(ORDO NEWS) — A Chinese man aroused the envy of his entire country after he won 365 days of paid vacation in a lavish raffle organized by his company.
In a viral video that has been streaming on Chinese social media for about a week now, a young man can be seen sitting on a chair in what looks like a banquet hall, holding a large sign reading “365 days of paid vacation.”
The footage soon attracted the attention of leading news outlets, who were able to determine the location shown in the video and thus the event that took place there.
It turns out that this was recorded during the annual meeting held by the company in Shenzhen, whose management wanted to ease the tension of their employees by offering fun and tempting prizes in the lottery.
Chen, an administrative employee at an unnamed company, told reporters that her employer had not organized an annual meeting for three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so he decided to relieve stress on employees by holding a fun lottery where employees could win both prizes and funny fines.
For example, someone could be forced to drink a “special house drink” or “serve as a waiter for their colleagues” at an event, while the prizes included one or two extra days of rest or a few more days of paid vacation.
After discussing the idea with the boss, the organizers of the annual giveaway decided to include a shockingly generous prize that would really take everyone by surprise.
And that’s how the 365 Days of Paid Vacation prize came about. It was won by the young manager seen in the viral video.
The unusual nature of the prize has puzzled many Chinese workers for various reasons. Some said they could only dream of winning an entire year of paid vacation, while others claimed the prize was actually a trap in disguise.
“Once you get back from vacation, the job is no longer yours,” one person commented on Chinese video hosting platform Douyin (TikTok), while another warned that this way the boss “knows that the company is the same with or without you.”
Others said the winner would also miss out on potential bonuses and should say goodbye to their promotion chances by accepting the prize.
There were also those who ignored the warnings, saying they would take a year of paid leave even if they risked being fired immediately afterwards.
“In a year, if I come back and feel like I can’t continue, I will change jobs,” someone wrote on Weibo.
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