A Chinese IT company offered workers a cash "love bonus" to try to encourage its single employees to spark successful office romances.
A Chengdu cloud computing company in the Sichuan Province decided to offer the bonus, worth 1112 Yuan ($180), in order to raise morale in the office, according to the People's Daily.
Business Insider reports that Chengdu executives told the Chinese paper they came up with the idea after sensing their single workers were upset heading into the country's annual Singles Day.
Singles Day was started in 1993 by students at Nanjing University, according to The China Post. The holiday gets its name from the date Nov. 11 (or 11/11), consisting of four “ones.” The four digits stacked next to each other also resemble four bare sticks, which according to Business Insider, sounds a lot like the word guanggun, which is Chinese for “bachelor.” The holiday has also become a highly promoted and hugely lucrative online shopping day, the Global Times reports.
The IT company reportedly hopes that if their employees fall in love with each other, the feelings will lead to "an even more harmonious team," reports WorldCrunch. (Although, as Forbes points out, office romances can also have certain very unharmonious side effects.)
In an attempt to provide some type of safety net, however, company employees who recently went through a break-up can request two paid days of vacation.
What do you think of this idea? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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