Recently, holding a “resignation” party after leaving their company has become a part of the culture in China, especially for those in their 20s.

People who engage in this trend are usually in their 20s, suggesting their motives for quitting ranging from low wages to burnout.

One of the people among the youth in China, Liang, held a resignation party for quitting his banking job in China’s Zhejiang province.

He and his friend, who also quit the job celebrated their resignation together, hanging a banner tha read “We're done with this bullsh*t job!”

This kind of resignation party is gaining popularity through social media among the youth, reflecting the increased "resignation" rate in reality.

According to China’s LinkedIn equivalent, Maimai, 28% out of 1,553 employees who were surveyed from January through October 2022, resigned in that year.

This staggering resignation rate may be as a result of dissatisfaction with their job and work life.

Dissatisfaction with their given tasks underlies the two main problems in China: the educational rat race and the market mismatch.

China begins the educational rat race at a young age with the preparation for the college entrance exam, known as “gaokao”.

Children conduct after-school tutoring and endure high-pressure exams in an effort to get good scores on this exam.

Despite their devotion to the youth for the exam, what they should confront in the future is overworking and an unstable economic situation.

Nancy Qian, a professor of economics at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, speaks on the depression and vanity that young people feel when they confront reality as undermining “the morals and work ethic they’ve been taught their whole lives.”

Indeed, Liang, one of the young people who organized the “resignation” party after he quit his banking job, stated, “I fell into mechanized, repetitive work. It consumed a lot of my energy.”, showing his exhaustion and the futility of his work.

He further expresses the negative sentiment towards the works that he undertook, mentioning, “Your innovative ideas would have been dismissed and vanish eventually.”

Alongside the educational rat race, the market mismatch is another factor that enhances dissatisfaction with their work.

The market mismatch refers to the imbalance between the supply and demand of labor, which typically happens when the educational level of the laborers doesn’t match their occupations.

In China, a large percentage of employers are overqualified for their jobs and the economy doesn’t currently require as many highly skilled workers, even though people acquire higher education degrees.

For example, Veyron Mai, a resident of the southern city of Foshan, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music, but ended up conducting blue-collar work which doesn’t require the knowledge of music that she had learned.

The labor mismatch between the skills that the individuals possess and the abilities the job requires is tightening China’s economy, and contributing to the growth of the resignation rates.

Yunji Heo
Grade 10
Gyeonggi Academy of Foreign Languages