Many Chinese workers can expect their bosses handing them a red packet stuffed with cash during the Lunar New Year celebrations.
But this year, employees at Tencent, one of China's biggest tech companies, won't be getting the packets directly from company founder Pony Ma.
It will be the first time in nearly two decades that this has happened at the company, as China deals with the spread of a deadly coronavirus. The virus has killed nine people in the central Chinese city where it originated and infected 440 others across the country.
Tencent, based in the southern Chinese megacity of Shenzhen, has canceled the handout of these red packets, also known as hongbao or laisee, on the first working day after this year's Spring Festival, which is on February 1, according to a post released on the company's social media account on Tuesday.
It did not provide a specific reason for the cancellation but reminded employees to stay healthy during the public holiday, which starts on Friday. There was also no indication about the electronic distribution of red packets to employees via Tencent's WeChat app.
A spokesman for Tencent declined to comment about the canceled activity, which has long enabled many company staff to meet face-to-face with Ma and other senior management.
"It's a little bit frustrating not to meet Ma this year," said one employee who declined to be identified. "Tencent can send out red packets to us via WeChat, but it is not the same as the tradition we've been used to."
Ma, Tencent's chairman and chief executive, has said that handing out red packets to staff for nearly two decades allowed him to personally offer good wishes to each employee. The tradition continued even when WeChat's Red Packet feature was launched in 2014 as a means to send money electronically during the Lunar New Year.
Last year, the queue for red packets snaked around Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen, all the way up to the 48th floor of the building, where senior management greeted employees.
The most diehard red packet recipients last year waited overnight for more than 12 hours to be the first person to get the "blessing" from Ma.
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