In June last year, 21-year-old Xiao Zhao graduated from Hangzhou Electronic Vocational and Technical College and went home directly to take over his parents’ business.
The protagonist of a story that begins with "inheriting the family business" always brings his own aura, but Xiao Zhao is different.He took over a medium-sized waste recycling center, and at the same time he had to take over the dirty work that weighed on his parents.
A while ago, the topic of "Hangzhou’s post-1995 parenting sister-in-law earned more than 10,000 yuan a month" was posted on a hot search. Wang Qing received a WeChat from her fellow schoolmates that night: "Where should the parenting teacher go for training?" Can you take me with you? "
On social platforms, "indecent but profitable jobs" have become a hot topic for migrant workers from time to time, among which two industries, waste recycling and domestic service, are frequently nominated.Under the aura of high salary, many young people rush into the dirty and tired industries in traditional cognition. What do they think?
Take over the dirty and tired "high-paying rice bowl"
Last year’s graduation internship, Xiao Zhao worked as a car salesman for half a year. "Sometimes I was so busy that I panicked. Sometimes I was busy for several days and didn’t make any money."
As soon as he graduated, Xiao Zhao offered to go home to collect waste products. Since he was a child, he often went out with his parents to pull goods. The doorway of this line has been explored. "Is there any impurity or adulteration in the copper wire? I can tell at a glance."
Xiao Zhao’s waste station is located in Linping, which mainly recycles scrap metal, wires and cables. The handling cost is high and the profit margin is large. Some copper can be sold for more than 50 yuan a kilogram, and the profit of one ton is 1000-2000 yuan.He calculated that the recycling station can make at least a hundred thousand yuan a year.
Another reason why he is eager to take over is that his parents are old, and years of manual labor have left their health out of order. Recycling copper scrap should be weighed four times and carried up and down eight times. It takes an hour or two just to move the goods, covered in sweat and dust. This kind of day is repeated every day, wind and sun, all year round.
It’s not that Xiao Zhao’s parents haven’t hired helpers, but all of them quit after a few months, and the only ones who can persist in going around for a long time can be their own family.
Wang Qing, who also deals with dirty and tired everyday, is 26 years old and has been a senior nurse for 4 years. Four years ago, after graduating from a second college, Wang Qing went through a long and painful job search. She majored in English. Because she didn’t have a TEM-8 certificate, she couldn’t find a corresponding job, and the startup company that joined the company broke up within two months.
I heard from a friend that being a child-care teacher can earn 8,000 yuan a month. Wang Qing went to apply for the nurse practitioner Certificate for Mothers and Infants, and was affiliated with a domestic service company.Become the youngest child-care teacher with the highest education in the whole company.
During the training, she suffered first.The company requires an effective service time of not less than 10 hours per day.The work list is full of detailed matters such as feeding children, bathing, massage, and handling common symptoms. One or two of them should be completed every half hour.
"The first order was introduced by a friend. The elder sister was only one year older than me and the child was more than six months old." Wang Qing said that her employer’s home was in the county town of another city, and she offered to post an extra 2,000 yuan, but she rushed there without hesitation.
Facing the prejudice of elders and the time difference of peers
For the first time, Wang Qing got up at 6: 30 every day, arranged all the things that had to be done in the day, and always had to deal with all kinds of unexpected situations such as children crying, fever, and not sleeping.
"Home is on standby 24 hours a day, and there are endless jobs from morning till night. Only when the child sleeps at night can he do something about himself. " Wang Qing said that because of her intense work, she often missed the phone numbers and messages in her mobile phone, and it didn’t take long for her parents to find out something was wrong.
On the phone, Wang Qing had a big fight with his family. "My mother said I was ashamed, and college students went to be aunts, and all the books were read in vain." Until Wang Qing from the next door, parents didn’t send a message.
Parents feel that this job has insulted Wang Qing’s education and age, but employers and colleagues often question whether young people are qualified for this job.
Wang Qing’s name is always at the bottom of the list of service personnel provided by the company.I often can’t get a new list after waiting for a few weeks. "Most people prefer experienced middle-aged parenting sisters, and I can’t catch up with them in this respect."
Once, just two days after entering the household, the employer’s mother-in-law proposed to change people at first sight, because an unmarried and childless little girl didn’t take care of her children’s nature. "I can’t bring a child who is less than one year old, and my grandmother said that the complementary food I made tastes bad. Children don’t like it, so I should give them salty food." As a result, she was quickly replaced.
Every morning at five or six o’clock, when Xiao Zhao gets up to pull the goods, most people in this city are still asleep.
Most of his friends in school go to the factory to be mechanics, or work in the company, and live a regular life from eight to five. "I have a time difference with them. I slept while they were playing, and they didn’t wake up when I got up for work. "
During the day, I do the work of pulling goods and disassembling. Xiao Zhao basically doesn’t look at the mobile phone. In the mouth of friends, he has been in a state of losing contact all the year round, WeChat does not return in time, the game is not played, and the party is always less than time.
Xiao Zhao’s only hobby after work is fitness. At eight or nine o’clock in the evening, he went home and put on clean sports equipment, and went to the gym to start "lifting iron". At this point, the most people in the gym are white-collar workers who have just finished working, and everyone’s faces have similar fatigue.
After the wave rushed into the "low-end aging" industry
Xiao Zhao’s parents recalled that the golden age of collecting waste products was from 2004 to 2018. When the Internet began to affect all walks of life, their traditional mode of hard work was also affected.
"A few years ago, they couldn’t even use WeChat. Customers all ran out by themselves, and a family came to the door to plug business cards. " Xiao Zhao said that the key to making money by collecting waste products lies in the source of tourists. Over the years, my parents have accumulated some contacts, and he has to stabilize this rice bowl and can’t take the old road again.
As a post-00 generation who grew up on the Internet, Xiao Zhao skillfully "sipped" his business on social platforms such as Tik Tok and Xiaohongshu.In the past, people were looking for goods, but now we have to open channels for finding people in currency.Intentional customers can be accurately found on the Internet, which is much more efficient than asking from house to house in the past. "
Xiao Zhao also hung "waste recycling" products on the salted fish platform, and received 10 new customers in the past six months. This order can only be icing on the cake for the waste station, but chatting online can talk about business, which is also an important reason why parents decided to let go of the business to him.
In the past, the domestic industry was a low-end aging industry, mainly referring to the low academic qualifications and old age of employees. Manager Wang of Hangzhou Xinnuo Home Economics Company revealed that,In recent years, the post-80s, post-90s and post-90s attracted by high salaries have gradually become the backbone of the domestic industry.
According to the Employment Index Report of Life Service Industry in China (2022), in 2020, the job seekers aged 45 to 55 accounted for the most, and in 2021, the proportion of job seekers under 35 increased significantly.
In his view, young people have obvious advantages in housework."They are energetic, learn new knowledge quickly, and can flexibly use current high-tech products."After young people enter the domestic service industry, the structure of employees is constantly optimized, especially in the maternal and child field, even after 00, they have learned scientific nutrition and health knowledge and can provide more professional services, which is one of the reasons why the domestic salary is getting higher and higher.
Two years ago, Wang Qing received few orders. In the days when she didn’t take orders, she passed the training and got the certificate of senior childcare teacher, and finally squeezed into the "first echelon" recommended by the company.
"I am full of orders now, and my salary is higher than before." Wang Qing said that she is concerned that knowledge-based talents are scarce in the domestic industry at present, and she plans to apply for preschool education through adult schools, so as to give full play to the advantages of her English major. If she can transform into an early teacher, her career will go higher and further.