Catching late workers on film to dispel holiday laze

In today’s The Beijing News (新京报), a curious picture of two men — one looking stern, whilst the other had a pained expression.

It turns out that they were part of a “watch team” from Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. Below is a translation of the Beijing News caption:

The day before yesterday, members of the Yangzhou citizen watch team (扬州市市民观察团) had video cameras in hand. They were there to expertly “catch” those late to work. The first day of work after Spring Festival was the seventh day of the Lunar calender (大年初七): will civil servants arrive to work on time?

In the morning, the Yangzhou citizen watch team, who are nicknamed “city woodpecker” because they like to “pick” at uncivil things happening, dispatched six groups － 91 people － wearing their work cards. They arrived at the city’s different government centers to “focus” (their cameras) on the latecomers.

Xinhua also reported on this:

After the “examination”, the head of the watch team, Wang Linlai said, “The overall outcome was good, the small numbers who were late were all quite frank. This activity is purely to use a “civilian” method to supervise and speed up the ridding of the Spring Festival spirit, and to enter into the normal conditions for working.