An interesting trope of Asian business culture has been formally implemented by a boss in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China this week. An employee named Mr. Zhang reports that his supervisor dropped a pile of money onto a meeting table, and then informed his underlings that they would receive their year-end bonuses based on how much alcohol they consumed. “The company’s business success,” the boss explained, “was rooted in [its] employees being able to hold their liquor with clients.”
“We worked hard all year only to learn our bonuses would be decided by our alcohol tolerance. It was absolutely unfair to people who can’t drink much,” Zhang has complained to Global Times. “Men were given 500 yuan ($82) for a shot of liquor, 200 yuan ($33) for a glass of red wine and 100 yuan ($16.50) for a beer. Women were given twice as much money for consuming the same amounts.”
Those with high alcohol tolerance could pocket over 10,000 yuan ($16,000, while others had to settle for 1000 yuan ($160). “I couldn’t get a bonus if I didn’t drink,” Zhang added, “but it is bad for one’s health to drink too much. Everyone ended up drinking and some people vomited. It was unreasonable and inhumane.”
The worst part (for the soft-bellied sissy drinkers, of course) is that legal experts found no laws regulating the distribution of year-end bonuses or their contingency on booze consumption. Soooo–we should all go get new jobs in China, right?
Chinese Company Bases Bonus Pay On Alcohol Tolerance; We're Interested
