Introduction | Invisible life
The number of people with flexible employment at the end of 2021 has reached 200 million. But beyond the spotlight, what their lives really look like is something I'm curious about. When we study consumers, we always like to use grandiose terms, "white-collar workers", "hot moms", "Generation Z", but what is their desire and state of this group?
Note: The characters in this article are pseudonyms.
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On the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, Twilight slept until she woke up naturally, opened the Meituan takeaway, and took a look at the store that I wanted to explore has resumed business. She decided to arrive at the store around 5 p.m., "when the light was better." As a blogger with more than 3,000 fans on the whole network, Twilight has not yet decided whether to accept the invitation of MCN institutions. She still wants to be free, "their terms are a bit harsh, and I am a little resistant to giving my people, or I want to do it my own way." 」 However, a place like Nanning is no better than a first- and second-tier city, and Twilight also knows that it is basically impossible to go to the head with her own ability.
Also on this day, Kaigo launched his "7 days after the holiday weight loss plan", wanting to lose at least 5 pounds before Valentine's Day. "No way, I'm older, I didn't control the Spring Festival, I gained a circle." It is certainly not okay to host this way. Valentine's Day is a critical time to take orders. "After 5 years of wedding officiation, Kaige has a certain reputation in Ningbo, and wedding hosts like him who do not sign wedding companies especially need to rely on word of mouth, but it is a shot deal." Since half a year ago, he has also begun to try to do live broadcasting on the Internet, but the reality is very cruel, "At present, there are less than 500 fans, and there is no income." ”
Yang Chao only fell asleep in the morning. "Picked up a traffic accident order in the early hours of last night. Alas, the Great New Year's Day. "Yang Chao became a part-time employee of a funeral company 2 years ago, and participated in everything from moving the deceased to arranging a memorial service." Mainly depends on how well the money is given. Three years ago, Yang Chao returned to Zunyi from Zhuhai and tried to start a French bakery, "opening a loss of 150,000 yuan for more than half a year." I want to find a job that comes with a quick money to pay off the debt quickly. The Taiwanese partner at the bakery introduced the work of the funeral company — the owner of the company is also Taiwanese. The reason why he did not officially enter the job was because he was still doing the work of delivering wine part-time, and after Yang Chao's calculations, two such jobs with irregular hours earned a higher income than a stable job. "In good times, it can be between 8,000-10,000 yuan a month."
Recently, the People's Daily published an article, "The relevant person in charge of the National Bureau of Statistics recently said that by the end of 2021, China's flexible employment personnel have reached 200 million, of which more than 1.6 million are engaged in anchors and related practitioners, an increase of nearly 3 times compared with 2020." ”
The concept of flexible employment has appeared for a long time, and in 2004, the "White Paper on China's Employment Status and Policies" issued by the New Office of the State Council gave a high evaluation to flexible employment, and believed that it is an important form of employment promotion. Unlike other young people who are admitted to the civil service examination, go to the north to pursue their dreams, and start their own businesses, some young people who are flexibly employed are for the purpose of living a freer life, and some are forced to do so.
I talked to a couple of young people who are flexibly employed, and they say they don't dare to represent 200 million people, or even the flexible workers in their cities. Among them, some people do not have a clear plan, but it seems that the job is a choice that better combines their interests and abilities. But interest is also difficult in the face of reality. Some people know that this is just a transitional state, and eventually want to return to the traditional career system. Some people are "passive choice", unconsciously embarking on this road but gradually adapting to the state of flexible employment.
In 2021, they also clearly felt the changes in the economic situation and the impact of the epidemic on consumption. The already unstable work is showing greater turmoil, but the advantage of flexible employment lies in resilience, "the east is not bright and the west is bright", and their unified feelings are that their impact is not as great as those friends around them who work stably. After the Spring Festival, some of them signed up for training courses, hoping that they could continue to improve in technology; some people could only hope to work more horizontally, and did not believe that flexible employment could be maintained for a long time.
01 Options outside of mainstream careers
Twilight didn't go to class, and in the last semester of her junior year, her classmates were interning, and she began to work as a shop-exploring blogger. In the first semester of her junior year, she and her boyfriend went to a Japanese food store for dinner, filmed a short video, and received thousands of likes on Douyin, and a milk tea shop found her and asked her to shoot, "But there is no money, only free milk tea." She went to take short videos and photos, posted on Douyin and Xiaohongshu, this time there was no reaction on Douyin, but Xiaohongshu received dozens of likes and fans. She quickly realized that different platforms have different requirements for content. But at the time, she only regarded it as a fun thing, and she did not intend to become a full-time shop blogger.
After the Spring Festival in 2021, like other students, she also threw in her resume. Twilight is a college student, the school strength is average, visual communication major, most of the resumes she cast are design positions. However, few responses were received. The only two interviews were also unsuccessful. At that time, she was about to graduate, and she did not want to go back to her hometown, or wanted to stay in Nanning. "There's not much to do when you go back to a small county, and your days are boring."
"Don't you like designing this profession and industry?" I asked her directly, and she answered very directly. "Yeah, I didn't have any talent, I chose this major just to study. So in terms of professional learning, my situation is also very general. Many students in college are actively going out to intern and participate in awards, but I do not have this ability. As for other non-design jobs, "it's even more impossible, I've cast a few, and it's completely out of the game." ”
In the face of the choice of "unemployment after graduation" or "going back to work in his hometown", Twilight did not want to choose either of these two options, and if he wanted to stay in Nanning, it seemed that the only way to explore the shop blogger was the way.
Unlike Twilight, Kaige actively chooses flexible employment. 8 years ago, Kaige graduated from university and returned to his hometown of Ningbo and entered a real estate agency company. "Life was fine then, and the house was easier to sell." In college, Kaige was a famous host of the school, and he began to do some off-campus hosting work part-time. "At that time, I didn't understand anything, it was 200 yuan a game, running for a day, tired." Eloquent, he also has a good effect of real estate sales, and often gets the crown. But the interpersonal relationships and corporate system in real estate agencies made him feel depressed. "Gangs and gangs often don't know which sentence offends whom. Performance is often late or absent. ”
Later, when his classmates got married, they asked him to help officiate the wedding, but unexpectedly received three orders, and the guests at the wedding thought he was doing well and found him through the groom. Thus, he began the days of "slash youth". Go to work at the company during the day and officiate at the wedding in the afternoon. After all, weddings don't happen every day, and real estate agents' working hours are relatively loose. "Those days were still relatively leisurely." But this did not last long, and he was reported in the company for doing the hosting work.
So far, Kaige does not know who reported it, and what kind of "factional strife" he has fallen into cannot be confirmed in various rumors. His first thought at that time was to change a company, after all, there are many real estate agencies, and with his qualifications, it should not be difficult to find a job. But he also wants to change the industry, "Although the property sale is quite suitable for me, but the interpersonal relationship is complicated, and it is very upset to deal with." "At the time he wanted to go to a car dealership or a watch brand. The turnaround was brought by a friend of a property developer, "Who knew I was quite depressed about being fired and said he could help me win the hosting of various events for their company for the second year." At that time, if you did the math, there could be sixty or seventy thousand a year. But Kaige still did not dare to make up his mind to only be the host, "after all, it feels like you still have to have a formal job." ”
The catalyst came from the support of his girlfriend. At that time, Kaige had reached the age of talking about marriage. He knew very well that the other parent would definitely ask about his job. If you say that you are a wedding officiant, it means that you do not have a stable job, "Father-in-law and mother-in-law must not be fried." But the girlfriend didn't think so. Kaigo's girlfriend is a nurse with a staff, stable but tired, and working hours are not fixed. The girlfriend discussed with him, there is only one person in the family who is busy and tired, the other has to make time to take care of the family, her income is stable, the house is also supported, in fact, the pressure of life is not large, Kaige can do what he likes, and he can have a relatively free time, which is a good choice. Kaige felt at this time that his girlfriend was "sober in the world". He accepted the advice of a friend of the property developer and began to develop in the direction of event hosting, while also continuing to be a wedding officiant.
Yang Chao originally did takeaway operations in Zhuhai. When he first entered the company, his basic salary was only 2300 yuan a month, "if you can't complete the KPI, you don't have 1 penny of performance." After gritting his teeth and learning hard for 3 months, he began to get performance. In that year and a half, his greatest "achievement" was to help a newly opened Chinese dim sum shop achieve a monthly turnover of 180,000 yuan in a month, "then there was an illusion, as if I could do it myself." Later, he operated more than 15 takeaway shops at the same time, sometimes close to 30, "very busy, but with low ceilings." He felt that the takeaway agency operation was not long-lasting, and also suggested that the boss develop more business, but there was no following.
After the Spring Festival of the epidemic, the business of the takeaway operation company fell by 70%, and Yang Chao failed to return to Zhuhai, "being fired remotely, without any compensation." I also understand the boss, he is also difficult. He also thought about opening a small company operated by himself in Zunyi, but Zunyi is no less than Zhuhai, the number of stores is small, and the money that the boss can give is also limited. Moreover, after the epidemic, the physical stores were reduced by more than half, "At that time, in March and April, many stores did not tear off the copy paper that was open after the year." At this time, he found that he could rent a good shop at a low price. So I remembered my "brilliant record" in Zhuhai, maybe I can make a bakery, at least takeaway is no problem. His partner is his friend's boyfriend, a Taiwanese who studied French baking in Guangdong, and is trapped in Zunyi because of the epidemic. The two hit it off, Yang Chao was responsible for drainage and operation, and the Taiwanese partner was responsible for product and personnel management.
Unexpectedly, opening a store and doing takeaway agency operations are two different things. Production, design, equipment, decoration, recruitment... By the time you can open a store after everything is done, the two people have invested seventy or eighty thousand. The shop was open, but the business was bleak. "Zhuhai's takeaway skills are completely useless in Zunyi, and I can't concentrate so much." Soon, three months later, the two men hit it off and went out of business. Of the almost 150,000 yuan invested, most of which were borrowed by Yang Chaoqing's relatives. Fortunately, the two people did not fall out of face, "I asked him if he had any work to get money faster." He thought about it for a moment and said that if there is, I am afraid that you will not dare to do it. "Taiwanese say that the owner of a funeral company in a nearby city is a fellow villager, where people often need to be recruited, and the money is generous." Of course, I had resistance in my heart, and I had never thought about this industry before. Yang Chao tried to find another job and found that there was really no one who could give more money than the funeral company. So, I took a bus to a place where I was not familiar with life.
02 There are as many "misunderstandings" as freedom
"When my mom asked me what I was doing, I said I worked at TikTok." Twilight learned this trick with another friend, Ah Xiao. Twilight said that it is difficult to explain the profession of shop blogger to her parents, but they know Douyin, and they can also see their short videos on Douyin, so they tell them to help Douyin work. "It was the same, it was all the same."
After deciding to actually start being a shop blogger, Twilight gritted her teeth and bought a stabilizer and a new phone. After watching various tutorials on the B station for several weeks, she began to try to put the theory into practice. "At the beginning, I was very embarrassed, I was paying for my own money, and after I went, I was embarrassed to take out my mobile phone, and my speech was also twisted." In the first few months after graduation, Twilight did not have a penny of income and lived on family support and credit cards. "I've never been so serious about doing one thing, and I was thinking about shooting methods, poses, lighting techniques every day."
Half a year later, her fans in Douyin and Xiaohongshu broke through a thousand. This means that there are brands and "KOL group heads" who are starting to notice her. She joined several "local eating, drinking and entertainment groups", which were full of shop-exploring sisters like her, and the "group head" told her that there were thousands of young sisters like her in Nanning, and "I had a bunch of groups on hand" . Now, Twilight's job is to take orders from various groups, indicating the time and place, shooting requirements, supporting copywriting, and what suits her will go. What she is now struggling with is the quality of the content of the persona's creation and number. "You can't just send the content of the store, so it becomes a pure marketing number." Twilight now positions herself as "a designer who loves to explore the store." She asked the students to come to a variety of designer scene work pictures, with their own edited copywriting, to create their own "designer design". "Isn't that a bit ironic? Jobs that I don't like have become my own persona. "The shops to be explored also have to be selected, and not all orders have to be picked up." On the one hand, it must be in line with its own "designer design", on the other hand, it must also be suitable for taking pictures. Twilight is now mainly engaged in hotel and restaurant visits, and some of her own understanding of design will be added to the visit.
However, this way of rising fans is slower. There was a little sister who was a blogger who was visiting the shop at the same time as her, and she walked away with "pure desire", and the fans quickly broke through 10,000. She didn't want to do it that way, thinking it wasn't suitable and didn't think it would last long. However, the number of fans and the price of the correlation is very large, ten thousand fans blogger a shop video can be reported thousands of yuan, while like her thousand fans or so bloggers can only receive a price of 300-500 yuan. "You can only run a little harder every month." For two months, she received only two orders, "and the rent could not be paid."
Instability is indeed a feature of this profession, Twilight is very clear, but this factor does not seem so important to her at present. In her eyes, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, "Freedom is ah, I can arrange my own time, and I can also meet a lot of interesting and beautiful friends." 」 ”
In Kaigo's eyes, the advantages and disadvantages of flexible employment are half and half. After deciding to concentrate on hosting, the first preparation he made was to start long-distance running. "10 km a day, reserve physical strength. This line is very physically demanding. "In the first two years of the beginning, Kaige's state was that he was the main host of the event and the wedding officiant in his spare time." The income is OK, about 100,000 a year is no problem. "2 years later, his daughter was born. He started bringing up the kids at home. Event hosts can't do it, occasionally do wedding officiation, and all the focus is on the children.
"Of course, some people say that housewives and men and so on have heard anything worse than this." Kaigoso does not participate in these social occasions. "At that time, I didn't expect to take some children's videos to be an Internet celebrity, my daughter is so cute, maybe now it's all big V." After his daughter went to kindergarten, Kaige felt idle for a while, and felt that he had to come out again to find work. Unexpectedly, "the world has changed." "People in this circle have changed a wave, the business of real estate is not easy to do, try not to invite the outside host by their own sales staff to do it at the same time." At this time, Kaige thought about whether he could hang up a wedding company and see if he could receive some orders from there. However, the wedding company needs a commission and is still pressing his price. "I didn't expect that in the past few years, this price has not risen but has fallen." Previously, Kaige could receive 500 yuan per wedding host, but now the wedding company is only willing to give him 300 yuan, and there is no guarantee that it can be arranged for him every month. "They all like young handsome guys, and married men like me are not welcome." The turnaround is a short video in which Kaigo tells a makeshift joke at the wedding scene, which is filmed by a guest and sent to the circle of friends. "After half a month of red, everyone knows that I am back in the jianghu again."
After that, Kaige began a life of being half "housewife and man" and half wedding officiant. "Why not run your own short videos?" I asked him, "At that time, I didn't think that live broadcasting could make money, I thought, it's useless to be red, my time is there, I can't run ten weddings a day, plus lazy, I didn't get it." Kaige said that he missed the outlet of the two short videos, indicating that he did not have this life. He is quite satisfied with his current state of life. His wife is more protective and helps him buy commercial insurance with medical and pension insurance every year. "I've met a good wife."
And Yang Chao suffered a blind date failure this Spring Festival. This was the only girl who knew before they met that he was in the funeral industry and was willing to meet, but in the end the other party refused through the middleman. "I'm used to it, and I can't change people's minds, just see if I can meet the person who is willing to accept me." 」
The first order Yang Chao received was to go to the hospital to pick up an old grandmother. Ignorant of understanding, he followed the master to observe the whole time. "At that time, I first found out that I was actually doing this in Jide. Because it is also very important to send people well. After three months of work, he gradually got started, from picking up people, to purchasing items, to hosting a memorial service, every link has been familiarized. At this time, the Taiwanese boss offered to sign a contract with him. But he hesitated.
He feels that if you sign a contract, you have to stay in the company every day, but in fact, many times the work is not so saturated. He calculated that if he worked part-time, he could do something else in his spare time and make more money. "I calculated at that time that the money I had to save every month was 6,000 yuan, plus my own life, and I had 9,000 yuan of money in my hand." If he only did this job, the debt repayment days would have to be extended, and he just wanted to pay off the money as soon as possible.
Therefore, he proposed to the Taiwanese boss that he only worked part-time, did not have a basic salary, was on call, and paid on a per-time basis. The Taiwanese boss knew about his situation and agreed. Later, he took a job as a part-time delivery man on a wine delivery platform. The reason why I don't go to the US group and am hungry is because I can't be bound by the system. "This wine delivery platform is local, the management is relatively loose, and there is a bit of human touch." From takeaway operation to wine delivery, "it is to make money, and I accept funerals." What's that. The requirements for the delivery of wine and takeaway here are the same: no basic salary, on call, pay on a per-click basis.
Now, his status is, holding two mobile phones, waiting for orders on both sides at any time. After two years, he described himself as "finding stability in the midst of instability." He could already predict which time of the month there would be more funeral orders and which day of the week there would be more orders for wine delivery. There was no protection for these two jobs, and Yang Chao himself did not buy insurance. "I still have to save the money, and I don't have time to think about it."
This year's Spring Festival is the first time he has returned home after the failure of his business. The debt has been paid off more than halfway. The family urged him to get married early. In fact, he doesn't want to get married, "after all, he hasn't paid off his debts yet, how to give other girls happiness with a debt." "Therefore, he is quite reluctant to go on a blind date arranged by his family." At first, the family hid from the middleman, saying only that he was "doing takeout" outside. He didn't want to, "I don't think there's anything to cheat about, you can't cheat once or twice, and sooner or later others will have to know." That's just right, I don't want to get married so soon anyway. ”
03 Tomorrow will always be full of unknowns
To some extent, Twilight, Kaige and Yang Chao choose flexible employment, which is a last resort. But they also expressed another almost identical idea: Are those who have stable employment what they want?
Twilight hadn't thought too far about her future development. "Trying to become a fan blogger is my current goal." Before the Spring Festival, an MCN agency approached her, wanted to sign her off and promised to use the company's resources to win her over. When she got the contract, she found that the company asked for 5 years, and the percentage of the lottery was gradually increased, "If I am red, the money I get is not proportional." The point is that the company wants her to go "two-dimensional pure desire wind.". "I'm obviously not in this style, I don't know what they think." Twilight still wants to stick to her "design of the hipsters", but the company says this is too niche. However, she has not fully thought about it, "After all, there are also benefits, on the one hand, there is a chance to become a national blogger, on the other hand, of course, there are better guarantees." In the group of classmates and girlfriends, only she is a flexible employee, and the other students are still designing companies, compared with them, "I feel that I am at least relatively healthy, they stay up late every day, their health is getting worse and worse, I think they are not so happy." 」 I'm not stable, but at least I'm happy. Moreover, I stayed in Nanning. Twilight reported a short video online training class, hoping that this year's short video technology can be more refined.
Kaigo is determined to seize the last wave of the wind, live broadcast. Last year, Kaige obviously felt that there were fewer people getting married, and he could receive at least 10 weddings a month, and 30 in good months, "such as National Day, sometimes you have to run 3 times a day." "And he knows that the wedding officiation is not a long-term solution after all, and he hopes to open another slash in addition to the wedding officiation." The previous slash was followed by the wedding officiant, and now another one must be added to the back. "He's now waiting for his daughter to fall asleep and starting his own livestream, and he hasn't found anything that suits him yet," he could only talk about the funny things he encountered at the wedding. "After 1 hour of live broadcasting every day, he will also review and find other broadcasters' videos to study and learn." I haven't worked so hard in years. "As for whether it will be successful or not, I have no idea." I'm late in the game, probably not, but I still want to do my best. "If it really doesn't work, Kaige is willing to re-apply for a job with a resume."
After the third day of the Chinese New Year, Yang Chao left his hometown to return to his city - the Spring Festival is the peak period for delivering wine, and he does not want to miss this opportunity to make money. Moreover, many employees in the funeral company have also gone home for the New Year, and he can get more orders. "You can earn 3 times this month's hard work, which is not similar to three times the overtime work on the holiday." This year, Yang Chao hopes to find another part-time job, bite his teeth again, and pay off the debt this year. As for the future, Yang Chao decided to stay in the city and start a business again. "I haven't figured out what to do yet, but going to work shouldn't be possible." I'm used to this state of work. ”
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