Ladies lead a group of tech employees in... a singalong? Photo via Trending in China/Facebook.
Read: What China's 'Black Monday' Means for the British EconomyIn a practice that's offensive to basically everyone, Chinese tech companies are hiring female cheerleaders to boost the spirits of their largely male teams.Dressed as high schoolers, the women take on such duties as: buying the programmers breakfast, playing ping-pong with employees, and "chitchatting," according to a Facebook post by news site China.org.cn.Because programmers are "terrible at socializing," according to one HR manager, the presence of pretty, young girls improves productivity at the office. It's a claim that's difficult to reconcile with this image of a developer strumming guitar at his desk while cheerleaders and his colleagues clap along.Noticeably absent from the tech companies' rationale of the practice was any mention of long-term strategies for making this currently male-dominated field more comfortable for female developers.Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.