Dressing Down in PJs at Work in China

Young people wear pyjamas to work to be comfortable

Following work trends in China like tang ping or "lying flat" and bai lan or "letting it rot", there's now "gross outfits for work".

On Douyin, or China's TikTok, a woman with the handle "Kendou S" posted a video of herself in her work outfit -- slippers, pyjama bottoms and a brown sweater dress and accessorised with a pair of holey woollen gloves.

Another woman named Cindy Luo in Wuhan, Hubei province has the same idea. "I just want to wear whatever I want," explained the 30-year-old. "I just don't think it's worth spending money to dress up for work, since I'm just sitting there."

Others don't see the point in dressing up anymore

Luo has a point.

Kendou S' video had 736,000 likes and 1.4 million shares, and the Chinese hashtag for "gross outfits for work" went viral. Others took videos of themselves wearing hoodies, sweatpants and other kinds of sleepwear.

It's yet another sign of young Chinese workers throwing out the 996 work ethic of working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week as the country's economy slows and job opportunities or chances for promotions have dried up.

As a result, they choose to take their time or pursue a work-life balance not be so ambitious, a kind of quiet protest that has bosses annoyed their employees aren't gung-ho about their jobs.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also influenced how people dress, having worked from home during that period and so they are just used to wearing comfortable clothes. 

Kendou S has said her boss has complained her work outfits are "gross" and that she needed to wear better clothes "to mind the image of the company."

But seems like she and many others don't seem to care what their bosses think and instead guess how long it will take until their supervisors will comment on their fashion sense.

In this way they are making work fun for themselves, and shouldn't we all?