Kicked Out of 845 Work Groups, Paid 55 Yuan: How One Woman Beat a 'Quiet Firing'
A Chongqing woman frozen out of her job for a year — her computer removed, a camera pointed at her, and her final half-month's pay just 55 yuan — has won her labor case through two courts after being removed from 845 WeChat work groups, a viral lesson in how 'quiet firing' works in China and how WeChat itself becomes the evidence.
The final half-month of six and a half years' employment paid out 55 yuan — about eight dollars. That detail, from a labor case that concluded in Chongqing last week, is why Chinese social media spent the weekend discussing a woman identified only as Xiaogu, and the unusual number attached to her name: 845, the WeChat work groups she was removed from in a single day.
Her account, carried by 扬子晚报, describes a technique Chinese workers call "cold violence" (冷暴力) — what English-language workplaces have learned to call quiet firing. From September 2025, she says, her managers stopped speaking to her. Her computer was carried away. A camera was installed facing her desk. Her supervisor was instructed not to assign her work. Then one day she found herself removed from all 845 of the company's WeChat groups — the channels through which virtually all workplace communication, scheduling and even pay notices flow in a Chinese company. She resigned rather than wait to be pushed, and the boss blocked her.
The courts, twice
What distinguishes her case is that she worked the system slowly and won at every level. Labor arbitration ruled for her; the company refused to pay and sued. The first-instance court ruled for her; the company appealed. The second-instance court ruled for her again on August 27, after roughly a year of proceedings, and the company finally paid the judgment — 4,680.24 yuan for her final month's wages, per the court document she taped over a video of herself, still owed six months of social insurance and housing-fund contributions, which she says she will keep pursuing.
To pass the time through the hearings, she set the details — the 55 yuan, the 845 groups — to song, and posted the songs for months. "The other side clearly knew they were in the wrong, but they never reflected, never apologized, never once communicated with me," she told 扬子晚报.
Why 845 groups resonates
The case hit a nerve because the tactic is familiar. Chinese employers who want a resignation without a severance package have been reported to reassign staff to pointless posts, idle them, or isolate them; a Baidu board item on the verdict drew a top-ten score through the weekend. The comments under the viral posts settled on one number: "Nearly a year to get what she was owed — an ordinary person simply cannot afford to hold out that long," as one put it. Another: "A company that dares not hire employees who know their rights was never a proper company to begin with." Workplace indignities have been trending on Weibo all month — from the man offered a 1,000-yuan "tea money" consolation after a rejected interview to this case's 55-yuan paycheck.
What to watch: whether the local labor bureau moves to enforce the six months of unpaid social insurance — a debt that outlasts the judgment — and whether her songs outlast the news cycle.