On June 18, Ke Da Xunfei announced the death of a 38-year-old senior engineer internally. It was said that the family members of the employee went to Ke Da Xunfei headquarters seeking explanation. This incident has attracted public attention, with many internet users in mainland China revealing that quite a few people under the age of 40 have died suddenly.
According to the internal report from Ke Da Xunfei, on the morning of June 17th at 7:00 am, an employee of the Smart City Business Group in Ke Da Xunfei suddenly felt unwell at home. After the family called 120 for medical assistance, the rescue efforts were unsuccessful, and the employee passed away.
The report mentioned that on the morning of the 18th, the family members came to the campus to express their emotions. Despite the company’s efforts to calm them down, they were unable to stabilize the family members’ emotions, which affected the normal operation of the campus. The company deeply apologized for this.
The report stated, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of such a outstanding colleague and partner.”
Ke Da Xunfei also debunked rumors that the employee worked until 3 am every day. They confirmed that the employee did not work overtime on the weekend before the incident and had a regular attendance the previous week.
Earlier that day, news had circulated online about an employee of Ke Da Xunfei passing away suddenly. Pictures from the scene showed a woman lying flat on the floor in front of the glass doors of the first floor lobby at Ke Da Xunfei’s headquarters in Hefei, causing many employees to gather outside the door unable to enter the building.
Group chat messages revealed that the deceased employee was a “senior tester (engineer), 38 years old”, with “the mother crying on the fourth floor and the wife crying on the first floor”.
An informed source told the reporter from “South China Morning Post” that the employee had passed away at home the previous night, and the family members went to the company hoping to have it recognized as a work-related injury. The company has already reported this to the police, and the authorities are handling it.
Established in 1999, Ke Da Xunfei is a well-known intelligent voice and artificial intelligence listed company in the Asia-Pacific region. The company went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2008, currently valued at 100.8 billion yuan.
On June 18th, the topic “Employee death reported internally at Ke Da Xunfei” trended on social media, sparking discussions among netizens.
“It seems like work-related injuries don’t count if it happens at home, but many sudden deaths occur after staying up all night. It feels like the body strikes back hard when you are at home.”
“Two years ago when I was working in internet companies in Shanghai, I heard of two or three people my age dying from overwork. One of them worked on the same floor as us. Life is not easy, everyone should take care of their health.”
“I had two classmates under 40 who died suddenly. They had good incomes from freelance work, indulged in smoking and drinking, had irregular lifestyles, and didn’t go for regular check-ups. My wife’s cousin’s husband, who was 42 and a bus driver, didn’t take care of his health, had a stroke at home, and after more than two years, he could barely take care of himself. Being poor doesn’t mean you can’t live healthily, everything is meaningless. Not to mention the few examples of well-off families falling back into poverty due to illness.”
“In big companies, it’s quite common. I remember when I was on a business trip before, the client told me that one of his friends had passed away, around 42 years old… it’s nothing to be surprised about.”
“There are plenty of people dying before 40, most of them are not from extreme exhaustion but from long-term neglect of their health issues.”