A company boss is praised by internet users for giving his employees a half-day off to shop during the annual online Singles Day shopping spree, which started on Friday just after midnight.
“Considering our employees would stay up late to buy things online, and that would affect their rest and consequently their efficiency at work, I made the decision to give them a half-day free,” said Qiu Ling, general manager of Lingdong Media Co Ltd in Jining, Shandong province in eastern China.
The company has more than 30 employees, most of them of the post-1980s and post-1990s generations, with an average age of 29.
“I know they prefer online shopping more than window shopping,” said Qiu.
He hoped, in the notice announcing the special leave, that his single employees would soon find partners.
Netizens quickly took note of Qiu of as the news spread online, with some praising him as a nice, considerate boss.
“As a media company, it’s better to have a flexible work system within which employees more easily come up with innovative ideas. I think his (Qiu’s) decision is smart,” said Wu Dongmei, who works for a foreign-backed company in Qingdao, also in Shandong province.
For student shoppers, some universities and colleges also offered special treatment – supplying electricity all night instead of the usual practice of cutting electricity after 10 pm.
Communication University of China in Beijing posted on its micro blog that electricity would stay on Thursday night. It also urged students to arrange their time reasonably and not disturb other students.
But not everyone supports the annual online shopping spree. A restaurant in Chongqing in southwestern China was reported to delay salary payment on Thursday to the end of next month, saying “to help employees save money, avoid family conflicts and protect employees from small-scale bankruptcy”.
The 31-year-old restaurant manager was quoted as saying he had bad experience on last year’s Singles Day online shopping festival during which he spent 20,000 yuan ($2,930), and some things he bought were useless.
The manager said the average age of his employees is around 25 and they don’t have much savings. He is worried that once their salaries were paid, they would soon be spent, China National Radio reported.
“Our company never delays salary. But this time, we just want to protect employees from unreasonable consumption. For employees who have emergency, I will pay them,” CNR quoted the manager as saying.
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(Via: NewsGhana)