Reported by NUPIAO
On July 24, according to a report by Bailu Video, a project leader in WeChat Business Group (WXG) named Ye was terminated for leaking a screenshot of his personal annual salary details. He shared sensitive internal information, including compensation and incentive structures, outside the company. He’s now blacklisted from Tencent’s hiring forever. The story exploded online, reaching over 27 million views.
The leaked screenshot showed Ye’s year-end incentives, which included cash and stock, totaling around 317,000 USD. The breakdown: about 82,000 USD in cash bonus and approximately 235,000 USD in stock incentives.
Soon enough, netizens noticed the screenshot had Tencent’s internal watermark, sparking a major controversy over salary leaks. These kinds of salary details are classified by Tencent as high-level internal sensitive information, strictly forbidden from being screenshotted, forwarded, or shared externally.
NUPIAO reached out to Tencent for comment, but they hadn’t responded by the time of publication.
Li Jian, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi (Tianjin) Law Firm, told NUPIAO that many workers might think only “technical data” or “client lists” count as secrets. But actually, any internal info a company restricts from public disclosure, takes steps to protect, and has management value—like salary policies, performance data, or internal incentives—can also be considered sensitive internal info that must be kept confidential. Employees can’t just shrug and say, “it’s just my personal income,” and share it freely.
Under Article 90 of the Labor Contract Law, if an employee violates their confidentiality obligations and causes losses to the employer, they must bear compensation responsibility. If the info is considered a legal trade secret, serious cases could also violate the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and even lead to criminal charges for trade secret infringement.
But lawyer Li Jian stressed that confidentiality obligations don’t mean companies can go overboard. Businesses need to clearly define which info counts as sensitive and prohibited from leaking. Their rules must go through democratic procedures, be announced to employees upfront, and have a solid confidentiality system in place. Otherwise, if a dispute arises, the company risks big trouble trying to hold employees accountable.
Also, while the law doesn’t explicitly ban companies from creating internal hiring blacklists, if a company shares blacklist info with external peers or spreads negative details during background checks with other firms, it could seriously violate workers’ rights to equal employment and reputation, leading to civil lawsuits and damages. When punishing employees for rule-breaking, companies must follow legal procedures. If they publicly announce an employee’s personal misconduct, they need to stick to objective facts, avoid insults or false info, and prevent defamation.
Tencent has adjusted its employee reward and promotion mechanisms multiple times over the years. Currently, performance ratings are divided into three tiers: Outstanding, Good, and Underperform. Outstanding corresponds to the old 4-5 star ratings, strictly limited to the top 10% to 20% of high performers. Employees with this rating typically get year-end bonuses of six months’ salary or more.
Back in 2022, Tencent sent out a company-wide email announcing an upgrade to its talent evaluation system. The upgrade mainly covered performance management and professional job grades. Specifically, they condensed the original five performance rating levels into three, and gave business units more authority.
Originally, Tencent’s performance scores ranged from 1 star to 5 stars, with 3 stars being the baseline. Employees with 4 or 5 stars got extra cash bonuses and big stock incentives, while those with 1 or 2 stars only received basic salary—no additional year-end stock. The performance review covers both business evaluation and organizational management evaluation, which can be thought of as performance metrics (70% weight) and behavioral metrics (30% weight). Reviews typically happen twice a year, in June and December.
Tencent said the upgrade also strengthened accountability for management, aimed at avoiding laziness and preventing abuse of power. They emphasized, “We must promptly adjust and replace unqualified managers.”
In September 2024, NUPIAO reported that Tencent adjusted its job grade system again: employees’ professional grade info would no longer be publicly displayed on WeCom. The reason? Tencent said they wanted internal staff to focus less on job grades, stop judging people by their titles, and avoid bureaucratic habits like “grade matching.” They aimed to promote a more equal workplace culture.
Another key change in that adjustment: the required stay time for target grades 8 and below was extended from 0.5 years to 1 year, aligning with other grades.
At the same time, employees with target grades 8 and below still had two application windows per year (first and second halves), and the “green channel” qualification was relaxed: anyone with an Outstanding performance rating (5-star) could apply.
Tencent also kept a “special application” channel internally, offering fast-track opportunities for employees who made “special contributions” in the past year but didn’t meet the “green channel” criteria.
After this adjustment, Tencent’s internal job grade evaluation system was linked with its “Sunshine Code of Conduct.” Any fraudulent behavior found during grade evaluations would be reported to the company’s internal audit team. If investigations confirmed the fraud, employees would face disciplinary action according to the Sunshine Code.
Full announcement attached:
The Anti-Fraud Investigation Department received a tip: Ye, the head of a WXG project team, had leaked sensitive company information.
After investigation, the Anti-Fraud Department found that during his employment, Ye sent sensitive company information to external parties, leading to the leak on external platforms, causing severe negative impact both inside and outside the company.
Ye’s actions violated Tencent’s “High-Voltage Line” Article 3, “Information Security Violations and Leak of Confidential Information” (1. Leaking or inquiring about salary; 2. Intentional or improper actions, including but not limited to improper configuration or uploading to external shared spaces, leading to leaks of internal sensitive information). He has been terminated, blacklisted, and will never be rehired.
Penalties for Ye’s violation of the “Management Cadre Disciplinary Punishment Measures” will be separately issued.
