Everyone Got an iPhone Duo, Including the Interns. The Tax Line Is What Stuck With Me.

On September 10, before dawn, Apple released its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo. The mainland China starting price was 15,999 yuan. On the same day, a message appeared in the company group chat at Yingshi Jufeng. In the screenshot, founder Pan Tianhong, known as Tim, wrote: "Same old rule. One iPhone Duo per person. You can also choose another model of equal value. Whether you are an intern or just joined, as long as you are at the company today, you will get one." Then he added: "Because company gifts to individuals require personal income tax, the company will cover this tax for you. Rest assured."

Employees posted the screenshot on social media. It spread quickly. In the comments, someone wrote, "I admit it, I'm jealous." Someone else said, "It's someone else's company again."

After the jealousy, read the notice three times. A few words stand out: per person. Whether you are an intern or just joined. As long as you are at the company today. The company covers the tax.

Most company benefits follow a hierarchy. Full-time employees get them; interns do not. Core positions get them; peripheral positions do not. The team-building list has no intern's name. Holiday gift boxes skip the new hire's desk. The reasons are legal: you are not a full-time employee, you have not been confirmed yet, you are only here to learn. You did no less work, but benefits are distributed by identity.

This time, Yingshi Jufeng included interns. If you were on duty that day, whether you had been there half a day or were on your first day as an intern, you got one. For many interns, the daily wage is one or two hundred yuan. A 15,999-yuan phone is something they could only touch after months of saving. I looked down at my own phone. There is a crack in the screen. I dropped it last year and never replaced it.

The tax sentence is even rarer. When a company gives employees physical gifts, it must withhold personal income tax. Many bosses shout on stage, "We're giving everyone the latest iPhone!" When payday comes, employees discover several thousand yuan were deducted. You cannot say the company did not give it, but the benefit shrinks in hand. Tim wrote directly: the company covers the tax. Employees get the new phone at zero cost. The company group notice ends with a period, not an exclamation mark.

If it happened only once, it might be a stunt. Yingshi Jufeng has done it for five consecutive years. Every year Apple releases a new phone, everyone gets the top-tier iPhone. When they reached ten million followers, everyone got gold. On their tenth anniversary, everyone got a large bonus. There are no firework emojis in the screenshot, only a line of text. The boss was not in a good mood one day. The company has a distribution logic: when it makes money, it shares with the team. The boss does not swallow the profit alone.

The money is not wasted. A content company shoots videos, edits footage, scouts locations, and tests gear. A high-performance phone is a production tool. Yingshi Jufeng does not rely on burning venture capital. It makes revenue from commercial orders, e-commerce livestreaming, and paid knowledge products. Annual revenue exceeds one hundred million yuan, and cash flow is healthy. Giving everyone a phone gets them on the trending list, creates free widespread publicity, and boosts recruitment appeal. The saved advertising budget may be higher than the cost of the phones. Employees get the device; the company gets exposure. Both sides gain.

But do not only see the phone. High benefits correspond to high standards. Yingshi Jufeng practices survival of the fittest. Every year it eliminates people whose performance does not meet the bar. The elimination rate is not low, and it gives full compensation. If you want the latest iPhone every year, you need to show ability worthy of that treatment every year. This is a company with clear price tags: high treatment, high demands; high returns, high pressure. It is more decent than places that exploit you and draw pies in the sky.

Someone asked whether this incentive model should spread. Not all of it. Part of it. Small companies do not have that cash flow. Copying it blindly can backfire. But transparent rules, kept promises, benefits without rank discrimination, tax compliance, and willingness to share profit with the team do not require huge cash. If you cannot afford an iPhone, you can afford a Friday that ends on time. If you cannot afford gold, you can afford paid annual leave that is not docked. Priority is the obstacle.

Ordinary people watching this can be jealous, but do not mythologize it. Good companies are not entered by luck. They are filtered by ability. When choosing a job, do not only look at salary. Look at whether the rules are transparent, whether promises are kept, whether benefits are equal. If you become a boss one day, remember what you envied today. When you make money, share it. State the rules clearly. Do not treat interns differently.

What people want is a workplace where they do not have to guess the boss's mood, swallow a painted pie, or watch benefits pass by because of a title. A phone can make someone happy for a week. A fair workplace can change how a person sees work for years. That is the part that stings. That is the part to copy.

I swiped the screenshot away and opened the food delivery app. I still had not ordered lunch. The proposal for the afternoon was still unfinished.