At 8:30 p.m., as usual, Dawn parked his black Guangqi car in the bike lane on the north side of Wangke West Road. The two-way single-lane road is not very wide, and once a car is parked on the side of the road, the lane becomes extra narrow.
This is the Zhongguancun Software Park, which is said to “occupy half of China’s Internet”, and because it backs up to Houchangcun Road, people are more used to calling it Houzhuang Village”. Houzhuang Village is located in the northwest corner of Beijing’s Haidian District. On about 2.6 square kilometers of land, it is home to many Internet technology giants such as Baidu, Tencent, Netease, Sina and Drip, attracting tens of thousands of China’s top Internet talents to work here.
The beat workers who are tasked with the mission of making the Internet world run fast, in addition to some of them getting off work on time, a considerable number of them often have to work overtime until dark or even late at night, when many of them have to take online rides home.
Li Ming is one of the many online taxi drivers waiting for work in Houzhuang Village. He is a Beijinger who joined Shouqi 3 years ago after buying a GAC car at a cost of 180,000, and has been coming to Houzhuang Village almost every day for 3 years, except for a day off on Saturdays. Each time he parks on the north side of Wangke West Road, which is in an excellent location, close to Baidu Technology Park, with the Netease building on his right and the Tencent and Sina headquarters buildings to the south.
8:30 p.m. is still some time before most of the big factory people get off work – they have to clock in at least after 9 p.m. to go home before their travel expenses are reimbursed. The cold of late March in Beijing is no longer biting and is slowly warming up. When his eyes are tired, he rubs his face with his hands to refresh himself.
After a long time of pulling work in Houjian Village, Li Ming, like other online taxi drivers who hang out here, has long figured out the working rhythm and living habits of the workers in the big factory. Through those who ride in the car, they figured out the general level of the big factory programmers, found that the middle level of the worst temper, but also know the salary range of the big factory people – although many big factories three orders require staff salary confidentiality, they even understand which big factory people jumped ship the most.
These online drivers are also often the most sensitive to the internal whirlwind of the big manufacturers, such as who’s business lines are going to be integrated, which one is preparing to build a car, or even who is going to plan to shut down a certain overseas branch, they will also know. Many online taxi drivers have even added WeChat and become friends with the young people from the big factories who often ride in them.
To the net car drivers here, there are no secrets from the big Internet manufacturers.
Tiredness
At 8:40, Dawn raised his eyes and looked ahead at the Baidu office, the lights were still on, and there were still 20 minutes left before the peak of the Baidu taxi reimbursement. He pulls out a mercury gray tie from the center armrest box and puts it under his white shirt, then straightens his collar.
There were more and more cars outside the window. A black Nissan drove by slowly and cut in front of Dawn’s car, and Dawn glanced through the rearview mirror; a car was also parked behind it. He pointed to the mirror and said, “The two cars in front and behind don’t even need to look, they are both cars of the Shouqi platform. “
Shouqi is indeed the main force here, after the factory village and Shouqi signed although only Baidu and Tencent (Ali in Wangjing is also a contracted user of Shouqi), from the number of contracted companies is far less than the number of platforms such as Drip, but the number of users of these large factories is very large. What’s more, compared to other platforms, Shouqi’s taxi hailing service is much more expensive per unit.
If you take a taxi from Baidu to Wangjing, for a 20-kilometer journey, Baidu’s order price (the driver’s income) is around 120 yuan, while Tencent’s price (including the reward given to the driver afterwards) is no more than 100 yuan. “Even for an ordinary order of a few dozen dollars, Baidu’s is more expensive than Tencent’s by 10 or so. “A Shouqi driver said she would pull almost 3 trips of Baidu’s every night, and rarely would take Tencent’s orders.
Lai Ming introduced Baidu is paid in accordance with real-time mileage, “Tencent and Ali are part of the special single, a price, which is equivalent to a 30% discount on the basis of the actual cost. “Therefore, the drivers of the first car like to pull the job next to Baidu company. The drivers also knew that within half an hour after 9 p.m., the estimated demand for Baidu orders on First Auto was over 1,600 orders.
That night, just after 9:00 p.m., there was a “ding” on Li’s phone, a single from Baidu to Wangjing. The trip was not too close, from the northwest corner of Beijing along the fifth ring to the northeast corner. After delivering the passenger, he could also go to Wangjing’s Ali Center to pick up another order.
A few minutes later, the Baidu passenger who called the car arrived. He looked less than 30 years old, a thin body under a black jacket, as if he was supporting a robe with pine branches, a bit weak. Dawn knew at a glance that he was the kind of programmer who often worked overtime, “the soul is drained. “
Exhaustion is a common state for people in the big factory. Lin Bai, who often pulls work in the back factory village, pulled a programmer earlier this year and left from the brightly lit office only at 3 a.m. The programmer started sighing when he got into Lin Bai’s car and told him that he had been working for 15 hours in a row for the new project to go online, and his body was already highly overdrawn, but he still had to get up and go to work at 10 am the next day.
He once sent a young man who was urgently called back to the big factory to work overtime at 11pm on a Friday night. Once the other person got into the car, his eyebrows were almost linked into a “pair of hooks”, and he had an annoyed look on his face. Lin Bai later listened to him spit all the way to the bitterness, he had gone home after dinner in the brush drama, suddenly called back by the leadership, angry enough, “so easy a leisurely Friday night and destroyed. “
Lai Ming sarcastic him “too honest”, “you say a The other person said, “I’m out to dinner with friends,” and that was it? The other party returned his sentence, “We do not have time to eat with friends, as long as there is a project problem, is in the end of the world also have to come back. “
Strong work pace, the enthusiasm of the big factory programmers have long been exhausted in the work, their usual performance after the car is “silent”, do not like to chat with the driver. The most is to play with the phone, indulge in the game world to kill or brush the Shake Yin, fast hands of easy funny video.
Dawn received the same Baidu young man, the whole process almost did not say a word, he played all the way to the glory of the king, the phone from time to time out of the “double kill “The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.
Lai Ming himself usually loves to play games, and knows that once a person is immersed in the game world, all worries seem to disappear. However, the “dirty” words that pop up when these big factory people play games in the car will scare the driver.
A female driver, who often pulls Baidu employees, once came out of Houjian Village at 11 pm and was driving on an empty street when a sharp and angry voice suddenly came out from behind her, “Stupid X? “, she was startled, through the rear-view mirror, the original passenger is and teammates in the virtual game in the kill it.
The most important thing is to make a phone call to the people they pick up at night.
Wang Mian, a 29-year-old online taxi driver, found that the phone calls in the car to talk about business are basically leaders in the company, he pulled a few executives, are on the phone to guide the work, people to the destination, the phone has not yet finished.
Net car driver Li Si also remembered that he pulled a large factory executives at 10 o’clock at night, has been on the phone, listen to the day interview candidates briefing, the executive on the phone to the final conclusion is: good business skills, can be used, annual salary of 500,000.
Last winter, Dawn sent a female leader of a large factory back to her home in Dongba, outside the East Fifth Ring Road, at 9:00 pm. The whole journey lasted more than 40 minutes, and the female leader was on the phone, mainly talking about the dress code of their company staff working in Africa. She seemed “cold and hard” on the phone, directly accusing her subordinates of not doing their jobs properly. She said that African office workers should also pay attention to their dress on weekends and “wear clothes that reflect Chinese national characteristics and culture. “
Emotions
The company’s main business is to provide a service to the public.
His family lives in Huilongguan, just 10 kilometers away from the back factory village, when he first started to run randomly according to the system assignment, a day simply can not pull many people, but also can not earn money, and later learned that Baidu is a large customer of the first car, began to fix at night perched next to Baidu.
He found that the young people who came to work at Baidu, living in Chaoyang, Tongzhou, Shunyi, Daxing are quite a lot, as long as pull on a single almost all hundreds of yuan income, some even more than 200 yuan. Occasionally catching up with good luck, and then grab a back factory village delivery appointment single, a day can run on the thousand yuan flow.
In Dawn’s opinion, the freedom to drive a net car, if you want to quit, but also without the boss’s watch and the constraints of the company system, the income is not bad, is a rather tempting choice. He usually rests during the day and comes out from home only at 8 p.m. He drives for 20 minutes or so to Houjian Village, and the day’s work can begin.
Most of the big factory people are highly educated, high income, annual salary is often hundreds of thousands of millions, but many online taxi drivers, including Li Ming, do not envy, they will feel that these programmers are like a spinning gyroscope, in addition to overtime or overtime, the energy has long been drained by the work.
Liang Yong, who has been engaged in online taxi work for more than 4 years, knows it well. He found that the first week after the Spring Festival every year, is the most difficult period of time for Baidu programmers. He remembers the first few days of work this year, the faces of Baidu passengers who called his car were very unpleasant.
This is the annual debriefing period for Baidu programmers. Liang Yong daily transport passengers, almost all in preparation for the debriefing defense. Through the rearview mirror, Liang Yong could see them staring at their phones, mouthing the words, some even read them out loud.
How much user data, how many seconds of delay, how many clicks and other words, in the back of Liang Yong’s head scurrying. Liang Yong listened to the headache, but also helpless. “Every time they are promoted is a fierce fight, once promoted, the income will increase by tens of thousands or even higher, you say everyone who does not play hard to get? “
From junior to mid-level promotions, the income of employees in large factories rose at the same time, it also means a sharp rise in pressure. Lin Bai private and peer exchanges, figured out a pattern, many mid-level employees have a temper, love to show off, they are often popular with this kind of people to nestle a fire in the stomach.
“I’m also considered a relatively good-tempered driver, and since April 2019, my rating has never been lower than five stars,” he said, feeling that some mid-level programmers “have a communication disorder.”
Once at 10 o’clock at night, Lin Bai sent a young man from a large factory home. After getting into the car, Lin Bai would ask, as a rule, “XXXX cell phone tail number is you, right? “The other party did not respond. Lin Bai stiffly started the engine and did not speak.
On the way, the platform recommends another unconventional route, which may take a slight detour but is not congested, and as required by the profession, the passenger needs to be asked for advice. The young man returned a mouth raw, “Do not you recognize the road? “Lin Bai heart of the fire miso up, but held back did not speak. Then every time he crossed an intersection, Lin Bai deliberately asked “where to go”, after 6 intersections, Lin Bai asked 6 times.
Lin Bai has encountered many similar experiences, and later private and peer exchanges, only slowly figured out. Those passengers who ignore people and love to pose are basically the position of mid-level programmers in large factories, they are not like fresh programmers, just complete the work at hand, and not like the more senior leaders, in the complex interpersonal relationships to handle with ease.
Only the middle ranking people, just promoted, need to learn to deal with more complex issues, but also to show their ability and value, they often take the initiative to work overtime, self-consumption is also more, so after a busy day, people’s body and spirit are emptied, people also become impatient.
When Liang Yong initially did online dating, he failed to control himself, and also had a fight with a big factory programmer in the rain. It was 3:00 a.m., pouring rain, and the passenger did not look good once he got on the bus, and his attitude was very brutal, commanding Liang Yong to “turn around” and “go forward”, “left turn “, an intersection command late, would have turned left, has gone straight, the brakes can not be, the atmosphere in the car was once very heavy.
He felt that the passenger was like speculating in the stock market lost millions of dollars, temperament is very big. When getting off the bus, the passenger could not open the door, came to a “you this broken car, I can not key ah”, immediately ignited the suppressed anger within the Liang Yong, he turned back from the driver’s seat Turned around, pulled the passenger’s collar, went up and gave three punches.
The next day, Liang Yong was a passenger complaint, the final result is that Liang Yong was punished by the platform.
For this matter, online taxi driver Wu Chi is very incomprehensible, “the relationship between the driver and passengers, to put it bluntly is the service, you out of what? It is to earn money? Earn money will have to endure a little. “
Factory culture
The negative emotions of the people of Dazhang are actually not for the online taxi drivers, under the high-pressure working environment, sometimes they are just an emotional catharsis of their work status and situation.
Lin Bai, who is particularly sensitive to the work status of big factory people, found that Baidu people’s grievances are in stages. During that period of time, Baidu stock continued to fall, “Wei Zexi incident” is the Baidu in the whirlwind of public opinion, Baidu people generally low morale, anxious. “I can hear them every day to jump ship information, rather than say a month to listen to a few times. “Lin Bai said.
Job-hopping is not a new thing in the big Internet factories, several big factories jumping around is also the norm, but a careful analysis, behind the job-hopping is the future of the new company employees “see more” But a closer analysis shows that behind the job hopping is the employees’ “bearishness” on the future of the new company, and even more so on the original company’s “bearishness”.
“This year, Baidu stock is not up? I haven’t pulled a Baidu passenger who said he wanted to leave. “Lin Bai also found an interesting phenomenon,” especially bizarre, Baidu people regardless of whether they have Baidu stock, are particularly love to talk about Baidu’s stock, stock up or down on their jump not The impact of jumping ship is great. “
Lin Bai received the Baidu guests, jumping ship to go mainly byte jumping, Ali and Racer, also received a few jumped ship to the next door Tencent. A report from the Pulse Data Institute also confirms his claim that in 2020, Baidu is the main source of talent input from other companies, of which the top two Baidu people jumping ship, it is byte-hopping and Ali.
Compared with Baidu, Lin Bai found that the Ali people he pulled have always been very defensive of Ali’s image, few people spit on the company. He also remembered that he had previously pulled an Ali person who did training, and was forced to listen to him talk all the way to Ali’s corporate culture. The training officer was also quite confident that Ali people generally do not have negative emotions.
When Lin Bai did sales at Guazi used car, his colleagues are basically former Ali people, “how can there be no (negative emotions)? They just don’t say it to outsiders. “
Lin Bai pulled relatively few Tencent people, and spit less. What impressed him is that one night pulled a Tencent young man, the other is a UI designer, especially chatty, in the process of sitting in the car, but also urged Lin Bai to download a Tencent product APP, so that he put forward his views from the user perspective. Lin Bai was particularly surprised at that time and thought, “I am driving a car, how can I have time to do user experience?
In the eyes of online taxi drivers, the pressure index is also different in different business sectors. At the beginning of this year, Li Ming received a young man from Baidu’s driverless department in Building 4 of Baidu Technology Park, who desperately complained to Li Ming, “I can’t see any hope for driverless technology, but I often work overtime and have no time to run around. “
In the 20-minute journey from Baidu Building 4 to Huilongguan, the two talked enough about the traffic congestion situation facing driverless technology, to the current situation of burning money, to the common pressure faced by all burning departments – being under the boss’s harsh scrutiny, etc.
Wu Chi, a taxi driver, has a different perspective on the “wealth” of big manufacturers than others. He remembers a weekend afternoon at the end of last year when he picked up two passengers from a large factory in Houjian Village to catch a flight back to Shanghai. Wu Chi through their chat, presumed that one of them is the factory’s Shanghai branch of the financial executives, the other is the executive’s subordinates.
During the car ride, the finance executive was about to sign a pile of paper, saw a place to hesitate, and then said, “The loss can not write so much, the boss will not be happy to see, should find some consumables in the report to do a little balance, so that the report does not look so stuttering. “
Wu Chi is not interested in the financial situation of large factories, so that he is haunted by a small episode thereafter. Because of the rush to catch a plane is very hasty, the executive was in a hurry, the Montblanc signature pen worth more than 3,000 left in the car. The next day he drove to the back of the factory village to send that Montblanc pen, the big factory did not point to “show”.
Wu Chi felt that they are too stingy, he could not help but complain to the executive’s secretary, “I sent the pen all the way here to you, just say thank you. How much does this pen cost, do you know? “
Sense of Belonging
Another reason why many online taxi drivers are willing to chat with people from big factories is that it will make them not sleepy when driving at night. Many platforms don’t allow drivers to initiate chats with passengers unless they do.
A smart driver who meets a passenger who loves to talk can often seize the moment and fully mobilize the atmosphere.
Lai is very good at pinpointing the scale, if he meets a passenger who says, “Master, how can this seat be adjusted backwards”, he knows that the passenger is very tired and will most likely lie down and sleep all the way, so it is better Do not disturb him. If a passenger gets on the bus and says, “Aigoo! Such a big car, sit me a waste of ah”, this passenger will be very chatty, almost any topic can chat.
Before the Spring Festival this year, Li pulled a person working in Tencent. The other party was fascinated by Dawn’s experience of driving in Tibet and Xinjiang. Dawn is a veteran off-road driving enthusiast and had organized a drive from Beijing to Zhangye to watch the Danxia landform and then Jiuquan to visit the Mogao Caves. The other party had a good talk with him, and before he got off the bus, he specially added Li’s WeChat, hoping that when the time came, Li would send him some detailed planning of the travel route.
Another time, a young man from a big factory felt that he could not see any hope in his job because of the leadership jumping, so he wanted to come out to do his own catering. Li Ming threw cold water on him and said he couldn’t do it. He felt that the other party simply did not understand, “only 300,000 yuan of start-up capital, not enough to fight the water. “
Wan Quan, an online taxi driver in his 40s, often pulls passengers from Tencent in the software park. His professional role as a driver, positioned as a “passenger emotional release of the trash can,” in chatting with passengers. “To understand the mood of the passengers, throw in the towel. “
What passengers like to confide in Wanquan most is that personal miserable emotional history. Once a programmer working at Tencent and earning 600,000 yuan a year told him that he was very distressed and had no girl connection and was repeatedly rejected on blind dates. Another middle-level female leader of a large factory told him that she liked a male subordinate of the same company and couldn’t resist confessing her love to him, who rejected her but then enjoyed the help she offered at work. One female passenger even confided in him about her dogged marriage, how her ex-husband played with her feelings, how she was alone, and how she wanted to start a new relationship after the divorce but was fearful.
“We are sometimes like garbage cans and psychiatrists,” Wan Quan said, adding that he usually listens, goes along with the passengers’ emotions and stands with them to berate the people they want to scold.
Late at night, loneliness is an inescapable problem for young people in Dazhan. There is no time for socializing and living during the day, and once at night, loneliness eats away at one’s sanity.
Wu Chi once drove a female passenger home at 11 o’clock at night. When the destination arrived, the female passenger stammered, “How about we add a WeChat, about watching a movie, or, go upstairs and sit down? “The girl tried to say.
Female passenger he has pulled twice, each other has been very familiar, in the car chatting more pleasant, from favorite anime, movies to personal feelings chatted over. Wu Chi politely declined her invitation to go upstairs, but at the time he also understood her, “these big factory people, in addition to work is work, no time, and few opportunities to fall in love. Most of the men in the same factory are programmers, boring personality, can talk about the topic is not much. “
Many online taxi drivers are Beijingers, their families in the local, life pressure is not too big, dry online taxi is not so desperate. Some drivers like to ask the young people in the software park: you are so desperate, can you work until retirement?
For these workers working in large Internet factories, future planning is a nebulous thing, 29-year-old Wang Mian heard the answer, mostly “I don’t know”. Wang Mian will feel that these young people in large factories will not live, in addition to overtime is to sleep, play games. In addition to envy their wages are higher than his, he thinks other aspects are inferior to him.
Wan Quan could not understand the psychology of young people to replace money with youth. He always remembered the Guangdong girl who lived in Jiuxianqiao, her job was to write code, and that day he felt she was tired to the extreme, “40 minutes away, the black Passata back seat ‘yawn’ sound, one after another, are not stopping. “
Lai sometimes pays special attention to those who work a day shift, the body is extremely tired of the big factory people, he will remind a little, there are massage chairs in the car. Most passengers are recommended, will give their bodies to the machine to completely relax. At this point the cordial atmosphere in the car was naturally formed, and the conversation went deeper.
Before Dawn never thought that he, a person who had not graduated from junior high school, would give advice to senior students working in big factories on how to cope with the pressure in the workplace, and some of them would become his friends on self-driving trips. When he knew so many “secrets” of the big factories, Dawn seemed to have more understanding of these big factory people when she was pulling work late at night.
If you meet a passenger in the back of the factory village full of complaints, he can probably understand the other side of the day shift, waiting for half an hour before hitting the car feeling, “spread on who, not to nag nag nag. Sometimes, when he meets a young man who gets on the bus with a computer crackling with typing, Li Ming can’t help but advise him to take a break, people’s energy is limited, the work is never done.
He always gives him the illusion that he is still in the workplace and not the one who is abandoned by the times because of his lack of technical knowledge.
(At the request of the interviewer, the online taxi driver in the article is a pseudonym)
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