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Restaurant owner gifts top employees BMWs after seeing harsh commute, says ‘You deserve this car’
Ma Yanli, a restaurant owner in China, gifted two top-performing employees brand-new BMWs after seeing them commute on electric scooters.
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A restaurant owner in China has given two of her top-performing employees a rather unexpected reward in the form of brand-new BMWs. Ma Yanli, who runs a beef hotpot chain in Henan province, reportedly decided to buy the cars after seeing employees commute to work on electric scooters in cold and difficult weather.
According to the South China Morning Post, the cars were handed over to the employees on September 24.
Why did the China boss gift BMWs to employees?
Ma, whose beef hotpot chain is headquartered in Jiaozuo, said the idea came to her after watching one of her employees arrive at work following a cold morning commute.
Li Jie, who had worked at the restaurant for eight years, usually travelled to work on an electric scooter. One morning, Ma noticed that Li's face was red from the cold, while her ears had turned purple and her hands were stiff from the wind.
The sight made Ma compare Li's commute with her own.
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“I said to myself: I can sit in my car and enjoy warmth and convenience during transportation. Why can’t she?” Ma was quoted as saying by SCMP.
She said she had been thinking about gifting cars to employees since last winter.
Employees were taken to a BMW showroom
Ma took some of her workers to a BMW dealership on September 24, reportedly telling them they were going for a meeting. Instead, they discovered that they were there to collect their new cars.
According to SCMP, each BMW cost around 300,000 yuan, or approximately ₹43 lakh. Henan TV reported that Ma had paid for the vehicles in full around two weeks before handing them over.
Li was given a white BMW, which was registered in her name on the same day. She did not have to contribute any money or sign an agreement in return for the car.
“I am so thrilled! I dared not think about this before,” Li said. “On the way to the BMW showroom, Boss Ma just told me she would gift me a big toy.”
Another employee, Liu Yingying, received a grey BMW.
“My boss told me you work hard and your performance is excellent. You deserve this car,” Liu said.
Boss says employees should share in company’s success
For Ma, the expensive gifts were not only about rewarding individual performance. She said her company's success was the result of the collective efforts of its employees.
“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,” she said.
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Ma has also given employees daily essentials and cash bonuses during traditional Chinese festivals.
Her gesture comes amid a broader culture of generous workplace rewards in parts of China. SCMP cited the example of Henan businessman Cui Peijun, who has become known for giving substantial bonuses and other financial benefits to his employees.
