Wanted at Chinese Start-Ups: Attractive Women to Ease Coders’ Stress

The New York Times ^ | April 24, 2018 | Sui-Lee Wee

[2ndDivisionVet]

BEIJING — China’s vibrant technology scene is searching for people like Shen Yue. Qualifications: Must be attractive, know how to charm socially awkward programmers and give relaxing massages.

Ms. Shen is a “programmer motivator,” as they are known in China. Part psychologist, part cheerleader, the women are hired to chat up and calm stressed-out coders. The jobs are proliferating in a society that largely adheres to gender stereotypes and believes that male programmers are “zhai,” or nerds who have no social lives.

“They really need someone to talk to them from time to time and to organize activities for them to ease some of the pressure,” said Ms. Shen, a 25-year-old who has a degree in civil engineering from a university in Beijing.

Chinese women have made great strides in the workplace. The country has the world’s largest number of self-made female billionaires, while many start-ups have women in senior roles. But at a time when the United States and other countries are directly confronting the #MeToo movement, the inequalities and biases in China are rarely discussed openly and remain firmly entrenched....

[2ndDivisionVet]

I need me a coding job.

[Reno89519]

An I get one?

[MortMan]

Didn’t Wallowitz in the Big Bang Theory have a solution for this?

[prophetic]

I saw reference to something like those jobs in a comic book at a friends house some years ago, but massages weren't the things that they ministered to the male workers..

Meanwhile here in the ultra PC USA the leaders are even pushing for more polarizing between men vs women.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Are you in computers?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Depends on your definition of massage.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Remind me.

[DesertRhino]

Yeah, hot chicks in the office. That completely makes it a low stress environment. /s

The Chicoms still have a bit to learn about office dynamics.

[MortMan]

He used a NASA “hand” to grab his junk, and the hand closed far, far too tightly - and wouldn’t let go.

[DIRTYSECRET]

I never found Chinese chicks very sexy. Sorry.

[2ndDivisionVet]

oh yeah, the nurse saying they don’t have a hospital code for that.

[MortMan]

That would be a code purple. It started out as blue...

[BunnySlippers]

Soooo ... there are NO female coders. Or no straight ones.

[Teflonic]

I never found Chinese chicks very sexy. Sorry.

[Fai Mao]

You need to see more Chinese women.

[lee martell]

If coding wasn’t a very modern job description, some might wonder if this whole article wasn’t written in 1958.
For most men though, it fulfills a wish.
Not all the time, but a lot of the time.
As the Beach Boys sang “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?”

[dfwgator]

She’s Korean.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I never found Chinese chicks very sexy. Sorry.

I've yet to locate an ethnicity which didn't have at least some women I found insanely hot.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for my career), none of those hot women ever worked at my various coding jobs.

[Vendome]

[Vendome]