Towards the end of the year, Beijing, a super first tier city that can swallow tens of millions of people, has reached the peak of population mobility. Migrant workers preparing to go home have packed up their packages and robbed the train tickets to their hometown in advance. At this time, a group of domestic workers in a foreign land had to choose to stay.
The festival, which was supposed to be a reunion, was shrouded in a haze by the epidemic. In the case of many places calling for the local Chinese new year, consumers’ demand for domestic services has been further released, and the domestic market has entered the traditional peak consumption season. According to 58 home data, near the Spring Festival, the demand for domestic services on the platform continues to grow. It is expected to reach the peak around the lunar new year, which will increase by 50% compared with the normal demand. According to the platform survey data, it is expected that before the Spring Festival this year, the number of domestic workers left behind in Beijing will increase by 40% year-on-year and 14% nationwide.
This is not the first time that Wang Xiangyun from Gansu has stayed in Beijing. She is used to the New Year atmosphere in Beijing. With her husband and children around, Wang Xiangyun has also found the feeling of home in another country; Although struggling with her husband in Beijing, the young living Aunt Li Yangyang stayed in Chaoyang District and her husband was in Shunyi district. They both held the same goal: let the children far away in Shanxi live a better life; Looking at the daily rolling new cases in her hometown of Henan, meihuajun, the childcare sister-in-law, decided to stay in Beijing alone for the new year.
For them, this is destined to be an extraordinary Spring Festival. What will they gain without their relatives and friends visiting their hometown and familiar hometown specialties?
go home seamlessly, and the anxiety in the empty window period disappears
At 8:30 pm, looking at a sumptuous dinner, Wang Xiangyun showed a satisfied smile on her face. When she cleaned up the kitchen, she ended the busy work schedule of the day. Wang Xiangyun is a member of the 58 home hour team. Now she serves three stable employers. She needs to clean the customer’s house and cook a meal within 2 hours.
This year is the 12th year of Wang Xiangyun’s career. She can be regarded as a veteran in the domestic economics circle, but she has also experienced the darkest moment of her career. In 2015, Wang Xiangyun experienced a window period of more than one month after leaving the house. At that time, the market was still in a desolate period of “small disorder”. Wang Xiangyun’s employment channels relied on the introduction of offline acquaintances. The source of customers was unstable and the coverage was very narrow.
“At that time, I was very anxious and felt that my value was not recognized, and every expense in Beijing was a burden and pressure.” Wang Xiangyun recalled to times finance.
At that time, the whole housekeeping industry was also experiencing a change from offline to online, and the traffic was inclined to vertical websites. After repeatedly failing to submit resumes offline, Wang Xiangyun turned his attention to the online housekeeping platform.
Since joining 58 home, Wang Xiangyun feels that the biggest change is that the window period has become shorter, and the chat information of the pie group she joined has been beating all the time. “Now I don’t worry about orders that I can’t receive. There are three long-term fixed customers. Sometimes when I get empty, I will receive short-term orders.” The location of paidan is within 3 kilometers of her residence, which makes Wang Xiangyun’s time on the road no more than 3 hours a day.
The high-efficiency order receiving benefits from the technical investment of 58 home. It is directly connected with the national workers through the “58 smart housekeeping system” to automatically distribute orders, shorten the order sending distance to within 3 kilometers, reduce the travel of domestic workers, and increase the per capita daily order receiving volume by 1 ~ 2 orders at the same time.
When the work entered a stable period, Wang Xiangyun’s income rose from 4000 yuan to 9000 yuan. The most time, she served six customers a day. With the increase in the number of customers contacted, Wang Xiangyun also developed food practices all over the country. Previously, she was only good at cooking Northern dishes. Because she gradually contacted many southern customers, Wang Xiangyun also mastered the taste buds of southerners and even unlocked her new identity as a pet breeder.
One week before the Spring Festival, a customer served by Wang Xiangyun left his pet in Beijing. Wang Xiangyun took over the task of feeding pets during the holiday. Using the two-hour working hours every day, Wang Xiangyun found out the habits of pet cats. “One puppet cat is very sticky, and the other little blue cat is particularly sleepy. Put some water and cat food every day to see if they have any abnormalities.”
There is no feast that never ends. Leaving the house is the difference that every housekeeping aunt must experience. Wang Xiangyun has served six clients since he arrived at home in 58. Some single girls have set up families and have no demand for part-time work for the time being; Some elderly people at home have reduced their housekeeping expenses after moving to Beijing, but she is the first thought of the employer she has served once there is demand. She found a sense of security because of her seamless working state. “It’s difficult to stay in a city as big as Beijing. Having a stable and high-income job is the greatest happiness.” Wang Xiangyun sighed.
There’s a regiment behind and there’s no trouble that can’t be solved
For domestic workers, they are not only individuals fighting alone, but also have professional teachers and training teams behind them. If they encounter any difficult problems in their work, they are escorted by a strong support team.
At 7:30 p.m., Li Yangyang took the customer’s children for a walk in the mall. The work of the day was coming to an end. As a living aunt, her work content follows the baby’s living time as the track. From 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., many projects such as feeding, cooking, walking, early education, bathing and coaxing the baby to sleep are fully arranged.
In 1993, Li Yangyang was a young seed in the team of housekeeping aunts. Two years ago, after giving birth to a second child, she decided to break into the housekeeping industry. “Which treasure mother will hand over the care of children to young people?” At the beginning of his career, Li Yangyang heard voices of doubt.
Everything is difficult at the beginning. Li Yangyang devoted all her mind to 58 home training. Before, she only had her own experience in raising children and had not formed a systematic theoretical learning framework. After a month of training, Li Yangyang found that parenting is a college question, covering all aspects of baby food supplement, early education and washing care, and he is still in the stage of entering the house.
Mistakes are difficult for every housekeeping aunt to completely eliminate. Once, in the gap between Li Yangyang’s going to the bathroom, the employer’s baby accidentally fell. Relatives at home accused Li Yangyang of not taking good care of the child. Fortunately, Bao’s mother comforted Li Yangyang lightly.
However, in the face of the first accusation from her employer, Li Yangyang could not calm down quickly. She took advantage of the rest time to ask the professional group 58 home for help. The other party’s suggestion was that if the baby’s mother could accept the mistake, she would relax and work well. “They are all mothers, so I can especially understand Bao’s nervousness. It’s also this small mistake that makes me think more thoughtful and meticulous in dealing with things in the future.”
Compared with Li Yangyang’s green and astringent, the seasoned Wang Xiangyun has developed a long-term and effective methodology in a thousand years of training. Once I went to the employer’s house to try my job. The other party asked, “can you cook Sichuan food?” Wang Xiangyun is not familiar with the practice of Sichuan cuisine. After hesitating for a few seconds, the employer’s face has given the answer of “refusing employment”.
Wang Xiangyun didn’t immediately give up the opportunity of self recommendation. She showed dozens of finished dishes in her mobile phone to customers. After seeing the best-selling pictures, the employer was also willing to relax the conditions.
For domestic aunts, the interview is an important step in deciding whether they go or stay. They need to go through many tests of the employer. If they are a little inappropriate, they may be eliminated. “The practices of local cuisines are comprehensive. After seeing the finished products of my cooking, customers also think I can do well in Sichuan cuisine.” Wang Xiangyun said.
Like Li Yangyang, Wang Xiangyun will open aunt 58 app to learn relevant contents of domestic workers after a whole day’s work. His ability to play on the spot and adapt to changes is imperceptibly influenced by daily fragmented learning. “Now more and more customers are contacted. I feel I can deal with most emergencies.” Wang Xiangyun said to times finance.
celebrate the new year with fellow villagers and become foreign sisters
After a busy day, Wang Xiangyun will leave the fourth meal of the day to her husband and children, which is a rare time for their family to reunite. Although Li Yangyang and her husband are separated from each other, she also has her own small home in Beijing; Compared with them, the plum blossom army left in Beijing will face the first spring festival without relatives.
In October 2020, in order to save money for his new son to buy a house, meihuajun decided to go to Beijing alone.
Four years ago, meihuajun was a housekeeping aunt in Pingdingshan, Henan Province. Her experience in opening a hotel gave her a lot of points on her resume. However, limited by the average income level of her hometown, meihuajun could only get a salary of about 4000 yuan a month.
High wages are often accompanied by high requirements. First tier cities are the main battlefield of the domestic aunt industry. There are many subdivided fields in the whole domestic industry. The monthly income of highly professional domestic aunts can even be close to 20000 yuan. Although the plum blossom army has brought no less than 10 children and has a voice in childcare, everyone in Beijing’s domestic market needs a professional certificate. “The once experience oriented selection standard doesn’t work. All employers ask what professional certificates they have.”
Just came to Beijing for half a month, Meihua army will go to 58 home Beijing headquarters every day for training, including mother and child care, communication skills with employers, home hygiene and so on. In addition to the intensive training before entry, an exchange meeting between the employer and the housekeeping aunt will be arranged at 58 home every weekend, which not only enables the housekeeping aunt to understand the changing market demand, but also enables the employer to find the favorite housekeeping aunt according to the personalized needs.
Through the establishment of Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) worker training system, 58 families provide standardized and systematic training services in the whole process, and carry out live broadcast and online training every week to improve the service quality and efficiency of workers.
It is worth mentioning that with the standardized training mechanism, the probability of Meihua army being selected by the employer has greatly increased. Meihua army didn’t wait too long for her first job. Half a month after the training, she received her first childcare job.
Parenting is a painstaking effort. You can’t leave your baby for a moment, let alone pay attention to the news on your mobile phone at any time. Meihua army will say hello to her husband in advance before starting work every day. Fortunately, her son has successfully passed the internship period, and meihua army can devote all his mind to work.
In order to avoid missing the details of taking care of children, the plum blossom army has formed the habit of taking notes. Now the plum blossom army takes care of the 5-month-old child. She will mark the precautions for taking care of the child in every detail in her notes, such as how many times a day she drinks milk, when the child will be sleepy, and how long she sleeps.
The middle of December is often the tide of homecoming of domestic aunts, but the new cases in Beijing and Henan have blocked the plum blossom army’s plan to go home. Seeing the embarrassment on the employer’s face, meihuajun firmly explained to the employer that he would stay in Beijing this Spring Festival.
Before opening her mouth, the plum blossom army was not without struggle. This was the first time she stayed in a different place for the new year. Her son and husband were still in their hometown. However, at the thought of going home and returning to Beijing, she had to face the isolation period of more than 20 days, and she made the final decision. “Now the employers who serve have just entered a stable period and don’t want to break their original jobs because of changes.” Plum blossom army said to times finance and economics. She felt that the choice of staying in Beijing had reassured the employer’s family and built a wall of mutual trust.
Through the weekly exchange meeting held at 58 home, the plum blossom army listened to the accent and met more than a dozen fellow villagers from Henan. Everyone added friends to each other and became good sisters working in a foreign land. This Spring Festival, the villagers’ circle where the plum blossom army is located all chose to stay in Beijing, “originally thought they would be lonely if they stayed, but now there are a group of villagers’ sisters, so we can eat dumplings and celebrate the new year together.”
