A company in Chengdu, China has been praised for asking both job applicants and recruiters to wear masks in order to avoid discrimination based on looks.

Chengdu Ant Logistics recently made news headlines after a video showing its recruitment process went viral on Chinese social media. Shot by one of the interviewees, the short clip shows several masked people waiting to be interviewed by a recruiter, who was reportedly also masked. The company has since put out a statement on the matter, claiming that the video was shot at its recent biannual recruitment fair and that the masked were introduced to eliminate bias based on looks.

The Chinese logistics company said that the bizarre recruitment method was implemented to reduce the job candidates’ stress levels and also to emphasize the fact that it values people’s individual abilities over their appearance.

The video doing the rounds on Chinese social media got generally positive feedback from millions of people, many of whom said that they wouldn’t mind wearing a mask when applying for a new job.

“As a person with social phobia, I would really enjoy such a job interview,” one person wrote on Douyu.

“This is equality, good looks should not count,” another person added.

However, there were those who expressed doubts about the authenticity of the explanation offered by the company. While the footage was indeed shot by an actual job applicant, the masks were allegedly issued to protect people’s identities because the interviews were live-streamed. Some claim that after the video went viral, Chengdu Ant Logistics simply turned the interview into a publicity stunt.

Oddity Central