She Cries While Faking Work, 4,500 Library Seats Fill at Opening, Only Dares Go Home After Dark

I used to panic too. It felt like a rock was pressing down on my chest. I could barely breathe because I didn't know who to talk to. The economy is so bad right now. Everyone is struggling. This isn't my fault. Today I lost my job There was no warning at all. One second, they were going over links and procedures with me. Next, they told me I was being laid off. I'm walking down the street right now. I'm afraid to go home and I don't know where to go. everyone in my family knows I'm supposed to be at work right now how do I tell them I won't have a job to go to starting tomorrow maybe I'll just wander around today until my usual quitting time then go home like nothing happened or maybe I'll find somewhere to have a drink let it all out and numb myself a little what hurts even more is that tomorrow after tonight is over I'll have to pretend to go to work again I'm the only one holding this family up I can't fall apart right now losing my job feels worse than a breakup. I don't know what to do. I'm unemployed right now, but I go to the library every day and pretend to work. I'm from Sichuan. I got my bachelor's degree at Wuhan University and my master's at Columbia University. It's been more than four months since I was laid off, and I've been pretending to work ever since. I still get up a little after 7 a.m. and get to the library around 8. But even then, it's already hard to find a seat. You might be surprised how many people there are doing the same thing. I think pretending to go to work helps us keep the same routine we had when we were employed. It's a way to keep facing life head on. People online have started calling us a new kind of urban drifter. That's fair. It gets right to the point. I've looked for people in the same situation in group chats. They shared tips with me. They said neighborhood libraries are more welcoming to unemployed people than chain stores and shopping malls. You don't have to buy anything. The air conditioning outlets and internet are free most importantly being in a library lets you keep your dignity for people like us the first thing we have to figure out is how to get by whenever my family asks i tell them i'm still working i'm one of those people who pretend to have a job every day but actually spend every day lying around in a rented room i just lie there watching short dramas on Hongguo my money goes to the landlord keeping the landlord going it goes to delivery drivers keeping them going too i still haven't found a job i sent out so many resumes my head is spinning they don't want divorced women they don't want married women without children and they definitely don't want single women i have no idea who they're trying to hire it's left me anxious and depressed. It's almost 5 p.m. Everyone, this is day 30 of pretending to go to work. The work day is almost over. I need to get home during rush hour so my family won't suspect anything. I'm in a park near my home right now. I'm worried my mom might bring my child here to play and spot me, so I found a well-hidden corner. This is so hard. I searched for more than two months and finally found a job. About 15 days in, the company went under. Then I started looking again. Now it's day 30, and I still haven't found anything. I just want this to end. I have to keep an eye out for my mom and my child. I'm afraid they'll see me. It would be hard to explain when I get home. Why were you at the park at this time? I wonder how many of you are in the same situation, spending your work days in a park. The property market, infrastructure projects and domestic spending that the CCP once took pride in are all slowing down. The downturn has dealt a severe blow to jobs and incomes in China. Many unemployed workers are afraid to tell their families they have lost their jobs. They pretend to go to work to ease the pressure. The subject continues to draw widespread attention across Chinese social media. Here I am pretending to go to work again. I've been doing this every day since I lost my job. I leave at exactly 7.30am with this bag, then go to a nearby mall or library and sit there all day. At 5.30pm, I start heading home right on schedule. My parents think I go to work every day. I've actually been pretending this whole time. I'm afraid to go home. It's day nine of being unemployed. I'm still hiding it from my family and pretending to go to work. I head out with my work bag, find somewhere with free parking and spend the day in a corner of Starbucks. I order the cheapest coffee. I don't dare add even a snack. My family thinks I'm working hard. Only my coffee cup knows I'm quietly trying to cope with the panic of losing my job in middle age. At 40, I've lost more than a job. I've lost the confidence I have control over my life. Starbucks used to be a refuge for many unemployed workers. Now it's more than 8,000 stores in China are introducing a rule that requires a purchase to use the seating. Starbucks China confirmed to the media that the policy took effect nationwide on October 22nd. Signs on the table read, Starbucks business space, please make a purchase to take a seat. People used to sit in Starbucks all afternoon for the free air conditioning and Wi-Fi, and no one bothered them. That is no longer an option. People pretending to go to work may now turn to libraries, making them even more crowded. One social media user described the Capital Library of China in Beijing, east of Huaihai Bridge, on the southeastern Third Ring Road. The reading room was completely full but eerily quiet. The row by the windows was filled with middle-aged men in shirts carrying backpacks with their laptops open. Some were scrolling through jobs apps while others were staring at blank documents or wearing headphones to watch online courses. Libraries in Hangzhou are also packed on weekdays filled with unemployed people who look lost. Libraries in major cities are crowded with white-collar workers pretending to go to work after losing their jobs, arrive too late, and there are no seats left. Videos show a line stretching hundreds of yards outside the Guangzhou library around 7 or 8 a.m. It was an ordinary workday, not a weekend or holiday, soon after the doors opened, all 4,500 seats were taken. These visitors were there to pretend to work and look for jobs online rather than read. They had been laid off but were afraid to tell their families. They left home as usual each day, spent the day sending out resumes, revising them and passing the time, then went home on schedule in the evening. A middle-aged man laid off from a state owned company put it plainly the library is the city's most welcoming refuge you don't have to spend money no one bothers you and it lets you hide an uncomfortable situation he called it the cheapest way for an adult to hold on to some dignity one social media user wrote don't look down on unemployed people who pretend to go to work they're struggling if their families find out the best case scenario is chaos and endless arguments the worst is divorce and depression. This goes beyond saving face. They are afraid to let their families know their lives have fallen apart. Another user struck a chord online with this comment. Please stop the layoffs. The libraries are almost out of room. For people hiding unemployment from their families, pretending to go to work every day brings its own strain I wonder if you've ever done something that sounds this hard to believe when you really think about it. Kept pretending to go to work after losing your job. You leave at 9am, go somewhere, order a coffee and act like you have something to do. I've done that more than once. Honestly, it helped me get through those first days after losing my job. You're completely dazed. You don't know which way to go or how you face your family's questions like, so what'd you do today? When you walk out with your bag and pretend you still have somewhere to go, a clear destination, it really does give you a moment to breathe. It's like a cushion. It gives us a little dignity and a little time. But later I realized that the cushion also has an expiration date. You're in your third hour at a convenience store. You've scrolled through job apps until there's no new listings. Your coffee is cold and you don't want another. That's when the sense of security you got from pretending starts working against you. You're sitting out there but all you can think is when can I stop pretending to go home? Your body is out wandering, but you still feel the tightness inside. It doesn't resolve the uncertainty. It can pull you deeper into anxiety. As unemployment spreads in China, more people are leaving home on schedule each day with no job to go to. They are afraid to admit they are unemployed and keep pretending to work. Their experiences reflect their hardship many Chinese families struggle to talk about. A user wrote on X on October 24th, honestly, I feel like unemployment in China is over 50%. I went out for a barbecue with a friend who works in design. Only after he got drunk did he tell me the truth. He had been laid off the month before. He still leaves home in a suit every day and sits in Starbucks all day. He doesn't even dare order the cheapest Americano. He's afraid the staff will make him leave. His mortgage is more than 10,000 yuan a month, about 1,400 US dollars. His wife stays home with their child. He's juggling credit cards to stay afloat. He said his biggest fear now is his phone ringing. He's afraid it's the bank demanding payment and even more afraid his wife will ask him why his paycheck hasn't arrived. Job interviews are surreal now too. A basic position paying 5,000 yuan a month, about 700 US dollars, can draw more than 2,000 resumes. It requires alternating five and six day work weeks and being available whenever called. The applicants are full of experienced workers from major companies. A friend in HR told me about a 35-year-old man who said in an interview that he would take a 50% pay cut and start right away as long as the employer paid his social insurance. Even then, the boss hesitated because he thought the man was too old. These workers' accounts show the intense competition in China's job market. Changes in manufacturing are eliminating some jobs. Businesses are under growing pressure and raising their hiring requirements. Middle-aged applicants face age barriers. Young people face too few openings and falling pay. More workers are lowering their expectations as they weigh a steady income, family responsibilities, and their own career prospects. For many, the hardest part is more than being temporarily unemployed. It is not knowing when they will find their next steady job. Reuters reported on October 20th that pretending to go to work has struck a chord across Chinese social media. Related content has drawn 610 million views on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok alone. Related hashtags on Weibo have received 320 million views. On the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, posts about pretending to go to work have drawn more than 70 million views. They offer tips on where to spend the day and how to handle relatives' questions about work or document the writer's own experiences. These posts share ways to spend an entire day away from home, such as wandering through parks, libraries, coffee shops and malls. Some are daily journals. In one titled Day 30 of Unemployment, a month of pretending to go to work, the writer detailed 80 unsuccessful job applications. The trend has even created a business where people say to go to work In late July 2025, a space called Pretend to Work Unlimited in Hangzhou's Binjiang District went viral online. Similar spaces then began appearing in other Chinese cities. This company occupies about 4,300 square feet with dozens of workstations, meeting rooms and printers. Rules posted on the wall even ban arriving late, snoring at your desk, smoking, drinking, swearing and office romances. But the workplace is only a simulation. Its employees receive no wages. Instead, they pay the company 30 yuan a day to use the space. At 32, Coco Li had worked for a Chinese state-owned property company. She quit more than six months earlier because of the heavy workload and lack of recognition. Once she almost shared a photo of a lunch she had made at home in her family's group chat, then she stopped herself. Her mother might ask why she was not at work. Her mother's worries don't actually solve my problems, Li said. Whenever her parents visit, she would spend the time in parks, libraries, coffee shops and malls to avoid their questions. A 36-year-old former visual effect producer who would give only her surname Zhang lost her job in August when her company replaced some workers with AI. She said, I never imagined a library could be completely full on a weekday. At 28, Susan Sun has kept her layoff a secret from her family since an internet company let her go late last year. In May this year, her mother and stepfather moved from their hometown to live with her in Chongqing while looking for work. To avoid their questions, she now has to leave before 9am and stay out until 6pm each day. Sun is living on 1,864 yuan a month, about 280 US dollars, in unemployment benefits, along with what remains of her severance pay. She said she is happy living simply without a job. The only pressure comes from her parents. They often urge her to save because the economy is bad, which makes her very anxious. Third quarter data released by the CCP on October 19th showed manufacturers cutting prices and jobs to cope with fierce competition. There are also piling heavier workload onto employees who remain, leaving many overwhelmed. A research centre under China's Labor Ministry released its 2025 report on blue-collar employment this year it claimed that 280 million people were in flexible employment in 2025 40 million more than in 2024 it projected that the figure would rise to 320 million in 2026. official data published by the CCP put total employment at 725 million in 2025 down from 734 million in 2024, a reported decline of about 9.4 million based on those figures some commentators estimate that after accounting for the increase in flexible employment, nearly 50 million formal jobs disappeared in 2025. China's official unemployment figures differ sharply from what many economists and observers estimate the real number to be. Two developments point to rising unemployment. The CCP is looking to collect overdue social insurance contributions on an individual basis, while Starbucks is starting to turn away unemployed people occupying seats without buying anything. Some compare the trend to Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, where many office workers in South Korea and Japan hid their unemployment and spent their days wandering around. An assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo in the United States, Yi Ge Dong, believes China's relatively weak social safety net may eventually make it harder for unemployed workers to keep pretending. She compared it with the safety nets in Japan and South Korea in the 1990s she said at some point people may become more focused on finding resources wherever they can including borrowing money from family and relatives one commenter puts it unemployment is severe in China people over 35 simply can't find jobs college graduates have trouble too and end up driving for ride hailing apps or delivering food every industry is struggling and businesses are closing in large numbers if you have no debt and can put food on the table, you're doing relatively well. Most people have car loans and mortgages. Once they lose their jobs, the pressure is enormous. Even if they sell their home to repay the loans, falling property prices mean they can still owe bank hundreds of thousands of yuan or tens of thousands of US dollars. Many say they can't see a future.