An online post listing white-collar workers' four most hated modern inventions is gaining popularity in cyberspace. Read on to discover what contraptions the modern professional dreads.

The mobile phone is on the list of white-collar workers' four most hated modern inventions.[crionline.cn]

Number one on the most-hated list is the punch machine.

32-year-old Mr. Zhang works for an IT company. He listed the punch machine as his number one workday enemy after a number of unavoidable incidents made him late to punch in for work. Zhang says most of his colleagues are hardworking people, but they feel like the boss doesn't trust them when he uses a machine to evaluate their performance. Zhang plans to find another job at a company that does not use a punch machine.

Number two is instant noodles.

More and more people today realize instant noodles do not make for a healthy meal, but lack of time forces many white-collar workers to eat them instead of a well-rounded dinner. 27-year-old Mr. Zhu is a salesperson who is so busy at work he doesn't even have time to wash his socks. He regularly eats fast food takeaways or instant noodles for dinner.

Mattresses weighed in at number three on the most-hated list.

Some veteran employees tell newcomers that having a mattress at work is just like having a home at the company. To encourage their employees to work overtime, a number of companies have issued their employees with mattresses so they can catch a nap under their desks at any time of day. People have started rejecting the mattress and taking better care of their health after the media reported a number of people who died due to overwork last year. But the mattress still ranks on the "most hated" list.

And last, but not least, the mobile phone.

A surgeon from a Beijing hospital says more and more white-collar workers are turning up with a strange disease they dub "mobile phone elbow". The patients' elbows are painful or numb, and sometimes they can't even raise their hands. The doctor says the disease occurs when patients spend more than 4 hours on their mobiles.

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