperson in a photography company. The company has one day off every week, and it may be a day off. Although this job does not meet the requirements of her two-day break, Simi said: “Let’s survive first.”
Bai Yang has also returned to the dating industry. When the market is good, she can earn 30,000 to 40,000 yuan a month. In order to find a good partner, her clients have never been stingy with paying. But now, customers are covering their pockets tightly. “In the past two years of the epidemic, I have been shopping around and found that there is no industry that is not affected by the epidemic. The company cannot pay wages, and customers are unwilling to buy anything.”
When she introduces a partner to a client, she is used to going to a restaurant near Guomao CBD that she thinks has an elegant environment and a high-end environment. Once, when she was waiting for a client at the dinner table, she saw a middle-aged man at the next table wiping tears alone. He told Bai Yang that he started a company two years ago and caught up with the epidemic just after making a profit. The products and raw materials were stuck in Zhengzhou. If the goods cannot be delivered, the company will not be able to survive, and it will go bankrupt. The child and his wife are also in Zhengzhou, and they haven’t seen each other for more than half a year.
Bai Yang looked at him and didn’t know what to say, so he murmured: “It’s difficult for everyone, none of them are easy.”
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