A Chinese crane manufacturing company distributed 61 million yuan (approximately $9 million) in bonuses to employees from a mountain of cash at its annual party. A Chinese company arranged a surprise and unusual bonus party and the distributions nearly went through the ceiling at a year-end party when it handed out millions of yuans, or over Rs 2.3 Billion, to its best-performing employees.
A pile of several hundred wads of cash reaching about two meters high was captured in a photo from a meeting organized earlier this month by crane manufacturer Henan Mine, according to South China Morning Post.
Henan Mine posted videos, on January 17th, of its employees walking onto a stage to collect their year-end bonuses from a 6.5-foot-tall mountain of cash and walking off with their arms full of banknotes.
An unnamed manager from Henan Mine’s public relations department told Jiemian News that three of the top-performing sales managers from the company were awarded 5 million yuan (approximately $740,000) each.
The company racked up billions in profits in 2022, the same year in which the Chinese economy posted its second-slowest annual growth since 1976 — and decided to reward its employees with ridiculous bonuses.
“We held a sales year-end meeting on the night of January 17, giving 61 million yuan in total to 40 sales managers,”
Three of the top-performing managers walked away with five million yuan (Rs200 Million) each.
Nearly 30 other staff members were awarded at least one million yuan (approximately Rs39 Million), according to the Jiemian News — a financial news portal in China.
Additionally, the company’s employees competed in a cash-counting contest, where they could take as many 100-yuan notes as they successfully counted in a stipulated time.
The cash award spree has triggered a huge amount of interest on social media, with some online observers expressing envy and others calling it a publicity stunt.
Despite bleak official figures for the Chinese economy in the past year, Henan Mine, which was founded in 2002 and has more than 5,100 employees, recorded sales revenues of 9.16 billion yuan (US$1.36 billion) in 2022, up by 23 percent compared to with the previous year, according to its official website.
There were no layoffs from the firm over the past three years despite China’s imposition of strict Covid-19 restrictions. The average salary of company staff has grown by 30 percent each year, it said.
Photos and videos of the party emerging on Chinese social media websites have since been met with criticism and disbelief.
Though the move of giving such high bonuses was appreciated by a lot, showing off the bonuses and using that much cash for the purposes was highly criticized by the critics.
“They are all doing sales and the longest-serving employees have been working at the company for about seven years,” Feng told The Paper. “They are mostly in their 40s and had great work performance in the past year.”
The company also gave red envelopes(Known as Ang Baos in Chinese Culture) containing 3,000 yuan (approximately $440) to more than 5,000 employees as the party was held a few days before Chinese New Year.
In previous years, Henan Mine awarded employees with cars and medals of pure gold.
On the first workday after the Chinese New Year, many people called to submit their resumes to the company, reported Feng. He added that he received more than 200 calls and online inquiries in two days.
According to the Henan Mine website, the company has more than 4,500 employees and 428 sales and service agencies on a national scale. Despite the slowdown in China’s economy during the pandemic, the average salary of company staff has reportedly increased by 30% each year.
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