A Tale of Two Workplaces

Are you overemployed or lying flat?

Luo Huazhong, who popularized the idea of adopting a more relaxed approach to life, taking a break in Jiande, China. Qilai Shen for The New York Times

Two roads diverge in a pandemic. One leads to Overemployed.com and the other to tangping, a Mandarin word for “lying flat” or taking a break from traditional employment and material wants.

Those on the first path will find a resource center for gaming remote work by taking on two full-time jobs. Recent entries to their advice column include “12 Rules for working two remote jobs,” “Maximizing 401Ks And Benefits While Moonlighting Multiple Jobs,” and “Manage Conflicting Meetings With Two Remote Jobs.”

Started by two tech workers this spring, Overemployed was born out of the desire to claw back some agency while work becomes more depersonalized. As outsourcing, layoffs, and stalled wages continue to benefit corporations, employees have been on the short end, and rather than being a cog at just one company, some have embraced the situation to become more anonymous at two.

Tangping, on the other hand, rejects the frenetic pace of the modern workplace by removing oneself from it. It’s a youth movement started in China that counters their 996 expectation (9am to 9pm 6 days a week). It started when “Luo Huazhong discovered that he enjoyed doing nothing” more than working his factory job. “He called his new lifestyle ‘lying flat,’” and gets by on a combination of odd jobs and savings.

A blog he wrote detailing the philosophy went viral among Chinese Millenials who don’t identify with the country’s glorified pursuit of busyness and prosperity. As expected, the rank and file in Beijing weren’t thrilled with the traction it gained, and this blog, other internet forums, and even an original song mentioning tangping have been censored or deleted.

These are two different reactions to the same stressor, but what they have in common is a rejection of the current employer-employee relationship. One’s maximal, encouraging workers to screw them before they screw you, and the other is minimal, removing workers not only from the position of prey but from the equation altogether.

While some CEOs might actually be impressed with the cold calculation of the overemployed, the tangping approach may yet prove more productive. As the overemployed race against burnout and the building stress of their con, Mr. Luo “spends his days reading philosophy and news and working out….allowing him to live minimally and think and express freely.” 

And when you have time to think and express freely, you can be intentional and take back agency in a healthy way. You can find opportunities that may not have been available when you started your career. You can forgo the marshmallow now for two later.

As Mr. Luo said, “I have been chilling. I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong.”