A Chinese company is facing backlash after it asked its female employees to apply light makeup to work as it would "motivate" their male colleagues, as per a report in the South China Morning Post. The message was sent by a boss of the company in southeast China, but he later deleted it, saying it was only a misinterpreted joke.
An executive officer at the company named Luo initiated a group chat on WeChat with his staff on November 30, which included five female employees. At one point during the conversation, he urged the women to start applying makeup.
He wrote, "Ladies, please wear light makeup to work from December to motivate our team. Our gentlemen will crowdfund to treat ladies to afternoon tea." Sometime later, after Mr Luo did not receive any response from the group, he messaged again to state its importance. "Please do reply when you receive the message, otherwise your performance bonuses will be slashed," he said.
After being posted online by an influencer who happens to be a friend of an unnamed staff member, Mr Luo's statement gained widespread attention. He stated that he was not being serious after his comments were picked up by the local media.
However, the executive did not deny sending the message when questioned, instead, he said that it was misinterpreted. "It's just a joke, and we've removed it. Everyone knows there's no such thing," he said. Mr Luo said jokes between the team members are frequent and that employees have fun with each other.
Further, Mr Luo stated that the majority of the 300 employees were men and acknowledged that the firm frequently disregarded the requirements of its female employees since everyone was so preoccupied with their jobs. As a result, the company often made decisions to provide female employees with greater benefits.
This triggered a huge uproar on Chinese social media outlets.
"Why does he not ask the male staff to do workouts to motivate the team?" asked a user.
"It's not funny at all," commented another.
A third person said, "Is it really a joke? He is the only one laughing."
