'Pretty' cheerleaders hired to motivate IT programmer staff in China

Internet companies across China are hiring ‘programming cheerleaders’ to create a fun work environment and motivate staff.

According to Trending in China these “pretty, talented girls” are being hired to buy programmers breakfast, exchange chitchat and play ping-pong with them.

An HR manager of an internet company that has hired three such motivators has said that their programmers “are mostly male and terrible at socialising, and the presence of these girls have greatly improved their efficiency and motivation.”

Unsurprisingly, the concept has sparked controversy on social media.

Facebook user, Abhishek Vatsa says: “What about female coders? Do these guys hire male ‘motivators’?”

While Manuela Dossantos comments in a similar vein by saying: “Or you know, hire some women who code. Oh wait, that would be too intimidating for these man-children, right?”

However, Jia Yi Har says: “China in general has 20% more men than women due to long standing gendercide practices. Couple that with the lower number of females in programming it's not that surprising that statistically women are outnumbered in tech companies. One can argue that the company could hire more women. Considering Chinese women enjoy pretty decent professional equality, I don't think this is a case of discriminative hiring practices, but a supply issue.”

Anatha Raj says: "Stop talking about stereotypes, sexist and other things. We must ask them girl on why they took the job, maybe they like the job and maybe they are doing this job part-time for extra cash. We won't know, so don't judge too early." [sic]

Would you hire cheerleader motivators? What do you think of those that do? Comment your thoughts below…