news

expensive rents and long commutes have made many workers in big cities like beijing think of using their offices as their homes. on social networking sites, we often see questions like this: if i don’t want to rent a house, can i live in my office? most people are skeptical about this, but some people who have lived there for a short period of time have said that “there is no boundary between work and life, and there is no space for life.”

despite this, some people still choose to live secretly in the office. living in the office means that all belongings must be packed into a suitcase, which means giving up private space after get off work, and also means less cost and commuting time.

some people have experienced this kind of life intermittently, some have persisted for two years, and some are still continuing.

text |li yu

editor |zhang qingsong

operations |puffs

"it doesn't matter where you sleep."

at 10 pm, the lights in south city gradually dimmed, and lao liu prepared to go to bed. he first spread out the inflatable mattress on the floor, waited until it was fully inflated, spread the sheets, and arranged the pillows. in five minutes, he handled everything skillfully. he came to the door, pressed the switch on the wall, and then groped his way back to the empty space between two rows of desks. he lay down quietly, with the tip of his nose just level with the chair leg.

lao liu has been living in the office for almost a year. he works in beijing but does not rent an apartment.

all his belongings are a 20-inch suitcase, a backpack, and a mattress. the mattress is usually stuffed in a cardboard box under his desk. the suitcase and backpack are his "mobile" home. salespeople travel all year round, so it's not uncommon to put suitcases in the office. there is enough space for a few clothes, commonly used medicines, a computer, disposable items from the hotel, and even two books.

▲ lao liu’s bed.photo/ provided by the interviewee

after nightfall, the keyboard sounds in the office disappeared, and discussions and disputes at work also disappeared. the room of more than 100 square meters became like a stage after the hustle and bustle ended, with only the fan making a low whimper. the central air conditioning in the office building was turned off on time every night after get off work. beijing was particularly hot this year, and lao liu was counting on this fan to bring a cool breeze.

he knew that his colleague would not show up at this time, so he simply took off his shirt and pants and lay on his back facing the ceiling. but even so, his skin quickly became sticky, and he had to get up, turn on the faucet in the bathroom, dip a towel in cold water, wipe his body all over, lie down again, close his eyes, hold his hands in front of his chest, and try to fall asleep.

this is the 50th day that lao liu has lived in the company. he is a salesperson in a traditional industry company. in the past 11 months, as long as he is not on a business trip, he has used the office as his residence in beijing.

in his opinion, this action is very common. after all, in this city, more than 10 million people are struggling for their livelihoods every day. people are like ants looking for food, gathering together during the day and scattering to every corner of the city after nightfall. people with houses can go home, while people without homes are no different from rootless duckweed. wherever they go, they just find a place to spend the night.

▲ photo/ visual china

from this perspective, there is no difference between living in the office and living anywhere else. lao liu goes to bed after 10 o'clock every day and gets up on time at 7 o'clock in the morning. while most people are scrambling to catch the subway and squeeze out a standing space in the carriage, he is busy sorting clothes, making the bed, and opening the windows to let fresh air fill the space.

he works at the same time as his colleagues and leaves at the same time as his colleagues. the only difference is that he is never late and is always the first employee to show up in the company.

after he shared his experience of living in an office on social media, it attracted a lot of discussion. most people were curious about "how can people live in an office?" and "how to take a shower?" some people disagreed with the act of living in an office and said it was "suffocating."

when working overtime and coming home late, or waking up early and commuting to work is painful, many people may have complained that "it is better to live in the office." some people who have just arrived in beijing and have a tight income can rent a house that does not provide much dignity, but it is still unacceptable to choose to live in the office.

firstly, office buildings are commercial buildings and in principle people are not allowed to live there. living in an office gives people a strong sense of stealing and they may be disliked by their colleagues if they are found out. on the other hand, more people think that living in an office completely blurs the boundaries between work and life and is unacceptable. some people are also worried that if something is lost in the company, they will not be able to explain it.

but when he really lived there, "it was just a place to sleep, it doesn't matter where you live". from 2017 to 2019, wang sen lived in the office for two consecutive years. looking back on that time, he said frankly, "it's a bit sad to think about it", but on the other hand, he also admitted that once you get used to it, it's actually not much different from renting a house.

xiaoliu started living in the office in the summer of 2022, and after winter, she "settled" for half a year. the trouble in summer is the large number of mosquitoes. one night, when she woke up, she was shocked to find that her arms were bitten by more than a dozen bags, densely packed with red dots, and she became a "buffet". at night in winter, she curled up in her sleeping bag. although this can keep out the cold, there are new troubles. after all, the sleeping bag is a pocket that restrains the body, as if being trapped in a cocoon, unable to stretch and turn over freely, xiaoliu slept very uneasy.

she never dared to let her colleagues know that she lived in the office. every morning at six o'clock, she would get up early, carefully roll up her yoga mat and sleeping bag, hide them next to her photography equipment, and then run to the cafeteria, lingering there until someone from the company showed up. when it was time to get off work, when others left, she would leave too, hiding in the rest area in the building until after nine o'clock in the evening before returning to the office.

as a local, living in an office is definitely not as comfortable as living at home, but at the same time, she doesn't have to spend a lot of time commuting between home and work every day, which can save a lot of time and energy. in this comparison, the issue of comfort doesn't seem to be that important. she prefers to regard living in an office as a "survival experiment". "after many years, when i think about this experience again, it will definitely be very interesting."

“you can live in the company.”

when working in beijing, accommodation is an expensive expense.

data from anjuke shows that although house rents have dropped slightly in the past two years, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in beijing remains around 3,800 yuan. according to information released by the beijing municipal bureau of human resources and social security, the average salary of urban employees in 2023 is 11,761 yuan, and renting an average one-bedroom apartment will cost one-third of the income. for people with a salary lower than this, rent is an even heavier burden.

everyone who lives in an office will repeatedly mention one word: time. according to the 2023 beijing commute characteristics annual report, the average commuting time in beijing is 51 minutes, ranking among the highest in the country. long commutes are a test of physical strength and a mental drain.

the most important reason why people choose to live in the office is to save rent or time.

in the summer of 2022, xiaoliu moved his family to the countryside of changping outside the sixth ring road because his house was going to be renovated and rented out. from where he lived to where he worked, he had to walk to the bus stop for half an hour, then take the bus to the city, and finally spend another half an hour on the subway. it took two hours each way, and every trip to work was like running for life.

renting a house near the company can certainly save a lot of trouble, but the rent is really expensive. even if she shares the house with others, it will cost more than 2,000 yuan a month, while her salary is less than 6,000 yuan. especially in her industry, business trips are the norm, which means that half of the time every month, the rental house is vacant. after a careful calculation, she immediately realized: isn't this equivalent to paying twice the price for rent?

she insisted on commuting between the city and the suburbs for a while, but soon encountered a new problem - overtime was the norm at the company, and the last bus home was at 8 pm. even if she hurried to catch it, she still often missed it. when she couldn't catch the bus, she had to take a taxi, which cost more than 100 yuan. "it was like taking a loan to work," she thought it was ridiculous.

gradually, the idea of ​​spending the night in the office came to her mind. on the first night, xiaoliu was completely unprepared and didn't know where to sleep. she could only sit at her workstation, push aside the keyboard and documents, and lie on the table, burying her head between her arms like an ostrich. it was difficult to sleep well in this position. she fell asleep several times and woke up several times. she was half asleep and half awake all night, and her head was groggy. but when she thought of the money she had saved, she felt particularly happy.

later, she began to use the office as her residence intermittently, and this state lasted until the end of october. after the winter, the days in beijing were short and the nights were long. after getting off the bus, the road in front of her was not only without street lights, but also rarely with people. a girl walking alone in the dark, this atmosphere made her very uneasy, "i was afraid that someone would suddenly come and kill me and throw me into the ditch."

▲ xiaoliu’s night journey home from get off work.photo/ provided by the interviewee

so she simply stopped going home, bought a yoga mat and a sleeping bag, and started living in the office.

wang sen was also forced to move to the office by rent. in 2017, because he couldn't find a suitable job in his hometown of tianjin, he came to beijing and joined a state-owned enterprise. at first, like many people who moved to beijing, in order to save money to support their families, he and other colleagues rented a room near the company. two grown men shared a bed and shared the rent. the monthly cost of more than 1,000 yuan was the upper limit for him, who only had a monthly salary of 7,000 yuan at the time.

but this kind of life only lasted for half a year. his colleagues resigned and left beijing, and he could no longer find others to share a house with. he had to move to the suburbs of shunyi. he spent an hour and a half commuting to get off work and another hour and a half commuting home, squeezed on buses and subways, like a balloon with the air sucked out of it.

he was not afraid of hardship, "i was ready to endure hardships when i came to beijing anyway", but some problems could not be solved by enduring hardships. once, he worked overtime at the company until 11 o'clock, missing the last subway. he stood at the door of the company and stared at the desolate street, feeling unwilling and helpless, and felt like a homeless vagrant.

that night, he was forced to spend the night in the office. however, to his surprise, "living in the office felt pretty good", he didn't have to rush to catch the bus, nor did he have to worry about being late for work. when he woke up, he even had enough time to have breakfast in the cafeteria, not to mention that it didn't cost a penny.

it was like discovering a new world. in an instant, wang sen had the idea of ​​moving into the office. someone just resigned and left a free folding bed, so he simply picked it up and started to set up camp.

unlike the previous two, before entering the company, lao liu had already made plans to live in the company.

this decision stems from a failed experience in the past. in 2019, he and his friends started a business together, took out all their savings, plus loans, and invested more than 2 million in the third-tier city of their hometown to open a teaching and training center. although this move was risky, the teaching and training industry was very popular at that time, and it was also a promising investment. however, the epidemic came suddenly, and lao liu struggled for two years, and finally lost all his money. he had to repay the borrowed money and return the students' money. he didn't want to be a "deadbeat", so he had to go on the road of working to pay off his debts. "i dug a hole and jumped in, so i have to find a way to climb out by myself."

▲ photo/ visual china

paying off debts is like completing a complex puzzle, step by step, all inseparable from calculation. at the end of 2021, lao liu first ran a courier in shenzhen for a while, just because "the other party could provide a dormitory for three months"; next, he found a sales job with a monthly salary of 6,000 yuan, stationed in beijing, and the two-bedroom, one-living room house was used as both an office and a dormitory by employees, so there was no need to spend extra money for accommodation, "it was okay"; in september 2022, in order to make more money, he jumped to another company and was sent to nanjing. although he needed to rent a house, he soon found a house and shared it with four people, with a monthly rent of only 800 yuan; after working in nanjing for three months, he began to be responsible for sales in central china, traveling every day, and this time he even saved 800 yuan in rent.

however, no matter how hard one tries, one is powerless under the pressure of the big environment. after only a few months, the company's performance was not good and the team was facing layoffs. people with a stable life could choose to go with the flow, but lao liu had to race against time to plan for his future life.

he changed jobs again and came to beijing. but within three months, the company's top management changed, and he was inexplicably laid off, and was owed 20,000 yuan in reimbursement. when talking about this experience now, lao liu is still indignant, "some companies seem to be formal, but in fact they are always thinking about how to exploit employees."

for those who urgently need to repay huge debts, making money is not only a means of livelihood, but also a hope to get back on track. it took lao liu two months to get the reimbursement back, and it also changed many of his concepts. he felt that the size of the company did not matter, what was important was "as long as i could get the salary and performance."

on the other hand, he became extra cautious about his spending. he recalled what a colleague said to him when he was renting a house in nanjing: "you can live in the company." at the time, it was just a joke, but as time went by, when he thought about it again, he had a different idea in his mind.

in september, he joined a new company and had to travel frequently, but he also had to stay in beijing. on the night of his first day at work, he took some cardboard, spread it out on the ground, made a "bed", and quietly spent his first night there.

the wisdom of living in an office

the office is a public place, and there is not much privacy. if you choose to live in the office, you must choose a minimalist lifestyle. there is not much space for personal belongings, and your desires are infinitely compressed. the only thing that matters is how to sleep well.

after the first day of sleeping, lao liu found that relying on cardboard alone would not last long. the ground was very cold and hard, and he woke up with backaches in the morning. so the next day, he spent dozens of yuan to buy an inflatable mattress. he made do with it for two months. in winter, he took a blanket from home and put it under his body to keep warm and comfortable.

▲ lao liu’s bed.photo/ provided by the interviewee

washing clothes is a problem, and taking a bath is also a problem, but the solution is easily found: without a washing machine, clothes have to be washed by hand, and in the summer they can be hung by the window to dry overnight; as for taking a bath, it is even simpler, just don't take a bath. if the weather is really hot, at most you can wipe your body with cold water in the bathroom to cool down. anyway, he will have to go on a business trip again in a day or two.

in one month, he traveled to 16 provinces. from the end of april to the beginning of august, he traveled for more than 70 days in more than three months. in fact, it is hard to say whether lao liu lives in the office because of the frequent business trips, or because he lives in the office, lao liu travels so frequently. he himself admitted: "if i had a residence in beijing like my colleagues, maybe i could change the arrangement."

xiaoliu, like lao liu, doesn't take a shower if she can avoid it, since she doesn't sweat much in winter anyway. she doesn't need to change her clothes frequently, since she doesn't go out much anyway, so they won't get too dirty. on weekends, she sometimes goes home, and sometimes she simply finds a youth hostel nearby and spends the night there. it doesn't matter if she sleeps well or not, what's important is that there is a washing machine and a shower. she was also surprised that she could find these solutions at such a young age. "it really feels like exploring the city, and there are always new discoveries."

but not everyone can stay in the office for the whole winter like xiaoliu. although wang sen's company has heating, the temperature is not high because of energy saving, and he is too embarrassed to put a quilt in the office. business trips are a good idea, but you can't go on business trips every day. you have to spend at least half a month in beijing. on days when he is not on business trips, he is like a wandering bohemian, looking for a place to stay overnight.

fortunately, countless people leave beijing every day, leaving behind many rental houses that have not yet expired. as long as you pay a little fee, you can stay in these houses for a short period of time. just as some people carpool and some people join groups, wang sen "shares houses". he is like a diligent bee, staying here and there. he has lived in tongzhou and fangshan. the farthest place he has lived in is the rural area of ​​changping. he spent only 600 yuan and stayed there for nearly three weeks. he joked: "don't say outsiders, even many locals may not have unlocked so many places."

in comparison, he still likes summer more, but summer also has its troubles. he sweats a lot, and although he can wait until the weekend to change clothes when he returns to tianjin, not being able to take a shower is always a big problem. he dare not take a shower in the company's bathroom, "there are so many people in the company, it would be inappropriate if someone working overtime sees it." but for a week in a row, simply wiping with a towel obviously cannot cover up the odor on his body, "there is no way, sometimes i feel that i stink, and i feel that my colleagues look at me differently."

don't dare to stop

wang sen's colleagues all knew that he lived in the office, and he never deliberately concealed it. he thought that since everyone's income was not high, everyone would try to survive in beijing.

there are four people in the office, all of whom are migrant workers in beijing. they all have their own hardships. one of them owns a house in yanjiao, and it takes three or four hours to commute to get off work every day. another person bought a house in beijing, which is only 50 square meters, and squeezed in a family of five, so he can only sleep in the living room. the leader has a higher income, but he can't afford to rent a house either. he can only rent a basement nearby, which has no windows on all sides and doesn't know the day or night. in wang sen's words, "don't look down on each other."

xiaoliu was very afraid of being discovered by her colleagues. she said that there was a lot of infighting in the office and if she was discovered, "i don't know what serious consequences there would be."

but even if she was careful, she was still caught. a few weekends ago, she was watching a drama in the office, and suddenly a colleague came to work overtime. she had no choice but to pretend to work hard and face the computer seriously at her workstation. "i felt like i was forced to work."

the fact that lao liu lived in the office was more like an "open secret". when he first joined the company, he lied and said he was staying at a friend's house. like xiao liu, he pretended to be off work every day, and when he thought everyone had left, he would sneak back alone.

until one night when he was about to go to sleep after returning from a business trip, he suddenly met a colleague who came to the company to work overtime. the two looked at each other and the scene was extremely awkward. he had to make up an excuse, saying that it was too late and he didn't want to disturb his friend. it sounded quite reasonable, and his colleague didn't seem to question it. but later, lao liu found that even his leader seemed to know about this matter.

he was on a business trip with his boss that time, and he thought they would stay overnight in another city, but his boss drove straight back to beijing. at midnight, looking at the silent streets, lao liu kept thinking about where to get off so that he could return to the office without being discovered by his boss. who knew that before he could say anything, it was his boss who spoke first, "i'll take you back to the company in a while, right?"

lao liu thought that the boss must have discovered it. however, since then, neither of them has mentioned this issue in detail. if the boss doesn't ask, he won't say anything, and the two sides maintain a subtle tacit understanding.

among his colleagues, his overnight stay in the office was no longer a secret. colleagues would occasionally ask him if he was doing well in the office, and kindly remind him to take care of his health. when winter came, someone worried about the cold weather and specifically told him that there was a "little sun" in the office and he should remember to turn it on.

after living in the office and saving commuting time, these office dwellers are not "idle". instead, like many people in this city, they try to convert the extra time into "productivity" as much as possible.

lao liu began to try live streaming on xiaohongshu, talking about his life in the office. although it has not brought any material benefits, chatting with strangers every day and temporarily escaping from the pressure of debt is a kind of relaxation.

xiaoliu didn't want to do nothing. she had worked in a cram school for a while, so she took up her old profession and began to use her free time after work to tutor students online. at the end of the corridor, there was a small cubicle with an unused desk. she sat there quietly, propped up her tablet, and explained solid geometry and parabolas in detail on the screen. when asked by her colleagues, she said that her cousin was preparing for the college entrance examination.

a two-hour class costs 300 yuan, which means she can earn nearly 2,000 yuan a month, which is a pleasant surprise for her, who only earns a few thousand yuan. she particularly enjoys this kind of life where she can handle everything without leaving home. the only thing that makes her a little worried is that because she is too lazy to go out, her weight has skyrocketed. "in a few months, i have gained dozens of kilograms."

for two years, wang sen devoted all his energy to study. when his colleagues left, the office became a natural study room. he sat in front of the computer, studying hard day after day, earning four certificates. due to company policy, these certificates could bring him an extra income of more than 1,000 yuan per month. on the other hand, it was also because of these certificates that he found another job later.

▲ photo/ visual china

the new job was also in beijing, with a monthly salary of more than 10,000 yuan, and more importantly, a dormitory. housing was no longer a problem, and he gave his folding bed to someone else, ending his life as a sojourner in the office. this was a huge leap in life, but sometimes he would miss the experience of living in the office. he was grateful for his colleagues' tolerance, and was also glad that it was those difficult days that prevented him from wasting time, "under those conditions, i dared not stop."

after living in the office for four months, xiaoliu had to resign to take care of her family because her father was ill. when she returned to work in 2024, her home in the city had already been renovated, and like many locals, she began to go back and forth between home and work. looking back on the days she lived in the office, her mentality was very contradictory. on the one hand, she lamented that she was really hardworking at the time, "i didn't get enough sleep every day, and i felt like i became stupid"; on the other hand, she felt that in this expensive city, her approach was very rational, and that little bit of hardship was nothing, "it's like walking on the road at night, in a place where the lights can't reach, it's so dark that it's scary. but when you keep walking forward and walk under the lights, you find that dark places are also very common."

she still cannot understand why a colleague of hers shared a house near her workplace. "he was on a business trip for half of the month, but he had to spend half of his salary on rent. working is to make money, but spending money on work, isn't this a very strange thing?"

those who have stopped living in offices have opened a new chapter in their lives. those who are still living in offices have to continue to struggle for the next step in their lives. lao liu doesn't know when he will stop living in offices, so he just "does it first". the most important thing at the moment is still to pay off his debts. as soon as he gets his monthly salary of 12,000 yuan, he transfers it all to fill the black hole left by his business. he only has some working capital left to cover travel expenses and daily expenses.

he is very "content" with his current life. settling down in beijing may be a dream that will never come true, but to enjoy the present, sometimes you don't need a "home" in the actual sense. he likes to visit museums and watch performances. even if he is short of money, he will save one or two hundred yuan to watch an unknown drama performance.

but when people have more choices, who would want to live in an office? song chen is from shaanxi. he was seconded to beijing for four months for work. he originally planned to live with his relatives in the far suburbs, "but beijing is too big", and the five-hour commute every day was "comparable to genghis khan's westward expedition". after persisting for more than two months, he reluctantly moved into the office.

this also changed his original intention of staying in beijing. "without a house, my sense of happiness is too low. even if my income is high, what's the point of living like this?" after living in the office for two months, he has decided to return to his hometown. drifting in beijing is no longer an option for him.

(the narrators are all pseudonyms)

the article is original by daily people. any infringement will be investigated.