“The bus cashier who does ordinary tasks ten thousand times

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Editor’s note: Compared to bank cashiers, the profession of bus cashiers receives little attention, and the hardships associated with this job are even less well-known. Bus cashiers possess remarkable skills, yet they live in seclusion amidst the crowd, leading a low-key life through the stories of change. The bus cashiers are all women; they function like living \"cash counters\" every day, counting tens of thousands of banknotes and coins at high speed and with great efficiency. Every day, one is faced with the same tasks – monotonous and dull, ordinary and simple. If described in one sentence, a bus money counter is someone who performs ordinary tasks over and over again, a thousand times, ten thousand times; when done well, it becomes something extraordinary. In fact, there are many people around us who are just like them, working in ordinary positions and doing their jobs excellently. Every day, tens of thousands of banknotes and coins are counted, including the identification and sorting of thousands of damaged notes. Every day, one has to endure the extremely unpleasant methane gas produced by coins being sealed in an iron box. Repeating monotonous tasks such as counting money, sorting it, bundling it, checking the totals, and keeping records, working 24 days a month to count 400,000 banknotes. To varying degrees, they suffered from occupational diseases such as periarthritis of the shoulder, cervical spondylosis, or sciatica. The rough fingers were covered densely with tape, and those hands made her afraid to touch the child’s face. 10 cameras provide continuous monitoring. There is a working hour, but no end time…… — A sketch of bus cashiers. Compared to bank cashiers, the cashiers in our bus company are little known; few people get to see us at work. People take the bus every day and deposit countless one-yuan coins into the cash box, seemingly without ever thinking about what happens to those coins afterward. Next, I’d like to talk to you about the profession of \"bus money counter\" and share my story. I’m a girl born in the 1980s. Due to family reasons, I stopped my education after high school; I have no connections, no degree, no skills... I may be ordinary, but I’m not mediocre. I believe that there are learning opportunities everywhere outside the classroom, and knowledge can be found in all aspects of society. As long as one has a heart eager to learn, the opportunities for learning in society are far greater than those in school classrooms. I am like raw jade – raw jade can be shaped, and it requires careful polishing. \"Whatever fortune is given to me must serve a purpose.\" I believe that even the most ordinary people have value in this world. I graduated from high school at the age of 18, and at that time I really wanted to find a job to ease the burden on my family. However, due to my limited qualifications in various aspects, it wasn’t easy to find a job. At that time, a neighbor’s sister who worked as a ticket seller at the bus company told me about a job opportunity: \"Our bus company is looking for people to work as cash counters, and only women are eligible for this position. You might want to give it a try; however, it’s a very tough job – it’s dirty, exhausting, and extremely monotonous.\" ” At that time, I thought about finding a job as soon as possible to support myself; I wasn’t afraid of any hardships, and I believed it was fine for young people to go through some difficulties. And that’s how I ended up working at the bus company as a cash counter clerk. I still remember clearly the day I started working. After a simple registration process, a senior colleague showed me around the work environment and explained the tasks involved. As soon as I entered the cash counting room of the bus company, the pungent smell of paper money hit me – it was extremely unpleasant. The money counting center functions like a production workshop; the large office is filled with **small cloth bags and the interiors of coin insertion boxes. The central area of the currency counting center is equipped with three counting desks, with thirty currency counters wearing white uniforms working in groups of ten. They were focused, with each finger moving up and down at what seemed to be maximum speed. ““Shhhhh…”, the entire cash counting center was so quiet that only the sound of counting money could be heard. Later I found that all the cash counters were women. An older woman told me, “No men have ever applied for this job; it requires patience and attention to detail, and women are better suited for it.” ” I observed up close a female worker nearby; she was skillfully sorting through the small bills piled on a long table, quickly flattening and straightening them, then counting them. She would swiftly tie the sorted 100-yuan bills into bundles. It would be hard to believe unless seen with one’s own eyes that 100 such bills could be counted in just 40 seconds, not to mention all the steps involved in organizing and bundling the money. They are like living \"counting machines,\" efficiently counting tens of thousands of banknotes and coins, while also being able to identify them with accuracy. It really makes me admire them deeply. Next, I had to undergo training. My mentor was the leader of our group; his surname is Peng, he’s 40 years old, the oldest in our group, and also the most skilled money counter among us. Most of the people in the group are her apprentices. Sister Peng told me, \"In our line of work, it may seem like it’s just a matter of repeating simple actions, but over time it becomes extremely tedious. Don’t think that counting money while sitting down is easy – you have to count nearly 100,000 in cash every day, with no room for the slightest mistake. It’s by no means an easy task, so you need to be mentally prepared first.\" ” What the instructor said was actually a way of warning me in advance. She first taught me some basic skills: how to distinguish between new and old coins, as well as genuine and fake ones; how to count new, old, fake, and damaged coins. It’s not difficult to learn these skills, but it’s hard to maintain a fast pace without making mistakes. When the instructor counted the coins, it was almost impossible to see the movements of her fingers – it was really as if she were counting at lightning speed. The instructor said that it takes at least 4 years to develop such speed. The training came to an end quickly, and the work as a cash counter clerk officially began. The daily task is to sort and count the coins collected from cashless buses, and to organize the messy pile of change in an orderly manner. While counting the coins, the sisters also had to keep track of the accounts; if the figures did not match, they had to start over and check again and again until the numbers were consistent. Each bus is associated with a box, and each box contains coins and banknotes worth 10 fen and 1 yuan. I am responsible for counting the money for 7 bus routes in the city area on a daily basis. Counting money is not an easy task; unlike bank cashiers, most of the money in banks is new currency, and high-denomination bills are well protected. However, we need to separate the new versions from the old ones, the valid coins from the damaged ones, coins worth 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, and 1 yuan from each other, as well as the coins stacked in triangular shapes. The damaged coins also need to be separated and counted carefully, and finally bundled together! When I first started, I could only click thirty or forty cards per minute, and it was extremely difficult for me to do so. The money that has just been counted is now sorted and bundled. Currently, there are nearly 420 bus cash boxes to be processed each day; the volume of cash to be handled has increased significantly since more bus routes were added across the city. Sometimes, the heaviest cash box can weigh up to 20 pounds, and the workload becomes even greater during holidays. Although the work is done while sitting every day, it is a very strenuous process. Because at least 24 days per month must be worked, with over 400,000 points earned. During this period, the working hours were around 9 hours per day; when there were holidays or festivals requiring overtime, the working time exceeded 10 hours. The working hours each day are fixed (usually starting at 8 a.m.), while the end time depends on when the tasks are completed. During this period, aside from an hour’s lunch break, one spends all the time sitting at a chair counting money. Due to working for long periods of time sitting at a chair, performing a large number of repetitive and monotonous tasks, the cervical and lumbar vertebrae become extremely sore every day after work. In less than half a year, I developed shoulder periarthritis and cervical spondylosis. Although it’s not particularly severe, it still causes a lot of discomfort. In fact, every bus cashier suffers from some degree of \"occupational disease\". But few people have any complaints; they still remain dedicated to their work. The rough fingers were covered in adhesive tape; these hands did not dare to touch a child’s face. Yet, aside from the demands of work that require speed and efficiency, the biggest challenge for me was the dirtiness of the change money. Due to its widespread use, change is often dirty and covered with a large number of bacteria. For us cashiers, it means having “close contact” with bacteria every day. Wearing gloves can protect the hands, but it slows down performance; usually, people work with their bare hands, washing them after handling money, and often a layer of dark dirt can be washed off. Not only that, but a large pile of small bills emits an extremely unpleasant odor. This is mainly because banknotes absorb moisture while in circulation; the coins people put into the metal box are sealed, and sealed banknotes produce unpleasant methane gas after being stored for over 20 hours. Every time the box is opened, this foul-smelling methane fills the entire space. Although the company provided each of us with a mask, sometimes due to hot weather or other reasons, we had to take the masks off and endure the unpleasant smell. Dealing with money every day makes necessary safety precautions essential. There are four surveillance cameras in the cash counting room, monitoring every move we make at all times. While working, one must not carry personal items such as wallets or phones, nor should they wear clothes with pockets; finally, they need to put on work uniforms. In short, the job of a bus cashier can be described in five words: \"many tasks,\" \"fast pace,\" \"tiring work,\" \"dirty conditions,\" and \"strict requirements.\" I really got tired of this job at one point; in fact, I even disliked it. But many of the seniors here have inspired me, as they have persisted in this dull and exhausting job, taking it seriously despite it not really being considered a \"career\". Perhaps it can’t be called passion, nor are there any great achievements, but I have never thought of giving up, and I’ve never been careless at all. I feel very satisfied when I see the cash become neatly organized as a result of my hard work. I don’t deny that this job is indeed tiring and dirty, but it has taught me how to focus on my tasks, made me more careful, and helped me learn to handle things calmly – these are the greatest benefits that working as a cashier has brought me. Perhaps some jobs lack prestige and are rather insignificant, like those of us who count money at bus stops, but the functioning of society depends on our work. Since such occupations exist, someone has to carry out these tasks; it’s not possible for everyone to be civil servants or engineers. Therefore, we who count money at bus stops also play an absolutely essential role in societal development. I’m tired but happy right now; in my free time I listen to the music I like, and I’m satisfied with my current life.