Greater tolerance

As employees' attitudes toward work change, along with increasingly diversified employment methods in different industries, new forms of flexible employment are emerging.

Workers want flexibility in where, when and how they are employed. Since 2019, there has been an 83 percent rise in the number of job posts mentioning "flexibility", according to LinkedIn's Global Talent Trends Report issued in January. On individual companies' LinkedIn profiles, references to "flexibility" in posts rose by 343 percent over the same period.

Yu Hai, a sociology professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, said, "Traditional forms of employment have diversified in these fast-changing times, while society is showing greater tolerance for newly emerging occupations."

According to latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of last year, the number of workers in flexible employment in China reached 200 million — more than 1.6 million of them in livestreaming and other forms of new media, nearly a threefold year-on-year rise.

Rather than joining a company and leaving after several years, some college graduates choose a different course of action — including Lu Sina, 28, who works and lives in Hangzhou.

Lu launched a travel agency with a friend after graduating from Sichuan Conservatory of Music in 2016 with a major in culture industry management.

Short of social experience and long-range planning, Lu found running the small business too difficult and exhausting. After leaving the agency in 2018, she worked as a curatorial assistant in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. She was also employed as a part-time butler at an inn in Moganshan, a scenic area in Zhejiang, and did a variety of other jobs.

Shen Yiming, 28, celebrates the start of 2020 by climbing a volcano in Indonesia. [Photo/China Daily]

Lu then became a voluntary teacher at a Chinese school in Thailand.

"Living in Thailand made me rethink my life and realize that I had to regain the passion for work," she said.

During her time in Thailand, she took daytime online courses in business operations and gave Chinese lessons to children in the evening. Lu also earned 2,000 to 10,000 yuan a month from time to time as a freelance travel adviser.

However, she started to worry when she saw her former university classmates being promoted, earning high salaries, buying property, and getting married.

As a result, Lu obtained a professional certificate to operate new media — receiving 10 job offers after applying for 20 positions within two weeks.

Armed with what she learned from the courses and voluntary work, she returned to Hangzhou in 2019 to work as operations supervisor at a domestic maternal and infant products brand.

However, after working at the company for two years, she decided to pursue flexible employment again — this time making detailed plans and preparing about nine months in advance.

"I kept asking myself what I would do for a living without relying on any particular company. I eventually decided I wanted to be an operations consultant offering professional advice on product operation and promotion," Lu said.

Tang Xue works at a farm in Jinhua, Zhejiang, in August before buying her own farm in Anji. [Photo/China Daily]

She started taking courses on operations consulting in September last year, and resigned from the company in March with 300,000 yuan in her savings account.

To be self-disciplined while working on her own, Lu carefully plans her daily schedule. "I want to manage myself as a company," she said.

Lu currently works three days a week as an independent operations consultant and career planner, earning 15,000 yuan a month on average.

As an operations consultant for two enterprises, she offers advice on producing goods to attract more consumers. She also counsels four individuals on promoting themselves on new media platforms.