Challenging everything from overtime work to abusive bosses, can China’s “post-00s” really rewrite workplace norms?
China’s “post-00” generation, or linglinghou, a rough equivalent of Gen Z, have begun their journey into the workplace in the past few years. Many older folks who often see this generation as spoiled and tech-obsessed are surprised to see them already taking the workplace by storm.
Unlike people in their 30s and 40s who have become jaded supporting their elderly parents, little kids, mortgages, and car loans, many post-00s, unencumbered by heavy financial burdens, are fearlessly raising their voices against toxic culture and unspoken rules that have long plagued Chinese workplaces.
The Weibo hashtag “Post-00s Are Truly Transforming the Workplace (原来00后真的有在整顿职场)” has accumulated 220 million views at the time of writing. The vast majority express praise or astonishment toward the bold attitudes of this youthful group and their ways of instilling the workplace with respect for personal boundaries, while some see their behaviors as bratty and lacking a sense of responsibility.
Here is a guide to how the post-00s are making their voices heard at work, and how other netizens are talking about them.
While stereotypes portray those born in the 1980s as consumed by family and marriage, and the post-90s as either too lazy or too competitive, the post-00s tries to set themselves apart:
Yang Tingting is a Chinese editor at The World of Chinese. Interested in telling Chinese stories, she writes mainly about culture, language, and society.
