Hello and welcome to work.
We had a great launch event for the group of employees FT Wellbeing, where I talked about the emergence of Great emotions at work 😳, And how managers can help, while my colleague Claer Barrett gave advice to improve financial well -being. Those of us who work at the FT are lucky to have Claer by hand, but their wisdom is also available through its award -winning newsletter series: Order your financial life.
As Claer pointed out, we often overlook the financial benefits at work and, therefore, we lose free money. (I certainly lost the £ 150 subsidy of the FT towards the glasses for computer work 🤦🏼♀️).
Keep reading to obtain expert information about the trends of the workplace that began in China, which are fascinating (and perhaps relevant to?) The rest of the world.
PD: I didn’t have time writing office therapy this week, I’m afraid, because I had to handle a crisis at home. Let’s say this: London’s fruity electronic bicycles are a mixed blessing 🫣🚲.
As always, send an email about anything that bothers you/great things/why the AI goes or does not go To take our jobs for 2027 👀: Isabel.berwick@ft.com
The terms of China’s work culture become global
It can be familiar with the phenomenon in the Chinese language, ping pingeither lying downwhich refers to workers who are exhausted and stop striving. He began to speak widely in 2021 during the pandemic, and has something in common with the subsequent Tiktok phenomenon of “Quiet leaving“: Value your own time and not strive too much at work 🛀🏿.
More recently, we have learned more about the culture of the workplace “always active” in China through terms such as “996”, to work from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week, and even “007”, which means that there are no free days. But what caught my attention was recently a word used in an FT analysis of The brutal labor market For the graduates of the United Kingdom of someone who has requested more than 100 jobs:
“There is a Chinese term, Neijuan, it means that it doesn’t matter how much you try, it doesn’t matter how much you work, success is impossible … Neijuan perfectly summarizes my life and those of my classmates.”
I had not heard of NeijuanSo I talked to Professor Chris Rowley, an expert in business and administration in Asia, after he wrote a Letter to FT About the article. In it, Chris suggested that the comparison was not correct, since “the context of the United Kingdom is very different and less marked compared to China.” A more complete definition of NeijuanAs Chris wrote, it is “a situation in which the increasing contributions do not produce improvements, a social phenomenon where intense competition drives people to increase their efforts in a self -dating cycle, which does not lead to real progress. Therefore, it does not matter how hard it works, progress is impossible. This leads to demotivation and disconnection and even ‘opting’ in total.”
Chris, who teaches at Kellogg College Business School, Oxford and Bayes, City St George’s, University of London, said that graduates in Europe and the United States have not faced the same pressure and competition to enter prestigious schools and universities that are built from an early age in Asia. “On my first trip to Korea, for example, in the early 90s, my colleague took their children from school after school, and then picked them at 10 pm
While Neijuan It may not be a direct parallel with the United Kingdom, it is clearly identifiable in a moment of shortage for job seekers, overwhelming and salary stagnation for those who are working. Chris then told me about another movement among young people in China that goes further Neijuan In a total rejection of adult life: “Some people become what is called” a full -time child “, where they have just completely left because they cannot get a job. Therefore, they return to their parents and do work at home … so they will make purchases, wash, cleaning.”
This “full -time” phenomenon is not the same as the “locked” lifestyle we know by its Japanese name, Hikikomori, in which young people separated from society and stay in their rooms. Instead, “full -time child” is a reversal to an era before the young woman’s dreams became destroyed. “This is basically when you can’t get a job, despite the dream of childhood. So you return to your parents, but not only lie,” Chris told me.
It seems almost impertinent comparing the phenomenon of “full -time child” with the return (imminent) to the house of 2025 graduates of the University of the United Kingdom who cannot obtain work at the postgraduate level 🎓, which will join many others of previous cohorts who live with their families and work, often in hospitality work. However, I can see the parallels.
*Does your country have a work or cultural place that others should know? We would love to know: Isabel.berwick@ft.com.
Five main stories of the world of work
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M&S blames ‘human error’ for the cyber attack that will reach profits in £ 300mn: If you think you’ve had a bad week, think about it again. More details are emerging about the attack on M&S: it arrived through the staff of an external supplier that changed passwords and authentication processes and let criminals enter.
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EE. UU. Anjli Raval informs about the measures that some academics and businessmen are implementing when they travel to the US, including burning phones and the elimination of computer data.
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Touched by generational jargon? Try a corporate translator. The Z generation is resorting to the creators online and the AI to help them write formal emails and transmit their messages in a way that is acceptable to the major managers, writes Olivia Surgey.
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What the management theory tells us about Trump’s rival team: Leadership experts speak with Andrew Hill about Donald Trump’s management style, including some explanations of the “group thought” on exhibition between his cabinet.
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What does a positive difference in the way the staff feels about work? Good managers, that’s what. I wrote for him The best FT employers in Europe 2025 Supplement in one of my favorite themes.
One more thing. . .
For an antidote to the gloom, marker The ballad of the island of Wallis, A movie that is already out in the United States and opens in the cinemas of the United Kingdom at the end of this month. It is correctly, roar and funny (although in the end it can be crying, in good sense 🥹). Tim Key and Tom Basden write and crash, with Carey Mulligan such as Nell, former musical and life partner of Basden’s grass. The folk duo meets to play a unique concert for an eccentric superfan (key) that lives on a remote island.
INSIGHTS IN THE WORK PLACE OF USA
Last week, I talked about the Increased AI agents. Summary: There is talk of agents that are spoken and are non -stop, although it is not clear how many people know what they are 👀.
As a follow -up, I asked my expert in the workplace, Kevin Delaney, editor in chief of LetterThe future of the Labor and Media Research Company, to exploit through the tangles of the surveys and the LinkedIn LinkedIn bullet publications and give it to the workl it Straight readers: What do you think about the agent? Is it for our jobs?
“It is difficult to imagine that the AI does not recess the works of millions of white collar workers, and AI agents are probably accelerated from that, since they can complete tasks autonomously. In many areas, this has the potential to reduce the quantity and quality of jobs. The promised creation of new functions and less work nonsense is a great hope, although less safe.
AI agents will reduce the inconveniences of many areas of the workplace. Many small tasks that require our approach and coordination, such as meetings programming or obtaining information from another part of a company, can be managed by AI agents.
Agents can also perform many of the tasks that constitute roles within companies. American executives tell me that they are asking their teams to determine if AI can do a job before hiring a human for any open work. The greatest capacities that the AI agents represent will surely increase the frequency with which the hiring managers return and say, no, we do not need to hire a person.
Technological optimists predict that, despite the fact that jobs disappear in this way, the greatest efficiency and economic activity generated thanks to AI will lead to the creation of new jobs, and the net impact on employment will be positive. That may be true in the long term, but during the next months and years, it is easier to see how ia agents will replace human work. “
A view of the work community 📷
This week’s snapshot of working life comes from Andrew Hewitt, who says: “Here is the view from my office at the Metropolitan University of Manchester, where I am CFO. On the right is the original Manchester art school. To its left is the new Grosvenor East East building. Agree 👍.
Andrew will receive a “salsa of luck” of new work, productivity and management books. Send your view from your desktop (or roof terrace): Isabel.berwick@ft.com. He doesn’t even have to be sunny.
And finally. . .
A thank you to Career trimmingAn organization that works with employers and possible returns so that more people (agree, women 👩🏽💻) are again good jobs after vacations. Is 2025 career returns indicator It is now available, a great resource for any company that builds a return program.
It is a difficult market, but employers can help eliminate recruitment bias ✅. Sample Council: “Verify that your automated or manual application process is not detecting candidates only for your CV gap: 2021 Harvard Business School Research in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany found that 43-48 percent of the ATS systems filter gaps for six months.” 😱