加班狗

    jiābāngǒu

    Meaning: "加班" is to "work overtime," and "狗" means "dog." This is a joking way to call white-collar workers in China who have to do a lot of overtime. Long working hours are a way of life in China. According to research by a scholar with Beijing Normal University, Chinese workers log an average of 2,000-2,200 working hours each year – far higher than their counterparts in the United States (1,790 hours per year), the Netherlands (1,419), Germany (1,371) and even Japan (1,719), based on OECD statistics last year. In one video that went viral this summer, a Shanghai choir devoted a tongue-in-cheek song to their status as "overtime dogs." The song is called "My Body Is Hollowed Out." Chinese netizens have coined several terms using "dog," eg. "单身狗" (single dogs) and "产品狗" (product manager dogs), perhaps borrowing from the idea behind sayings like "dog-tired" and "underdog."

    Example

    A: 周末和我一起去踢足球吧?

    Zhōumò hé wǒ yīqǐ qù tīzúqíu ba?

    Come with me to play a game of soccer this weekend, will you?

    B: 没空啊。我们在赶项目，我的加班狗状态要持续到下个月。

    Méikòng a。Wǒmen zài gǎn xiàngmù, wǒ de jiābāngǒu zhuàngtài yào chíxù dào xiàgè yuè。

    I've got no time for it. We are in the middle of a project and I'll have to work overtime until next month.