No-one would want to work without getting a salary, or even worse – having to pay to be there.
Yet paying companies so you can pretend to work for them has become popular among young, unemployed adults in China. It has led to a growing number of such providers.
The development comes amid China's sluggish economy and jobs market. Chinese youth unemployment remains stubbornly high, at more than 14%.
With real jobs increasingly hard to come by, some young adults would rather pay to go into an office than be just stuck at home.
Shui Zhou, 30, had a food business venture that failed in 2024. In April of this year, he started to pay 30 yuan ($4.20; £3.10) per day to go into a mock-up office run by a business called Pretend To Work Company, in the city of Dongguan, 114 km (71 miles) north of Hong Kong.
