Many citizens who don’t want to explain their employment status pay to rent a position in a fake office, with some even assigning fictitious tasks and organizing supervisory rounds
For a daily fee of between 30 and 50 yuan ($4-$7), these companies offer desks, Wi-Fi, coffee, lunch, and an atmosphere that mimics any work environment.
According to a report in Beijing Youth Daily, although there are no contracts or bosses, some firms simulate them: fictitious tasks are assigned and supervisory rounds are even organized.
For a fee, the theatricality can reach unimaginable levels, from pretending to be a manager with his own office to staging episodes of rebellion against a superior.
Sounds like a cheap way to actually run a one person business. I know that this has been a thing forever–renting a single office in an office building that provides a front desk with a greeter, and secretarial services as part of the deal, but I suspect this option is even cheaper.
I’m pretty sure that’s what these places are. At the end of the article it says people are mostly there for collaboration and office space, but that some people are there for fake work. Whenever I see articles about China now, I have to question the validity of them. Are there people there for fake work? Clearly, but that’s not what that office is for according to the article itself. And you’d have to ask the simple question, does that happen in other nations as well? Absolutely. But for some reason, news about China, they’ll only admit that at the very end. Suspicious