got used to the high-intensity work rhythm and suddenly became idle. Song Qiang was very uncomfortable, "There are people writing codes in the store, some people holding phone meetings, and seeing others busy and doing nothing, the anxiety and panic make people feel like they are busy. You are restless." Before nine o'clock in the morning, Song Qiang sat in the corner of a coffee shop in Beijing CBD, ordered a breakfast, habitually turned on the computer, logged in to WeChat, and chatted online while eating breakfast.
In the past two months, some corner of this coffee shop has almost become his fixed "workstation". From 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., most of the time I spent here except for occasionally going out to meet people.
Strictly speaking, Song Qiang is an unemployed person. He originally worked for a real estate development company. In a layoff at the end of the third quarter, two-thirds of the employees, including him, were "optimized".
My wife was just three months pregnant. Song Qiang was worried that unemployment would affect his wife's mood and planned to wait until the fetus stabilized before telling her truth. He still "goes to and from get off work" on time every day, but in fact he spends most of his time in a coffee shop near the company.
There are many layoffs like Song Qiang who temporarily regard coffee shops as temporary offices. In the eyes of coffee shop employees, there are three or five regular customers in their store, and they stay in the store almost all day, "It doesn't look like it's not like it's not like it's not so much," I look like working, sometimes I sleep all morning.”
Song Qiang, a middle-aged man who has old people above, young people below, and has to pay the mortgage in the middle, has always been a reality that they dare not face and a reality that they cannot bear. Against the backdrop of the current reshuffle of the real estate industry, they are also baptized by the soul and thought.
pretending to go to work
At around 8 o'clock in the morning, after sending the child to school, Song Qiang took the subway for about half an hour to reach the coffee shop he often went to.
Every time he goes out, he always carries his bag, brings materials such as laptop and work report as usual, trying to keep his mark. Before
was optimized, Song Qiang worked on project management on a private real estate company's project, occasionally going to the office, and spending most of his time on the construction site. This coffee shop is four or five stops away from the company's office. It turns out that he occasionally visited him when he was at work.
The reason why he chose this coffee shop is that it is far away from home and will not meet his family by chance; the other is that his original relationship is basically around him, and if there is anything to meet, it can be realized quickly.
Usually one pack of cigarettes a day, but in the first month of unemployment, two to three packs a day. "I'm so anxious that I can't sleep after sleeping," said Song Qiang.
has been in the industry for more than ten years, and he has obtained three qualification certificates. These certificates are "affiliated" and can bring him an additional income of more than 100,000 yuan a year. Now he is preparing for the fourth certificate exam, "One certificate can be affiliated with two or three units, and one can get at least 20,000 to 30,000 yuan affiliation fee."
During this period, he also entrusted many friends to help introduce new jobs, but since most companies in the industry are optimizing personnel, it is difficult to find a suitable position for a while.
Song Qiang occasionally receives some second-hand jobs. His former partners or former colleagues often entrust some orders such as project budgets and reports to him. There are not many jobs, intermittent, but how many If you have some income, you won’t be able to lose your money.
Song Qiang doesn't stay in the coffee shop every day. Sometimes he goes to participate in some activities with his friends. Occasionally, he will go home for a few days under the name of a construction site consolidation holiday, accompanying his children and his pregnant wife, in the first half of his layoffs At month, my wife was diagnosed with pregnancy.
Song Qiang said he has three choices in the future. One is to continue looking for a job. As the real estate industry gradually improves, with his rich engineering management experience, it is not difficult to start a new business again, including the original unit, and has always promised to once the construction site. After the construction starts at full capacity, he can go back if he wants.
The second option is to do it yourself. After years of experience in his work, he has accumulated extensive resources in real estate engineering and upstream and downstream supply chains, and he also has relevant qualification certificates. "Working alone is not necessarily worse than going to work. Just find a few jobs. More than the original income”.
The third one is to change careers, which is also the option he is most reluctant to do. Although changing careers means more opportunities, everything needs to start from scratch. For him who is in the fourth place, it is a bad idea. "No one is willing to do so unless it is absolutely necessary." If you change careers, especially those who do engineering, you may not be able to do anything else.”
pillars
Song Qiang's major is civil engineering. After graduation in 2007, he entered a state-owned real estate company and worked in engineering management in the region. The financial crisis broke out in 2008. Under the "forced" of the company, he subscribed to the previous two work projects. Living room.
After handing over the house in the second year, he and his current wife got married in a new house, and his wife worked as an accountant in a private enterprise. "In the second year of marriage, the Beijing project was over and our entire team was sent to other cities to do new projects," said Song Qiang, who had been drifting outside for more than four years.
When he was working on projects in another place, he and his wife lived a life of separation from each other.
In the second half of 2013, "My wife had been pregnant with her son for six months at that time. One day, my mother-in-law called me and said that my wife was so old and she was alone at home. What should I do if something went wrong? Making money is important, but it is still important for people." Song Qiang said that she was scolded by her mother-in-law and Song Qiang began to consider returning to Beijing.
application for transfer back to Beijing was not approved. Song Qiang chose to resign and returned home after completing the procedures. His wife was about to give birth.
When his son was 6 months old, his wife told Song Qiang that both of them should not be idle and asked him to go to work. Under the introduction of a friend, he entered this private enterprise to do engineering management.
With a son, his wife did not go out to work anymore, and Song Qiang became the pillar of the family. "At that time, the monthly payment was not much. Although he couldn't make much money, he didn't have much pressure."
In 2019, after two years of regulation, the sales scale of China's real estate industry exceeded 15 trillion yuan, setting a record high. This year, Song Qiang sold his original house and exchanged for a three-bedroom apartment with a monthly payment of from several thousand yuan. Yuan has become "several ten thousand".
Song Qiang's after-tax salary ranges from 250,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan, plus the certificate affiliation fee, he earns 400,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan per year. After deducting mortgages and family daily expenses, there is at least surplus of more than 100,000 yuan per year.
statistics show that in 2019, the per capita disposable income of in China exceeded 30,000 yuan for the first time, reaching 30,733 yuan; the per capita disposable income in Beijing was 68,000 yuan. Even if his wife did not work, Song Qiang's income was still at a relatively high level. level.
At the beginning of 2020, due to the epidemic, real estate construction and sales were generally poor in the first quarter. Song Qiang's company launched the first round of personnel optimization, and he was optimized to front-line projects. Although the office was still retained, his work was on the construction site most of the time. .
Since the second half of this year, under the influence of policies such as three red lines and two upper limits, real estate companies have generally faced refinancing difficulties. In addition, the real estate market has continued to decline since the second half of the year, and most real estate companies are facing greater liquidity pressure. "In early September, the headquarters and the region began to lay off employees, laying off about one-third." Song Qiang said that by the end of September, as liquidity further deteriorated, the group began to reduce the construction intensity. "The overall intensity has dropped to one-third of the original, and our project has basically stopped." After the
project was stagnant, all project personnel, including Song Qiang, were suspended from work and salary, and only the minimum wage was retained. If you choose to resign on your own, you can get N+1 compensation. He thought about it for two days, but instead of spending half-death, he might as well leave with compensation, "it would be like paying the salary for the first half of next year in advance." After
is unemployed, in addition to one-time compensation, he only has the income from a certificate affiliation. "The impact this year is not big. If there is no sustainable and stable income, the pressure will be greater next year." Song Qiang said that the industry is in a recession and the certificate is not even affiliated. Now.
Next year, my wife will have a second child. "The family expenses and children's education will be reduced every year, and the mortgage loan will be 200,000 yuan." Song Qiang calculated that after the second child was born, the family expenses would increase. He was a little depressed for a while. Why did you have to change a room at that time?
Dust
Song Qiang said that in the long river of history, an individual destiny like him is like a speck of dust.Most of the colleagues who were optimized with him have not found jobs so far. "Everyone understands the company's behavior, and feels that the difficulties are only temporary, and are waiting for the industry to improve."
Song Qiang and his wife, who changed into a big house, were once full of confidence in the future and put forward a series of grand goals, "To have a second child is also one of the goals. The country advocates a third child. Our third child is difficult, and we work hard, and the second child is still a second child. Yes, my son also has a companion, and a child is too lonely."
After the Spring Festival in 2021, Song Qiang quit smoking and drinking, insisted on exercising with his wife every day, bought related tonics, and prepared for more than half a year. Finally, his wife successfully became pregnant, but he was unemployed.
was optimized to a front-line project last year. He knew that the industry was in a downturn, but he never thought that he would be laid off. Although others asked him, he said he had voluntarily resigned, but he knew what was going on.
Song Qiang felt that he was still lucky. Although he felt a little uneasy every time he thought about the future, at least he still had more time and space to think about the future. Before his former colleagues who left with him had time to worry, Re-enter the money-making team.
Song Qiang said that some of his former colleagues went to Didi, and some went to deliver takeout, "The monthly payment is waiting there, how can you have time to make you pretentious? If you don't have the ability to do next year, I have to run away. Yes, we have all the things we do and can do it at any time.”
Everything originated from the turning point in the real estate industry since the second half of the year. According to third-party data, the sales of the top 100 real estate companies increased by 40% year-on-year in the first half of the year, and began to decline in a single month in July. By November, the cumulative sales of the top 100 real estate companies increased all the way year-on-year. Declined to 1.4%.
sales increase from 40% to 1.4%. Coupled with the difficulty of withdrawing and refinancing pre-sale funds, the liquidity pressure of real estate companies has doubled. In order to reduce expenditure, most real estate companies suspend land acquisition on the one hand, and on the other hand, compress construction intensity on the other hand, compressing construction intensity on the other hand. , the relevant investment and engineering personnel became the main targets to be optimized.
The executive of a top 20 real estate companies told the Economic Observer that most real estate companies, from headquarters to regional projects, are optimizing the sequence, "reduce some, and the rest of the people will still have some food to eat, otherwise Everyone starves to death together.”
According to it, most private real estate companies have laid off employees this year at around 20%, especially since the second half of the year, they have increased their assessment efforts. "In the probation period, inexperienced fresh graduates, non-core employees, One batch was eliminated.”
Next is the core department employees, which match according to the existing workload. "If you have 10 people in your department and the boss thinks that 5 people can do it, you will only keep 5 people, and in the end it will be a question of whoever leaves and who stays." Managers said that many projects with poor sales are "sanctioned from the entire establishment."
"In difficult times, you can only do this." The executive said that many employees who were laid off also understood, "After all, when the company is good, you make money with you. Now you have difficulties. If you don't understand, you have to understand and sacrifice yourself. , make others happy.”
Song Qiang, who has been in engineering management for more than ten years, eventually became the one who helped others. He was not too upset about layoffs. After passing the anxiety period, he began to take action, prepare for the test, and find a second-hand one. Work, seriously consider what to do next.
The first time he came to this coffee shop after he was unemployed, he saved 10,000 yuan of membership fees. He usually settled breakfast and lunch in the store, and now he has used up half of the stored value. "I think about it, according to this level, It will last for two months, and it won't come after just after use."
Economic Observer Reporter Tian Guobao
Editor/Fan Hongwei
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