On May 21, an exchange inside Midea made the scale of its layoffs impossible to dismiss. Chairman Fang Hongbo replied to an older employee who had just been laid off—or, in the company’s language, “optimized”—on the internal forum. Rumors had been circulating for days, with some claims putting the cut at 50%. Fang called that figure fabricated. Neither he nor Midea released a specific number, but the seriousness of the conversation, and details later reported by the media, made clear that this was no minor adjustment.
A first long post, and a last one
The employee began by saying the notice had come suddenly. He had rarely visited the internal forum because work kept him too busy to complain. His first long post turned out to be his last. He described himself as an old employee—too old to want to name his age—who had watched Midea rise into a Fortune Global 500 company. He looked back on the youth and sweat of countless colleagues, and on his own years there as a dream, full of smooth currents and reversals. He said he wished the company well, even as he left with regret that was hard to put into words.
Most of the post was about debts to his family. His father was seventy-six and had cancer. During the pandemic, his seventy-five-year-old mother had to accompany the old man to hospital, queuing unsteadily for appointments when beds were hard to find. As a son working away from home, he could not care for them, and the thought left him ashamed and grief-stricken. When his child was born in 2009, he was due to host a CNAS national laboratory expert panel review. He signed the papers at the hospital and rushed back to work, leaving his wife alone until her parents arrived. The company later introduced family days, but late compensation could not really heal that wound.
He also felt he had wronged his own body. At the end of 2019, an accident in the laboratory left him with a compression fracture in his lumbar spine. He could barely move and nearly ended up paralyzed. He did not report it as a work injury because it would have affected his department’s assessment. The doctor told him to stay in bed for one to three months. It was a critical moment for a TRS maturity review involving the group and a partner institute; a great deal of material had to be prepared, and no colleague could take over. After ten days lying down, he struggled into the office, bought a lounge chair, and typed in front of the computer with his head tilted for two weeks, enduring the pain until the submission was complete.
Three months later, when he asked the doctor whether the X-ray showed complete recovery, the answer was that the bone was a little crooked and would stay that way for life. He said goodbye to the joy of marathon running, dared not drink wine anymore, and felt soreness in his lower back after driving for too long. At the time he saw his choice as responsibility that could not be shirked. Looking back, he thought he had been too kind. There was a mortgage to pay and a child to raise; he swallowed broken teeth with blood. Workplace ups and downs and the coldness of the world were things he had meant to endure silently. But since he was leaving Midea, he decided to set down an ordinary account, leaving at least a humble mark in the company’s memory.
He ended with a few lines that stayed with readers: everyone praises spring flowers, but spring light once dressed the green leaves too; everyone cheers the new wave, and in a blink the new wave becomes the one left behind.
The chairman’s reply
Fang wrote that he had read the post carefully and felt both sad and ashamed. He found the plain words full of attachment, helplessness, regret, and hope for the future; they moved him and encouraged him. In the flood of the times, he wrote, we sometimes suddenly realize that fate cannot be resisted—just as we fear the dark, night still arrives on schedule. Companies and people alike have highs and lows. At this moment Midea was going through such a fluctuation, and it had to respond to changes in the environment: shutting down non-core businesses, tightening non-core categories, making the organization leaner and more agile, and restraining investment to control costs. He said those decisions had been painful, hesitant, and reluctant.
After the pandemic began in 2020, he continued, Midea had not taken any austerity or optimization action no matter what challenges it faced. This time the pressure and shock were greater. Management had debated repeatedly for one or two months and made the hard choice only after struggling with it. He thanked the employee for his magnanimity, his understanding, and the years of effort and quiet contribution he had given Midea. If the employee’s family faced difficulties in the future, Fang said, they should contact the company, and Midea would offer as much support and help as it could. He borrowed a line from Eileen Chang: work as if there will be no tomorrow; dream as if tomorrow will surely come. He urged them to face an uncertain life and future with courage, and wished the employee well.
The winter does not ask whether we are ready
We long for warm sunlight, but winter still arrives on time. Whether or not every detail of the posts is accurate, the pandemic has been raging and the economy has been howling. Many friends around me once chose private companies and enjoyed good years, with annual incomes of several hundred thousand yuan. Others started businesses and did well: in three years one bought three homes in Guiyang and paid more than RMB 300,000 in cash for a car. In the past two years, their steps have become difficult and they are worn out in body and mind.
My generation, born in the 1990s, grew up in the best of times, during the golden years of rapid national development. We enjoyed countless dividends from that trend. We also entered adulthood in the worst of times for personal finance: spending ahead of income, with little habit of saving, and carrying mortgages, car loans, renovation loans, and consumer loans. When something like a pandemic arrives, our ability to withstand risk is extremely fragile.
Many friends have unstable income and high fixed costs. Loans slip past due, credit records are damaged, and the bitterness is hard to describe. Reading the exchange, I was deeply moved by the employee’s post. How bitter it is to be laid off in middle age? By analogy, I remind myself to keep improving. If I no longer have the advantage of age, and a crisis arrives, will I have enough courage not to worry about finding work, enough to keep my family from worrying about making a living?
This year, I will finish the intermediate professional qualification. Next year, I will finish my MBA and complete the certification. Work as if there will be no tomorrow; dream as if tomorrow will surely come.