Work & Hustle2020informal

打工人

dǎ gōng rén

Working people / wage slaves — a self-deprecating term workers use to describe themselves.

Origin & Background

Went viral in late 2020 through motivational-yet-ironic morning greetings shared among office workers on social media.

Examples

Good morning, 打工人! Time to make money for the boss.

打工人打工魂，打工都是人上人。(Workers have a worker's soul, workers are the best of people.)

Related Slang

内卷

nèi juǎn

Involution — excessive, often pointless competition where everyone works harder but nobody gains more.

996

jiǔ jiǔ liù

Working 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week — describes the grueling work culture in Chinese tech companies.

卡点

kǎ diǎn

Arriving at exactly the last possible moment — being precisely on time with zero margin.

割韭菜

gē jiǔ cài

Harvesting leeks — scamming or exploiting consumers/investors, especially through overpriced products or bad investments.