Is China's Employee Challenges Your Fate As Well?

I read a variety of topics and then apply a "Leadership Lens" to them.

Just today I was reading an interesting article about a new "job" in China that sparked my attention.

Apparently, in China, people are applying for a position called, "Full-Time Children".

How did China get to this point?

Let's look at some of the happenings in China's employment forces (especially their youth), and look at the problems Dis-Stress is causing.

Problem 1: 996

One of China's largest problems is its belief that more work creates more productivity.

How much "more" work?

Well, the norm for a workweek in China is known as 996.

9 am to 9 pm (12 hours straight), 6 days a week.

So, 72 hours per week is considered "normal" for work.

We know that even 50+ hour weeks can cause many challenges from a Wellbeing perspective for employees.

This creates a Dis-Stress situation, and the more hours at work (especially if we do not feel fulfilled with that work), the worse our Dis-Stress will become.

Plus, this amount of work will prevent Recovery that is needed for the highest levels of Productivity.

Productivity is highest when we get into Flow States, which becomes impossible if we are in Dis-Stress and not Recovering enough.

In fact, we are 5X more Productive in Flow than when we are not in these states.

That means that someone who is in Flow for 15 hours per week would be more productive than the employees in China working 72 hours per week in Dis-Stress.

Productivity should not be measured in hours but in output.

If you are measuring productivity by the number of hours worked, or worse by the number of hours sitting in an office, you are measuring the wrong things.

However, there are further problems here for China.

Problem 2: The University Problem

Another problem we are seeing in China is one I wrote about recently called The University Problem.

More and more youth are going to college, up to 59.6% in China.

However, getting a degree fails to translate into obtaining a job.

Official reports in China state unemployment for 16 to 24-year-olds being over 21%, and unofficial reports say it could actually be as high as 46.5% in China!

Why is it so high?

For China, there are a few reasons.

Part of it is there are not enough jobs overall, due to a lack of Innovation.

Again, we can look at the 996 Problem above because Innovation best occurs in Flow States - the less Flow, the less Innovation.

Another aspect is that businesses are valuing Experience rather than Education.

The requirements to get jobs for Chinese youth are simply impossible to reach.

Jobs require high levels of Experience which these youth simply can't get.

If these young people can't get Experience, then their Education becomes worthless.

Many years and a lot of money become wasted, and frustration (aka Dis-Stress) builds on a broken promise.

To overcome this challenge, we either need our Educational Systems to actually translate to jobs, or we need Experience to be obtained before entering the workforce.

In either case, we see that the Educational System is failing.

It gets worse still for China.

Problem 3: Results Of Extended Dis-Stress

There are many things that employees and people do in response to extended periods of Dis-Stress.

In China, there are two terms that have become common among the youth.

The first is "Tangping" or "Lying Flat".

It is a term for when people stop trying to grind their way to the top (as is the societal expectation in China).

We have different terms for this in the West, "Disengaged", or more recently "Quiet Quitting".

From studies, we know how detrimental Disengagement is to organizations, and mainstream has also highlighted the challenges that come with Quiet Quitting.

The second term in China is "Bailan" or "Let it Rot".

Essentially, it is when people give up completely on a hopeless situation, and it can also lead to them actively working against organizations or institutions.

We also have a term for this, "Active Disengagement".

Anytime people purposefully act in ways against the needs of an organization is not only going to cause issues, but it will actively hinder productivity.

In some cases, it literally creates Negative Productivity.

The more people who are Disengaged or Actively Disengaged, the worse it becomes for an organization as these can literally "spread" to others if not taken care of.

In places like the US, it is mainly a problem at organizational levels which mainly Executives discuss.

In China's case, it is becoming a societal problem that the people are actively rallying around.

What happens when there is so much Dis-Stress that entire societies simply give up?

Well, we are seeing it in China.

Instead of contributing, the youth are simply giving up and accepting the role of "Full-Time Children".

This also creates "Learned Helplessness" which from Psychological studies creates another huge list of problems.

In China, this is also extremely emotionally charged which makes it even worse.

There is a huge difference between the terms when compared.

The difference between "Actively Disengaged" and "Let it Rot" is emotionally significant.

We cannot let Active Disengagement get so bad that large groups simply decide to allow organizations to "Rot".

What Can We Learn From China?

Are we doomed to this Fate?

Not if we recognize what the problems are.

We as Leaders need to understand Psychophysiology if we are going to prevent these problems.

First, we need to understand the role of Dis-Stress.

Overworking people will cause Dis-Stress.

Not allowing people to Recover will cause Dis-Stress.

When Dis-Stress is too high, we prevent Flow States.

What follows is significantly decreased Productivity, decreased Innovation, and decreased Wellness.

This Dis-Stress becomes a fast track to Burnout.

When we experience Burnout, it quickly leads to Active Disengagement.

If large groups fall into this category it can become emotionally charged into a "Let It Rot" mentality.

We can't rely on "Education" to be our savior unless we fix the Educational System and it provides students with real Experience that allows them to get jobs.

We also can't allow things to get so bad that people give up completely and go into "Learned Helplessness".

So, if we are going to succeed as Leaders, we need to flip the equation.

What Can Be Done?

If we know that potentially great employees are not getting Experience, we can come from 3 different directions.

First, we can change our job requirements and start looking for "traits" that we need our employees to have as opposed to a useless resume "checklist".

We have seen that Resumes are often gamified, and don't actually show us the value a potential employee brings.

Second, we can create low-level jobs that give employees quick experience.

These jobs do not need to be Full Time, and could even be a Temp-To-Full type of job.

It gives organizations a "trial" period with potentially great employees, while also giving employees needed experience.

We need to give people Opportunities to demonstrate their Value, and if we do that they absolutely will show it to you.

Third, we could create Training Programs that give employees the "Experience" they need instead of expecting them to simply come with the Experience.

With this, we also need to target the largest problem - figuring out Psychophysiology as Leaders.

If our biggest problem is Burnout - which it obviously is - then we combat it by actually fixing Dis-Stress at the root of the problem.

Organizations that actually alleviate Dis-Stress for employees, measurably, will become the next golden companies to work for.

With the lowering of Dis-Stress, you next need to figure out how to create Flow States in your organization.

But, we cannot rely on singular Flow States, rather we need to actively create Group Flow States.

Accomplishing this creates Active Engagement, builds Positive Cultures quickly, makes Hiring simple, leads to increased Work Fulfillment, and so much more.

Instead of trying to unnaturally build these things (which is what most organizations attempt to do), we can instead create Group Flow States making these results a natural byproduct.

To accomplish this though, our Leaders need to become Masters of their Psychophysiology.

If we take this into the Training Programs I mentioned previously, we can teach Employees to become Masters of Psychophysiology.

Not only will this create better Employees, but they will also be set up to also become our next great Leaders.

If we want to overcome the glaring problems we can see, this is what Leaders are going to need to figure out.

If Leaders become Exemplars of their Psychophysiology, we can overcome the problems we see.