Who is the last straw that breaks the back of Yuanfudao employees?

36Kr "Career Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)

While people were discussing the recovery of the education and training industry, news of an "employee's sudden death" pushed "Yuanfudao" back into the whirlpool of public opinion. The problems gradually exposed in the management of this leading education and training institution are not unique to it.

On April 23, 2025, news of the sudden death of an employee at Yuanfudao's Wuhan company sparked heated discussions. On that day, an internal employee at Yuanfudao (Wuhan) said that they suddenly received a notice from the company: due to a "network failure," they would have a day off and employees were not allowed to go to work. The next day, a staff member from the East Lake New Technology Development Zone Branch of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau confirmed the news of the employee's sudden death, but said that "specific details can only be disclosed to the family of the deceased." According to The Paper, the employee was Li Moumou, a graduate of the Chemistry major at Huazhong Agricultural University, who had worked at Yuanfudao for more than four years.

Yuanfudao (Wuhan) officially responded to the incident, saying: "During the period when the employee had the accident, it was the rest period for employees at the Wuhan company, and the team he was in did not arrange any overtime work that day. After learning the news, the company immediately established a special working group. In the past few days, the management team has been accompanying the employee's relatives through this difficult time and handling the follow-up matters."

● A screenshot of the internal notice leaked from a Yuanfudao employee (Source: Beijing News)

"Each teacher is responsible for four or five hundred students, and no one has the ability to take over your class when you're on leave," said Zhao Chu, a former employee of Yuanfudao (Wuhan), analyzing to "Career Bonus" in combination with the company's regulations. One possibility for the employee who died suddenly to choose to finish the work in advance is that the workload was very heavy. In order not to miss work during his wedding days and to avoid affecting his work data during the leave, he did so.

This is not the only sudden death incident in the education and training industry recently. On March 6, Li Moumou, a 26 - year - old employee at Zhengzhou Gaotu Education, died suddenly in his rental apartment.

Corresponding to such incidents is the topic trend of "big - company employees returning to the education and training industry" after the "Double Reduction" policy ended. In the year - end review in 2024 article of "Career Bonus," it was also mentioned that after the policy was relaxed, the entire employment market in the education and training industry showed new vitality.

After interviewing several former employees of Yuanfudao, "Career Bonus" found that the company, for the purpose of extremely compressing labor costs, has set high - pressure work regulations and assessment mechanisms for "class teachers" during the course renewal period, which has also indirectly led to the latter often being unable to fulfill their promises to parents. In addition, there are also special regulations such as "requiring employees who do not apply in advance for resignation to pay a class - handover fee."

Class teachers living as "course - renewal sales machines" ╱ 01

Is "obedience" and "data performance" the most important? ╱ 02

Getting out of the four - year slump ╱ 03

Class teachers living as "course - renewal sales machines"

"Career Bonus" learned that Li Moumou worked as a class teacher at the company, and his long - term work attitude and performance were good.

Yuanfudao's headquarters is located in Beijing, and it has branches in the new first - tier cities of Changsha, Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan, Shenyang, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Jinan, Chongqing, Hefei, Changchun, Tianjin, Nanchang, and Taiyuan. These 14 branches undertake the overall responsibilities of the rear. "The glamorous positions such as main lecturers are all in Beijing. In essence, whether we are class teachers or teaching assistants in these branches, we are all salespeople."

Yuanfudao's Wuhan Operations Center is located on the 21st - 26th floors of Building B, New Development International Center, Optics Valley, Hongshan District, covering a total of six floors of office areas. It adopts a five - level management system of "city manager - senior supervisor - supervisor - team leader - basic positions." Calculated by configuring 4 - 5 teams of 40 people on each floor, the number of employees at this center may reach 800 - 1200.

"Career Bonus" observed that most of the positions advertised on the platform as "direct recruitment by big companies / mandatory double - day off / monthly income of 8,000 yuan" are actually basic positions in course services. Comparing the job requirements, the actual work of positions such as teaching assistants, course consultants, and marketing managers all focuses on maintaining parent communities and course renewals, which are the core functions of class teachers. "They are just class teacher positions with different names."

● The recruitment page of Yuanfudao (Wuhan)

The work content of "class teachers" is divided into service periods and course - renewal periods.

During the service period, the work mainly involves answering questions and providing feedback on students' learning situations, and it is necessary to establish a good relationship with parents. The normal working hours are from 1:30 pm to 9:30 pm, but usually, employees work overtime for 1 - 2 hours. "Employees need to complete the data form before they can leave work. The workload often exceeds the daily load, and the on - time completion rate is very low. Even if they finish their work in advance, as long as the supervisor doesn't send the report receipt template for leaving work, employees cannot complete the data form and are naturally not allowed to leave." The KPI during the service period is to have at least 12 phone calls to communicate about students' learning situations and at least 10 video lectures or communications.

During the course - renewal period, the main work is to contact parents to renew courses. There are two course - renewal periods per semester. On the first day of the course - renewal period, employees need to work for 15 - 16 hours. In the subsequent period, they work from 9:30 am to 11:30 pm on average every day and often work an extra hour due to penalties, with an average of 2.5 - 3 extra hours of work per day. 'The course - renewal conversion rate is dominated by indicators, and 90% of the work is telephone sales,' Zhao Chu, who once served as a team leader at Yuanfudao in Wuhan, told "Career Bonus." There is no fixed KPI for phone calls during the course - renewal period, but 'the leader will urge every hour, and it is normal for team members to make more than 200 calls a day in the end.'

Qian Xingxing, who has four years of work experience at Yuanfudao, felt numb during the course - renewal period when the phone calls were incessant and the environment was constantly noisy. The only thing he still remembers clearly is that the company, which usually doesn't pay overtime or offer compensatory leave, actually agreed to count the first day of the course - renewal period as a day of compensatory leave once.

● The work arrangement on the first day of the course - renewal period, provided by the interviewee

The transmission of work pressure not only affects employees but also has a real impact on parents.

Ms. Ruo Ruo's mother, who has three years of experience in signing up for courses, recently expressed her dissatisfaction with Yuanfudao's class teachers: parents frequently receive course - renewal calls after 9 pm; the WeChat groups that should be used to release class information are also flooded with course - renewal advertisements and payment screenshot chains, making it difficult to find effective course - related information.

What makes her even more dissatisfied is the frequent replacement of course class teachers. Before signing up for the course, the class teacher promised that the teacher would "teach from start to finish." However, in fact, three class teachers were replaced in one and a half semesters, and the corresponding corporate WeChat accounts were constantly "taken over." Later class teachers mostly explained the departure of their predecessors by saying that they were "sick" or "going back to their hometowns for development."

Even though class teachers understand parents' aversion inwardly, it is difficult for them to change the current situation under such a work system. According to Zhao Chu, during the course - renewal period, the company prohibits class teachers from using working hours to answer students' questions. To avoid complaints, class teachers can only sacrifice their own rest time. Qian Xingxing often starts answering questions one by one after overtime. He is responsible for 450 students. 'It takes until two or three o'clock in the morning to finish all of them.'

The strict punishment mechanism has intensified the pressure: if class teachers don't make enough phone calls during the course - renewal period, they will be publicly criticized in the work group. Mistakes during the course - renewal process are called "accidents," and 50% - 70% of their performance bonuses will be deducted according to the severity; employees whose course - renewal data is in the bottom 40% face the risk of salary cuts [1], and a course - renewal rate of 90% - 95% must be achieved, which also determines future promotions.

For some course types, class teachers can only get the first - day registration bonus if the course - renewal rate reaches 95% (or even higher). Even if they meet the standard, class teachers will still be required to assist other teachers in the team to complete the course - renewal phone - call tasks.

[1] Salary - cut rules: Yuanfudao's class - teacher salary - cut rules are linked to the T - level. As the T - level increases, the assessment becomes stricter. If the course - renewal data of old employees is in the bottom 40%, they face the risk of being downgraded in T - level. After the downgrade, the class - management fee for each student they are responsible for will be reduced by 1 yuan (the class - management fee for T0 level is 5 yuan per student).

● A screenshot of the internal punishment notice at Yuanfudao, provided by the interviewee

The high pressure has led to higher staff turnover. What parents think is a "one - on - one class teacher" actually means that each teacher is responsible for 400 - 500 children. "We can only use AI to sort out students' learning situations and feedback to parents." According to Zhao Chu's conservative estimate, at least 2 people leave a 15 - person group every month, and 3 - 5 people may leave a 40 - person team per month.

The staff turnover is still within the range that management thinks is controllable - the company only needs to pay 80 yuan per day to train an employee. Although the turnover rate is high, the replacement cost is not high. Moreover, employees need to apply for resignation one month in advance. Those who leave suddenly will be required to pay a "class - handover fee," and even if they apply normally, they are often questioned about their next job. After Qian Xingxing left the company due to the unbearable pressure, he thought that paying the class - handover fee would solve the problem. However, when his new company conducted a background check, Yuanfudao's HR still said bad things about him.

Is "obedience" and "data performance" the most important?

Many interviewees told "Career Bonus" that "for most undergraduates who can't find a job, Yuanfudao is already a good job with an office job and a decent position."

There are 83 universities in Wuhan, but the number of job opportunities is still relatively limited. The education and training industry has become an important employment outlet. Optics Valley, where Yuanfudao's office is located, is home to the second headquarters of more than 30 leading institutions such as Zuoyebang and TAL Education Group (Xueersi). It not only attracts a large number of talents but also puts them in fierce competition.

The salary of Yuanfudao's class - teacher positions is quite competitive locally: the basic monthly salary is 3,000 yuan plus a 500 - yuan meal allowance. The commission is calculated based on the number of students they are responsible for (new employees are initially responsible for about 300 students, with a 5 - yuan service fee per student. The service fee per student increases by 1 yuan per year with work experience, and later stabilizes at 400 - 500 students. After adding the course - renewal commission, the average monthly income can reach 8,000 - 9,000 yuan. In addition, the company provides a full range of social insurance and housing funds, distributes holiday gifts on time, and has a transparent promotion channel with two promotion opportunities a year.

● Yuanfudao's promotion channel

Of course, there are many conditions to meet for promotion here.

The core of promotion at Yuanfudao is a competition of data. The results of course renewals and course sales directly affect promotion opportunities. The company <