工牌

gōngpái

noun

Measure Word

一张工牌 zhāng

Meanings

1 employee badge
2 staff ID card
3 work pass

Characters

Examples

进公司大楼必须刷工牌。

Jìn gōngsī dàlóu bìxū shuā gōngpái.

You must swipe your employee badge to enter the office building.

我今天早上忘带工牌了。

Wǒ jīntiān zǎoshang wàng dài gōngpái le.

I forgot to bring my staff ID this morning.

工牌挂在脖子上一整天。

Gōngpái guà zài bózi shàng yì zhěng tiān.

The employee badge hangs around your neck all day.

Tips

culture

In Chinese tech parks and office buildings, the 工牌 doubles as an access card for elevators, turnstiles, and cafeteria payments. Internet slang uses it as shorthand for white-collar identity — 挂着大厂工牌 ('wearing a big-tech badge') signals a coveted job at Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance, etc.

Stroke Order

工 gōng

牌 pái