Eight government employees from a township in South China's Guangdong Province made headlines recently for "lying flat" at work. This move, which local government claimed was aimed at motivating officials to improve their work attitudes and increase efficiency, has ignited debates online.
The eight government employees from Nanshan township, Guandong's Foshan city, were selected through a series of investigations and democratic reviews and were made public in a year-end notice titled "2023 list of 'lying flat' personnel in Nanshan township."
"We tried to encourage them to devote themselves to their career and make contributions to the town," Huang Hengjian, a member of the Party committee of Nanshan township, said in response to the public concern, local media reported.
According to Huang, these people did not violate laws or regulations. They were relatively weaker in their capability, discipline and efficiency.
The notice soon aroused heated discussion on the internet with some netizens saying they considered it inappropriate to make the names of these people who did not violate any laws, regulations or disciplines public without specific policies concerning their "lying flat" attitude.
The eight are all basic level employees such as a grid management staffer, deputy head of community and staffer at the local cultural and tourism office and they did not violate any discipline regulations, thepaper.cn reported, citing staff from the township.
According to the plan, these people will be granted a six-month rectification period and their work will be reasonable arranged to help them better adjust their work pace. After rectification, Nanshan township government will also publish the names of those who are removed from the black list.
