(Source: unsplash)
Everyone says that 2022 will be the most difficult year for finding a job. 18 out of 100 young people are unemployed. 10.76 million college students face employment problems. Finding a job is as difficult as passing the 211 exam. Some people are middle-aged, old and young, but they are laid off. Tsinghua University statistics show: In the first half of this year, 460,000 companies across the country announced their bankruptcy, and about 3.1 million individual industrial and commercial households canceled their registrations.
Behind the string of data is the humble struggle of thousands of ordinary families. We are also concerned about what is happening to those autistic children who are already employed in companies? Is work going well?
Rongai Rongle related personnel revealed that In the field of mental disabilities, companies have begun to lay off employees with mental disabilities for various reasons since 2020, and some even fired all dozens of young employees with mental disabilities at once; at the same time, there are fewer and fewer jobs for young people with mental disabilities, and in some places there are half as many as before the epidemic. This has made parents and employment support units very frustrated.
"She was worried and hid her symptoms for fear of not being able to go to work."
In September this year, Qianqian, an autistic girl from Beijing, just found a job as a waiter in an Italian restaurant. The manager and colleagues here are very friendly to her, and Qianqian likes this job very much.
In November, before restrictions were lifted, the epidemic situation in Beijing was very severe, and Qianqian’s restaurant also closed. Her mother Lin Jie said that Qianqian, who was out of business at home, was very anxious. She kept saying that she wanted to go back to the restaurant every day, and even proposed to go back to her previous workplace to work part-time.
" If she is very anxious, I will drive her back to the workplace for a walk. " Lin Jie said that employment counselors are also comforting her in the group; relatives group The team would accompany her to the suburbs to relax and cook delicious food for her; friends of the same age invited her to go cycling and take pictures at Universal Studios ; when the workplace was closed, she took Qianqian back to the workplace to pack some takeaways to eat, to relieve Qianqian's pain of missing her colleagues, and finally helped Qianqian survive the more than 20 days of shutdown.
The restaurant where Qianqian works, this light is the hope for many workers to survive, and it is also the epitome of the better life that people long for.
On December 17, the restaurant opened, and Qianqian was very happy. Unexpectedly, the epidemic came back again, and in Chaoyang District, where the epidemic was most serious, many people advised her to rest at home to avoid being infected. Qianqian was unwilling and insisted on taking the risk to go to work. Lin Jie had no choice but to prepare sufficient medicines for her and preventive medicines for her colleagues. Everything was left to fate.
" Because I work in a hospital, Qianqian guards against me like a thief every day, for fear that I will bring her a virus and affect her ability to go to work. " Lin Jie said. Who would have known that she was infected with HIV a week after returning to work and is currently recovering at home. "My daughter was worried and concealed her initial symptoms for fear of not being able to go to work, which almost delayed her illness. Later, she couldn't hide her fever, so she came to me for help."
It is common for Qianqian to have to stop work due to the epidemic. In Jinan, Xu Minxing, a spectrum mother with an autistic son, Dashuai, who delivers milk for a living, has also become "yang" in the past two days. Dashuai had a low-grade fever for two days and then developed a fever. The mother and daughter could only lie at home and wait for the fever to turn negative. Milk could not be delivered. Many subscribers' accounts were also a little messed up due to the early epidemic lockdown.
Opposite the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai, Fangtan, a cafe that provides internships for older autistic children, has also suspended operations this week. Zhou Bohan, a child with autism, originally worked in a cafe, working two hours each on Mondays and Thursdays. Now his part-time job and many social activities have to be suspended.
“ is afraid of the sun. It seems that the peak season in Shanghai has not yet arrived, but there are no people on the road. I take him out for a walk twice every morning and afternoon, but I don’t dare to take off the mask. I can only have afternoon tea at home. "Bohan's father said that before the epidemic, Bohan registered as a volunteer. He used his talent of playing piano to play piano in the outpatient halls of major hospitals to soothe the emotions of patients. He continued to do so for four or five years. After the epidemic, the hospital's volunteer services were forced to interrupt. Now three years of epidemic The love is sealed and released, and Bohan has no feelings anymore. He plays the piano every day to pass the time when he can't go out.
Bohan plays the piano as a volunteer in the hospital. The sound of the piano soothes people's hearts. I hope it will be good. The sound will be able to ring in the hospital again next year.
Learn to adapt to a more difficult living environment
Senyou in Guangzhou is one of the few children with autism who is still working among the children the editor asked about. Two years ago, Moritomo graduated from a vocational school. At the invitation of an enthusiastic boss, he worked in a clothing factory, responsible for labeling, Packaged, signed a formal labor contract , and enjoyed five insurances and one housing fund .
Grandma Moriyu was her grandson’s strongest supporter. She entered the clothing factory to help Moriyu familiarize herself with the work process, until a year later, she let Moriyu go to work alone. When the epidemic in Guangzhou became severe this year, Moriyu had to stay at home to wait for work and production to resume.
ht During the ml3 period, Moritomo's factory relocated. At that time, the epidemic was relatively serious and there were no movers in the factory. All clothing and equipment were moved one by one by Moritomo and his colleagues onto a 9-meter-long truck, and then transported one by one to the new warehouse. At the same time, his working environment and route to work have changed.
“The commute to and from get off work is longer and takes about an hour, but it is more convenient to take a car. The subway is direct and you don’t have to go through many intersections. The safety is better than before. "Moritomo's grandma said. In the past, Moritomo had to take the bus or the subway to work. Sometimes he had to wait for a long time for the bus, and he had to walk for more than ten minutes to get to his workplace after getting off the subway. Sometimes Moritomo couldn't wait and would take a motorcycle taxi on the roadside to save time. "The people who drove motorcycles saw that he was a little different, so they tricked him. It cost 5 yuan for others to ride, but 15 yuan for Moritomo. "Now, they can no longer earn Moriyu's money.
On November 17, the clothing factory reopened, and Moriyu encountered the most significant company strategic adjustment since starting work. The company's salary calculation standards changed and became bottomless. With the piece-rate salary, the difficulty of his work also escalated, and he began to try to independently deliver . According to different platforms and customer requirements, he needed to pack a specified number of clothes, then print and paste the orders from different express companies, and send them out accurately. Only an error rate of three thousandths was allowed (compared to Moritomo's previous work) It’s simple, and there is a dedicated person to check the packaging and delivery. This time, he needs to be responsible for his own order). If the number of mistakes made in a month exceeds the limit, you may face the risk of salary deduction or even dismissal.
"Senyou's challenge is that you can't put more or less clothes in each bag. He used to have no problem putting a single piece, but I'm most worried about him putting less items. For example, there are 6 pieces in this order, and he puts 5 or 2 pieces; in addition, the delivery needs to be sent to Jingdong . If you send it to Jingdong , if you send it to SF Express , the company's cost will increase, which will definitely not work; or if it is sent to the wrong place, customers will also have complaints. "Grandma Moritomo explained.
Moritomo also clearly felt the changes in work content and the increase in difficulty, and sometimes it was inevitable that she would show small emotions. Considering this situation, the 73-year-old grandma had to go back to work to assist him in his new job and keep his job in the unpredictable environment. A hard-won job.
Moritomo and Grandma
"I have always said, I have to continue when fate comes. After all, you can't always be with him, so it would be better to let him adapt to this in advance. Grandma Moritomo said, "I support Moritomo, but he still has to do the work himself, and I never do it for him."I will help others, help his colleagues press the elevator, move the shelves, and look after the stalls. By caring about the people around him, in the end, his colleagues will help Senyou in turn, and a supportive environment is established. "This is also one of the wisdoms of Grandma Moritomo.
"Your store is about to be closed, so you can resign."
In Beijing, in the past two days, there have been more and more people in office buildings and subways. Some "Yangkang" people have begun to return to work, but looking across the country, the peak of the epidemic has not yet arrived in many places. Today, a large number of companies are still in a "full sun" state, with their business fully or partially paralyzed. Working from home is the norm for many employees.
“Three years after the epidemic, the working hours of young people working from home have obviously become longer. Ordinary people like us can still handle some things at home with computers, but working from home for young people is almost like a holiday. Many of them can’t do much if they don’t go to the office. " said Qu Zhuo, the employment project manager of the Beijing Rongai Rongle Family Support Center for the Mentally Disabled.
Many people with mental disabilities are engaged in the service industry. If they don't go to work, there is almost no work to do. (Photo provided by Rongai Rongle)
These three years have been a huge impact on Qu Zhuo and her colleagues in supported employment. Some of them have gone through a lot of hardships. Young people who struggled to find jobs became the first targets of a wave of layoffs, without even the buffer of a salary cut.
"When the epidemic first broke out in 2020, the General Office of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Notice on Properly Handling Labor Relations Issues During the Prevention and Control of the New Coronavirus Epidemic", which clarified that if enterprises have difficulty in production and operation due to the impact of the epidemic, they can negotiate with employees to stabilize jobs by adjusting salaries, rotating work and holidays, shortening working hours, etc., and try not to lay off employees or reduce layoffs. Only with this document can companies dare to cut wages on a large scale, otherwise they will face the risk of labor arbitration . But for Xin Youth, it is also because of policy. If the company wants to continue to maintain labor relations with Xin Youth, it cannot reduce their salary, because Xin Youth's salary is linked to the disability insurance fund. If the salary changes, receiving the disability pension is a problem. Therefore, companies must either continue to retain employees with mental disabilities or directly fire them. " Qu Zhuo explained.
She observed that some companies began to lay off employees with mental disabilities in 2020, and some companies successively used half a year to lay off more than a dozen young and old employees with mental disabilities. There are different reasons, such as the adjustment of the company's strategy, the ability of mentally disabled employees cannot keep up with the development needs of the company, etc. Parents who can speak well will take the children away directly, while parents who value the rights of young people will get a few more months of compensation through labor arbitration. "But this outcome is already determined, and the company will not use you. "
Qu Zhuo can understand the difficulties of managers in special times: "The first mission of an enterprise is to make profits. It must survive first, and then consider who to hire first among the many employees. "Under the impact of the epidemic, some companies have to downsize. Not only young people are being laid off, but many ordinary employees have also lost their jobs; some companies can't even continue to operate. They are heavily in debt and need to find a new employer to take over and restart operations. In this process, the direction of employees with mental disabilities is no longer what the original managers said. Forget it.
A caring company accepted the work of 8 young people, but in the end it failed to survive the epidemic. The original boss and the new boss conducted many rounds of negotiations and fights over the retention of the 8 employees. The original boss hoped that the new company would The company can at least keep two or three young people with high spirits, and don't cut off this employment path.
After the new boss took over, he reviewed the entire company and carefully calculated the production capacity of the eight young people on the job. Finally, he concluded that keeping two young people was the best choice for the company. In the end, all six young people in that company left, and only two continued to be employed in new positions. Half a year later, just two days before this article was published, the new boss notified one of the young people who had been retained - "Your store is going to be closed down. Please resign.""
Another trend that is not conducive to employment is that starting from 2020, there will be fewer and fewer new positions. Before 2019, Rongai Rongle About seventeen or eight young people are sent out for employment every year; in 2020, the number dropped to 7; in 2021, 11 young people were given job opportunities, and there were almost no layoffs, because this year many companies assessed that the epidemic was about to end; by 2022, some caring companies are facing bankruptcy, and the situation is difficult to describe .
In Guangzhou, the impact of the new coronavirus has just begun. The staff of the "Guangzhou Likang Social Work Service Center", an organization I know that specializes in providing transitional employment and assisted employment services for people recovering from mental illness and people with mental disabilities, are in the stage of recuperation due to infection. In addition, Guangzhou also experienced a wave of epidemic impact in November, so many businesses in the past two months have been suspended or slowly advanced.
“Except these two months, the overall employment situation is not bad. Li Guobin, an employment counselor at Likang, said that in the past eight months, Likang has supported 14 students to go out for internships or part-time jobs in coffee, homestays, pets and other industries. Some students finally received employment letters. "Under the epidemic, many large companies are facing layoffs. However, some companies have found that employees with mental disabilities have relatively low wages and are focused and serious at work, so they are willing to hire them." ”
Working in a pet store has become a new employment direction for students (Photo provided by Likang Social Work Service Center)
In Guangzhou, he also found a change for the better: in the past, parents brought their children to the door, hoping that Likang would introduce a job, and then employment counselors would match students with suitable positions through professional training; in the past two years, companies have taken the initiative to find Likang and put forward their employment needs. Please ask Likang to return to the circle of mentally handicapped students and match them with suitable students, which will be more targeted and have a higher success rate. In 2021, Likang recommended more than 30 people who have recovered from mental illness and people with mental disabilities to enter companies for internships or directly take up jobs. In the end, seven or eight people quit. The main reason is that after the employment counselor quit, the follow-up support was not enough.
“So we will adjust our plan next year to extend the support period for trainees from 3 months to longer to ensure that they can eventually stay after their internship. "Li Guobin introduced.
Calm down and do a good job in environmental construction
After young people retire, each family also makes different choices based on their own circumstances: Some parents feel that their children have already had an employment experience and can experience other lives. Some parents find that the big The support of the environment is still not enough. Children are suffering from hardships when they go to work every day, and parents are always worried. They simply stop working and take the path of affiliation. Some parents have seen the changes and growth of their children through employment and hope that they can go out and integrate again after the situation improves. Therefore, they are prepared with both hands. First, they arrange their children to go to the occupational health center near their home for a while, and then try to get a job when they have the opportunity...
In these situations, affiliation is Every employment counselor feels particularly regretful. Although the employment data looks good, it has reduced the enthusiasm of parents to find jobs for their children to a certain extent, and the enthusiasm of enterprises to accept young people for employment will also be affected.
Work is one of the important ways to realize the value of young people and move toward independence. (Photo courtesy of Rong Ai Rong Le)
Will the employment situation improve next year? The epidemic situation is fluctuating and it is still unclear, but Qu Zhuo and the others cannot wait or give up.
" Rongai Ronle is considering doing more environmental construction. On the one hand, it cooperates with special schools to provide more support in the employment transition stage and improve the vocational education system with employment as the goal; on the other hand, it cooperates with enterprises to develop more integration opportunities, provide enterprises with more considerate supporting support, and build a good platform for school-enterprise cooperation." Qu Zhuo revealed that when the current job opportunities are decreasing, young people can be organized to visit companies, do trial positions, and do internships. In various forms, companies can get to know young people in contact, see their work potential, and cultivate feelings for each other, instead of letting companies hire them all at once. Helping young people.
Regardless of whether the epidemic will end soon or whether the economic situation will improve quickly, Rongai Rongle will unswervingly promote the introduction and improvement of supportive employment policies. “We must continue on this path of supportive employment. Confidence is generated from the outside in. Only when the support of the external environment changes significantly will parents be more willing to send their children to work. This matter has a long way to go. " Qu Zhuo said.
In the past two years, Likang has tasted the benefits of enterprise services , which has strengthened their confidence in continuing to cooperate with enterprises in depth and expand the scope of employment. From August to October this year, Likang has repeatedly invited companies to participate in career experience activities for people with disabilities in shopping malls and other public places, such as making and selling coffee on site, which makes people feel comfortable. People with intellectual disabilities show off their special skills. The purpose of the activity is not to "force" companies to hire these students, but to let them see the students' strengths and expertise and increase their enthusiasm for accepting students with disabilities.
"This project has been selected for the 9th Guangzhou Social Organization Venture Philanthropy Funding Project "Dianzhitong-Supported Employment Project for People with Disabilities." ’, funded by Guangzhou Civil Affairs Bureau, hosted by the Municipal Social Organization Management Bureau and the Municipal Social Organization Committee. We are very grateful for their support, which will benefit young people and make our employment support more stable and long-term. "Li Guobin said.
