Some unfortunate bosses can expect to receive a hoard of
resignation letters in the next few weeks following the Spring Festival holiday.
Human resources experts have forecast a job-hopping spree.
A man surnamed Ma who runs a foreign trade company in Shanghai
said he found many seats in his office were empty on February 25,
the first working day after the holiday.
"Only about one-third of employees showed up for work," said the
boss of the Shanghai Morning Post.
However, Ma is not alone in watching over an office depleted of
staff.
A survey shows that 37.65 percent of white-collar workers
planned to start working for a new employer after the festival. The
survey was conducted by ChinaHR.com, one of the country's leading
HR media outlets, which covers more than 700 white-collar
businesses in 15 industries.
Some companies have had to recruit interns to fill the
vacancies. Some of these interns will be able to earn 200 yuan
(US$24) per day until a permanent replacement can be found.
"I hope to start a totally new business in the new year," said a
30-year-old Shanghai man, who quit his job at a local publishing
house soon after the Spring Festival. He declined to give his
name.
The reason he quit was that the pay was not good enough, and in
fact, lower than his girlfriend's.
With the booming number of blogs on the Internet, there are now
more ways of knowing what other people earn, and this is fuelling
job-hopping.
Recently, websites such as sohu.com, set up special sections for
people to "divulge their salaries". The result was that the incomes
of almost all industries were exposed.
"Of course, after comparing the incomes of other people in
similar positions, most people would feel a little frustrated and
unsatisfied with their bosses," said a young man working for a
website, who asked not to be named.
But money is not the only reason.
More than 20 percent of respondents in the survey said Spring
Festival provided an opportune time to think about their careers
and prospects.
The survey found job-hopping would probably spike in the middle
of this month.
Another survey by Zhaopin.com, showed 37 percent of respondents
wanted to find better opportunities in the spring job market after
getting their yearly bonus.
Some companies, however, are taking steps to combat this
problem.
"The peak of job-hopping appears after the payment of the yearly
bonus, so some companies especially those in sales, postpone the
payment. Some even pay the bonus as late as April to prevent the
collapse of the sales team," said Simon Li, a HR manager of an
international company.
(China Daily March 6, 2007)