Nowadays, young people may no longer aspire to live forever or become rich overnight, but to have a stable job. Community worker, an unpopular profession that "young people don't want to do", has now been transformed into an ideal employment choice for "drought and flood income protection, five insurances and one housing fund, and weekends and weekends".
However, can community workers really become "supernumerary iron rice bowls"?
01 If you can't take the public examination, the social worker should be a "replacement"
When the graduation season arrives, a large number of graduates who are unwilling to understand the "996" overtime culture have chosen to join the army of civil service examinations. However, it is not easy to get an iron job bowl with an establishment, and the 2024 national examination has a high enrollment ratio of 77:1, which means that a large number of candidates return home in every public examination. As a result, for those young people who failed to get ashore, they had to look elsewhere and turn their attention to community workers.
The enthusiasm of young people for community work can be seen in the continuous increase in the number of applicants for the examination each year. Fresh graduates who used to be dismissive of such positions have now put down their reservations and actively participated in the social work examination, hoping to go ashore smoothly even if they do not have a staff.
02 Low salary income and high work intensity
However, when these community workers, who finally went ashore after many tests, joined the company, they found that the so-called "iron rice bowl" was actually just an empty shell. Despite the fact that we have been mentally prepared for the relatively low level of pay, the reality is still shocking. The expected "stable income" is actually "low stability", and the monthly salary of community workers in some areas is not even 3,000.
In community positions, overtime is commonplace. Before going ashore, the working state of "9 to 5 with two days off" that I had fantasized about was actually "no rest on Saturday and no rest on Sunday".
From policy advocacy and community building to dispute mediation and pension assistance, community workers are like a brick that can be moved wherever needed. Once a problem arises, residents' grievances will naturally be concentrated on grassroots community workers, who often do not have enough power to solve them, resulting in them becoming representatives of inaction in the eyes of residents.
The fate of the blame seems inevitable, at the bottom, with the lowest wage, but under the heaviest pressure. After going ashore as a "low-profile civil servant", the community workers suddenly realized that they were engaged in a job of "generating electricity for love", but in the end they were facing the dilemma of "having no people and money".
03 Social workers may be the post station for the process of going ashore
Compared to young people who have been in the business for many years and are still on the margins, it is not difficult for a community worker to be promoted to the position of community director. Originally, I thought that as long as I persevered, I would gradually be valued as I got older. However, the fact that becoming a community director is already the ceiling of a career as a community worker.
Becoming a community director is only the first step in the system as a community worker, and then you need to take a written exam, and there are very few people who can successfully pass it. The vast majority of community workers can only stick to the same post in the same community all their lives, working silently but never getting the establishment, the future is confused, and the resignation seems to be a foregone conclusion. Some social workers even start preparing for future job changes at the beginning of their careers.
So, have those who choose to leave already found a whole new path?
Ashore community workers are undoubtedly a regressive choice for failing the public examination, and can also be seen as an important "springboard" for entering the system in the future. For those who are inspired to join the editor, this is also a temporary place to stay.
However, when it becomes difficult for community workers to get ashore, those who are hungry for stability may move on to the next so-called "social worker replacement".