Chinese staff forced to do push-ups if ‘they walked too much’ while working remotely

Chinese staff working from home during self-isolation are forced to do push-ups by their boss if app shows ‘they walked too much’

  • A company in Shanxi is using a step-counting app to keep track of its staff 
  • Employees who walked more than 1,000 steps a day must do 20 push-ups 
  • Those walking more than 2,000 steps must report their activities of the day
  • The policy is to ensure that the workers carry out self-quarantine, one said

A Chinese company has required its staff to do push-ups as punishment if a step-counting app shows they walked too much while working from home during the coronavirus outbreak. 

Employees from the media firm in Shanxi Province must do 20 push-ups if they are found to have walked more than 1,000 steps a day, according to an insider.

The aim of the policy is not to monitor the workers’ movements, but to ensure they carry out self-quarantine and stay at home during the epidemic, the source said. 

One of the employees from the media company in Taiyuan, China’s Shanxi Province, is filmed doing push-ups after being found walking more than 1,000 steps a day during self-isolation 

it is reported that the firm in Taiyuan is keeping track of its staff using a mobile software programme, which records the number of steps of all workers 

One employee said he supported the rule. 

The unnamed man, who has been punished, said doing push-ups could help him work out. 

‘I cannot say that [the policy] is reasonable or unreasonable. [After all], it does not involve financial penalties. What’s more, doing push-ups can help me exercise. I think it is pretty good,’ he told Chinese video news outlet Pear.

He claimed that he had walked too much because he had to walk his pets in his courtyard.  

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,012 people and infected more than 75,000 globally

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,012 people and infected more than 75,000 globally

More than 75,000 patients have been infected, including nearly 1,000 outside of China

More than 75,000 patients have been infected, including nearly 1,000 outside of China

Medical worker recording a patient's condition at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan on Sunday

Medical worker recording a patient’s condition at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan on Sunday

Staff must report their activities of the day if their step count exceeds 2,000, according to him. 

The news comes after Hubei Province, the epicentre of the outbreak, banned its citizens from leaving their buildings unless there were ‘special circumstances’ in a bid to stop the spread of the disease, which has killed at least 2,012 people.

The rule is part of the new efforts released by the provincial government on Sunday to tighten its restrictions on its 58 million residents during a sweeping lockdown to curb the epidemic. 

China's Hubei Province, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, has tightened its restrictions further on its residents during a sweeping lockdown to curb the epidemic. All residential compounds must now arrange security staff to check the temperature of passersby

China’s Hubei Province, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, has tightened its restrictions further on its residents during a sweeping lockdown to curb the epidemic. All residential compounds must now arrange security staff to check the temperature of passersby

A new government notice bans citizens across the province from leaving their homes unless there are 'special circumstances'. Officials have also ordered citizens in Wuhan to stay at least 1.5 metres (five feet) away from each other on the street if they must leave their buildings

A new government notice bans citizens across the province from leaving their homes unless there are ‘special circumstances’. Officials have also ordered citizens in Wuhan to stay at least 1.5 metres (five feet) away from each other on the street if they must leave their buildings

The Chinese province of Hubei is now only allowing one person of each household to go out once every three days to buy life necessities.

Officials have also ordered citizens in Wuhan – where the virus originated – to stay at least five feet away from each other if they have to go out.

Wuhan, the provincial capital with 11 million residents, went into lockdown on January 23 in the wake of the outbreak. The majority part of Hubei then followed suit.

The novel coronavirus epidemic has killed over 2,000 people in China and infected more than 75,000, and has spread to at least two dozen countries around the world. 

CHINA EXPELS THREE FOREIGN REPORTERS OVER ‘RACIST’ CORONAVIRUS COLUMN

The opinion column was penned by an American professor and published this month

The opinion column was penned by an American professor and published this month

China has ordered three reporters for The Wall Street Journal to leave the country after the U.S. newspaper declined to apologise for a headline that called China ‘the real sick man of Asia’ amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The opinion column, penned by an American professor and published earlier this month, has been deemed racist and slanderous by Beijing.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said last Monday that it had lodged solemn representations with the publication over the article.  

The expulsion came as Beijing also slammed Washington’s decision to tighten rules on Chinese state media organisations in the US, calling the move ‘unreasonable and unacceptable.’ 

The article in question is titled ‘China is the Real Sick Man of Asia’ and written by Professor Walter Russel Mead from Bard College, a private institution in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

It criticised the Chinese government’s initial response to the new coronavirus outbreak – calling the Wuhan city government at the virus epicentre ‘secretive and self-serving’, while dismissing national efforts as ineffective. 

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