A desperate Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) employee yesterday evening resorted to kneeling in front of a potential customer at a booth in Sha Tin’s New Town Plaza. Naturally someone was there to take a photo and put it on the interwebz.
Members of the telecommunications industry reportedly shared the photo like crazy, apparently empathising with the lengths employees have to go to in order to stay competitive, reports Apple Daily.
And sadly, despite his best efforts, the poor man did not end up signing up a new customer.
The kneeling worker, surnamed Zhou, had only started working for HKBN less than a month ago after leaving another telecoms company. And sources say it’s not the first time he’s begged on his knees.
Some netizens expressed their sympathy for the poor guy, while others advised him against sacrificing his dignity for “five grains of rice”.
One commenter cheekily said, “How else is he going to save up HKD3,000 a month to buy a flat?” – a reference to a property tycoon/heir’s numb-skulled comment about how young people should sacrifice going to the movies if they want to be able to afford a down payment on a flat.
All in all, in the face of rising inequality, everyone seemed to agree that making money in Hong Kong is hard.
Apple Daily reports that HKBN salespeople get a base salary of a measly HKD6,500 a month, with the rest dependent on sales commissions.
Recently, the company’s 100 salespeople were split up into six teams, which are rotated around six different regions around the city.
The top-grossing team gets to pick which district they get placed in permanently – a big bonus since some areas bring in more sales than others.
When confronted by his employer, Zhou allegedly claimed that he was simply kneeling to pick something up from the ground.
The company reportedly told him to not do it again, with a spokesman emphasising that the employee in question was not fired because they wanted to “give him another chance”.
How nice of them.
