![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/michael_scott_running.jpg\")
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BI<\/a>: Chinese paper company bases annual bonuses on running milestones<\/span><\/p>\n Apparently this is a story back from winter 2023 that came across my radar recently, but it doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 My knee-jerk reaction was that this was something I would probably dominate pretty easily, and I could become rich on bonuses, but after reading through the article a little more thoroughly, I come out this with more mixed feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n The TL;DR is that in order for the employees of this paper company to get the maximum bonus of 130% of their annual salary, they basically have to run about two miles a day.\u00a0 Extrapolated to a month, that\u2019s 62 miles, which means in a year, they\u2019re at around 744 miles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I have confidence that I could tackle two miles a day, since I basically did that when I was at my probably physical fitness peak, and was running around 3-3.5 miles a day five days a week.\u00a0 I don\u2019t run nearly as much as I used to, but when I do, it\u2019s more than two miles, and I think if I set a goal of two miles daily, I could probably do it, but then there\u2019s something about obligating myself to such a thing because there\u2019s an incentive at the end of a very long annual road, that makes me feel like I\u2019d probably get sick of it eventually, and really begin to resent running more than I already do at times, because it\u2019s no longer about my health, but it\u2019s also in order to gain a measure of financial benefit.<\/span><\/p>\n And as much as I came into this post full of confidence and cockiness that I\u2019d absolutely slay it, the reality is that 744 miles a year is really quite lofty.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure it was only at my peak did I ever come close to hitting that mark in a single calendar year, and this also leaves very little margin of error for sicknesses, emergencies, the general business of life at times, and if you miss a day or three, then the backlog becomes daunting, and then everything falls apart in the end.<\/span><\/p>\n There are secondary and third-tier bonuses, but they\u2019re not nearly as lucrative as nailing the primary bonus, and I have to imagine nothing would be more demoralizing if any of these Chinese guys finished out their year with like 735 miles logged, and fell short of the big bonus on account of a vacation, injury, or some other variable that the whole challenge doesn\u2019t leave much room for, Chinese work ethic not withstanding<\/span><\/p>\n Yeah, I think I could probably do it, maybe once, but then be all sour and not wanting to do it again another year, because it would have killed my general sense of importance of running.\u00a0 But the thing is, this isn\u2019t something that I would have to do, because at my current, American job, I already get an annual bonus that maybe wasn\u2019t exactly 130% of my monthly intake, but it was close, and I got it simply for, doing my job.<\/span><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t have to run 62 miles a month and 744 miles a year in order to gain it, and frankly I think that\u2019s the whole point of a bonus is to reward those who do the grind with a little bit of coin at a set time of year, to where people could feel like they have some discretionary income for once.\u00a0 Making employees have to do something they might not be open-minded to in the first place seems cruel and well, very Chinese, as far as expecting extra effort in order to receive incentive, as opposed to more American ideals of rewarding those who put in the work daily.<\/span><\/p>\n Digging deeper into this story, there\u2019s all sorts of gray area as far as the requirements go; sure, the information is tracked presumably through fitness trackers and watches, but those things can be easily manipulated, especially in a cheating-friendly culture like China.\u00a0 There\u2019s also no clarification if walking is allowed, or if it specifically has to be running.\u00a0 Unless there are specific running zones or treadmills in which the running has to occur, I have to imagine these employees are probably all cheating like motherfuckers in order to meet their mileage requirements and they\u2019re all succeeding at meeting their marks.<\/span><\/p>\n I also love how the article\u2019s choice of words make sure to point out that the boss of this company, as far as his own physical prowess:<\/span><\/p>\n My business can only endure if my employees are healthy,” said Lin, who claims to have scaled Mount Everest twice \u2014 once in 2022, and another time in 2023.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cClaims\u201d as in even the writer of the article doesn\u2019t believe his own physical capabilities and the slight shade implied that he is subjecting his employees to monetary hostage-held physical activity while not being held to the same standards himself, seeing as how he\u2019s the owner of the company.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s funny that it\u2019s a paper company that all this happening with, because it seems very much like a Chinese version of The Office<\/em> kind of thing that Michael Scott would subject his team to incentive-based physical activities, all under the guise of, healthy employees are happier employees, not while realizing he\u2019s making their lives miserable.<\/span><\/p>\n But on the flip side of things, the snark they\u2019re getting from Weibo users, makes me understand why companies like this probably create initiatives as such:<\/span><\/p>\n You’d have to run two miles a day to meet the monthly target of 62 miles. So the company wants their staff to be track athletes?”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Say you\u2019ve never run in your life without saying it \u2013 two miles a day in the grand spectrum of things isn\u2019t really much.\u00a0 If people still utilized step counters, they\u2019d probably realize that most able-bodied people probably clear 3+ miles a day just with ordinary activities; again, not sure what the specific criteria is on the bonus challenge, but clearing two miles a day isn\u2019t that difficult.\u00a0 I\u2019m basically living proof that two miles a day doesn\u2019t make a person a track athlete.<\/span><\/p>\n These requirements would be considered excessive even for sporting school students. It will hurt their knees. Depending on one’s age and physical condition, it could also trigger acute heart failure,”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Disagree.\u00a0 Two miles a day would be frankly pretty minimum for those focused on athletics.\u00a0 I mean look at Manny Pacquiao, man probably ran upwards of 10 miles a day during his boxing peak, and that was in the tropical Philippines no less.\u00a0 Sure, depending on age and physical condition there are risks, but in that case, don\u2019t do it. <\/em>\u00a0It\u2019s for a bonus, and not for actual wages.\u00a0 But I do think it\u2019s funny how this user specifically zeroed in acute heart failure as the primary concern, and not exhaustion, dehydration, or any sort of tears or breaks, very typical Chinese worst-case scenario mentality there.<\/span><\/p>\n Either way, it\u2019s not a perfect system, but at the same time, I don\u2019t hate it.\u00a0 If this, or any company offered a physical activity bonus on top of existing annual bonuses, I would definitely be all over it and be in it to win it, but if I also didn\u2019t want to burn myself out, the secondary +30% your monthly wages for half the distance doesn\u2019t seem so bad, and would be a sorely welcome bump in pay that I\u2019d definitely be all about.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BI: Chinese paper company bases annual bonuses on running milestones Apparently this is a story back from winter 2023 that came across my radar recently, but it doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 My knee-jerk reaction was that this was something I would probably dominate pretty easily, and I could become rich on bonuses, but after reading through the … Continue reading Imagine if your work bonus were based on how much you ran<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[201,100,199,109,207,37,83,52,32,69],"class_list":["post-50742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-cash-money","tag-comparison","tag-exercise","tag-gym","tag-health","tag-job","tag-observations","tag-owned","tag-running","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50744,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50742\/revisions\/50744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}