These Companies Offer 'Dating Leave' for Single Women Over 30

In China, two tourism companies are providing a special kind of benefit to their employees. All of their single female employees who are over 30 years old will receive an extra time off during the Lunar New Year to “go home and date”.

The companies, Hangzhou Songcheng Performance and Hangzhou Songcheng Tourism Management said single women over 30 in “non-frontline” roles would be granted an additional eight days of “dating leave” on top of the traditional seven-day break. They also had the option to extend the dating leave.

Unmarried women over 30 are usually regarded as “leftover women” in China because of the belief that women who are still single beyond their mid-twenties are less desirable to men. But as more women focus on their careers, many choose to marry later or stay single.

There were more than 200 million single adults in China in 2015 and the marriage rate has decreased every year since 2013.

The companies operate a popular tourist attraction called Song Dynasty Town in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. The park is the largest of its kind in China and based on a period of Chinese history about 1,000 years ago. Visitors are required to wear flowing traditional robes while in the park, and those who decline are given traditional “punishments” such as being put in stocks.

The companies’ dating leave decision was well-received by the employees, according to Hangzhou Songcheng Performance human resources manager Huang Lei.

“The ratio of men to women in our company is about the same. [But] women employees mostly work in internal functional departments and some are show performers … some female staff have less contact with the outside world. Therefore, we hope to give more leave to female staff, to give them more time and opportunities to be in contact with the opposite sex,” Huang said.

Huang also said that if these women were happier in their personal lives, they would be more productive at work. The announcement comes after a high school in Hangzhou last week offered single and childless teachers an additional two half days of leave per month to find “love”.

Source: South China Morning Post

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