China boss gifts top employees new BMWs to protect them from harsh weather commutes

A restaurant boss in China has received widespread online admiration for gifting brand-new BMWs to her top-performing employees because she hated seeing them brave harsh weather on electric bikes during their commutes.

Ma Yanli, owner of a beef hotpot chain headquartered in Jiaozuo, in central Henan province, took some of her workers to collect their new BMWs on September 24.

The cars, each priced at 300,000 yuan (US$45,000), had been bought by Ma two weeks earlier with full payment, Henan TV reported.

“I am so thrilled! I dared not think about this before,” one of the lucky employees, Li Jie, was quoted as saying. “On the way to the BMW showroom, Boss Ma just told me she would gift me a big toy.”

A brand-new white BMW was registered in Li’s name that same day, and she did not have to pay a cent for it. Ma also did not ask Li to sign an agreement in exchange for the gift.

Ma said she first came up with the idea of gifting BMWs to her employees last winter.

Like most of her colleagues, Li used an electric scooter to commute. One early morning, Ma saw Li arrive at the restaurant with her face flushed bright red from the cold. Her ears had turned purple, and her hands were stiff from the chill wind.

Seeing this made Ma feel sorry for Li, who had worked at the restaurant for eight years.

“I said to myself: I can sit in my car and enjoy warmth and convenience during transportation. Why can’t she?” Ma said.

“I have achieved success in my career. But my company’s prosperity is attributed to the collective efforts of all my employees. So I must let my workers also benefit from the success of my company,” added Ma, who has worked in the catering industry for two decades.

Besides Li, another worker, Liu Yingying, received a grey BMW.

“My boss told me you work hard and your performance is excellent. You deserve this car,” Liu told the media.

This was not Ma’s first generous gesture towards her staff. On traditional Chinese festivals, she usually gives them daily essentials and cash bonuses.

Bosses who give gifts to their staff or offer generous pay often draw significant attention in China.

Cui Peijun, chairman of Henan Kuangshan Crane Company, is nicknamed “the boss who loves distributing money most” because of his generosity towards his workers. Before the Spring Festival last year, he gave his staff a total of 180 million yuan (US$27 million) in bonuses, equivalent to two-thirds of the company’s profits from the previous year.

Every International Women’s Day, Cui gives each of his 2,000 female employees 800 yuan. In August each year, workers from rural areas receive 1,000 yuan from him as a “grain reaper subsidy” to help them rent harvesters for their families’ crops.