Change of career

Qiu, born in a suburb of Beijing, studied hard at school, got good grades and was eventually accepted by Renmin University of China. In 2011, he received two offers from banks, and signed a contract with China Construction Bank after his graduation. However, he was not enthusiastic about the job. "After all, working at a counter is a service-oriented job and is desperately repetitive," he said.

By that time, over half of his classmates were busy preparing for the annual civil servants exam. Some of them had already been accepted by prestigious government departments. In his hometown, a government post is seen as a decent job.

In February 2011, he decided to try his luck. He took the local civil service exams in Beijing and was eventually given a job as a local civil servant at the propaganda department. His family felt proud, as he was also the first newly-hired civil servant in the county in years.

Despite having to pay a fine to the bank for breach of contract, he did not regret his decision. "The workplace is not far from my hometown and I can have time to take care of my parents," Qiu said.

The first months at work were frustrating. The press releases he wrote were always criticized by colleagues as meaningless. He recalled a large part of his news story about a local sports activity being deleted and being asked to rewrite it several times. "They did not give suggestions, but just staged a beatdown on me," Qiu said.

Two female colleagues, who came to the office earlier than him, bossed him around and made fun of him. They led a small group that spread gossip about him, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

Qiu's work is trivial and tedious. He was asked to take photos of meetings and inspections. There were no aesthetic requirements, but only one rule: to make sure leaders stood in the middle of the picture and that their facial expressions are fairly good.

"The tedious work would paralyze people's will," Wang Lili (pseudonym), a publicity official in a working group affiliated to the State Council, told the Global Times.

In the first six months of the job, her main task was to copy, receive and deliver files. "I always said, I was either on the road delivering files or about to deliver files," Wang told the Global Times.