"Won the lawsuit, but the feeling of being abandoned — severance can't compensate for that"

Mr. Zhou's job was to quality-check AI-generated answers. In January 2024, his company proposed demoting him from team lead to junior operations, cutting his salary from 25,000 to 15,000 yuan/month. When he refused, they fired him. Only when he filed for labor arbitration did they reveal the real reason: technical upgrade — AI could do his QA work now.

"When I joined, this position was barely two years old. I built the AI QA capability from scratch with my team. Now AI can do it, and I'm the redundant one?"

The case went through labor arbitration, first trial, and appeal — all ruling in Mr. Zhou's favor. The court found illegal termination and ordered 260,000+ yuan in compensation. The judge explicitly stated: companies cannot transfer the risks of normal technological updates onto workers.

But Mr. Zhou hasn't returned to his old position. "I won the lawsuit, but the feeling of being abandoned by the company — severance can't compensate for that."