I work part-time in a large city, and I’ve been thinking about recording my work experiences. Temporary work is a product of the bourgeoisie’s push for flexible employment; to find a shift on the platform, you have to compete for slots, usually lasting about three to four hours, often during the busiest times. Longer shifts are mainly during the two peak periods at noon and in the evening.
The work in Chinese restaurants includes front-of-house service, dish passing, clearing tables, dishwashing, and greeting guests; back-of-house tasks include chopping, prep work, vegetable sorting, and washing dishes. The most common tasks are dish passing, service, clearing tables, and dishwashing because these are the most troublesome and require the lowest technical skill. Hotel work is mostly similar to Chinese restaurant work, usually involving serving staff. Sometimes there are banquets, which involve a lot of miscellaneous tasks, with working hours extending from a full eight hours to over ten hours. Coffee shops are somewhat special, with shifts typically only two hours, sometimes just one hour, mainly packing and some ingredient preparation.
Since capitalists only hire temporary workers during the busiest times, the labor intensity for temp workers is generally quite high. Because it’s difficult to secure long-term shifts at the same place (unless you establish a long-term working relationship with the shop, where the manager directly assigns shifts, which then becomes a fixed part-time job), it’s hard to develop long-term relationships with local workers. Additionally, due to the lack of skilled labor, temp workers often conflict with regular employees; some morally corrupt regular workers even want temp workers to do as much work as possible to lighten their own load. Some Chinese restaurant capitalists, like Chef Fei, even design piece-rate wages for clearing tables, forcing cleaning staff to work nonstop to earn their wages, which sometimes leads them to speed up temp workers.
After employing temp workers, capitalists significantly reduce costs, but the service workers’ labor remains largely unchanged. One or two temp workers can replace one or even more regular employees, pushing out regular workers, causing more unemployment and making jobs harder to find. Capitalists can further exploit this by lowering wages. During periods without temp workers, tasks that could be easily handled by two regular workers are left to fewer people after layoffs, resulting in no real rest for anyone. Temp work, therefore, is a tool for capitalists to divide and exploit workers. About two years ago, only a few companies were on certain temp platforms, and wages weren’t particularly low. Now, in a large city, there can be over a dozen companies, and wages have dropped significantly. Companies like McDonald’s, which used to pay relatively high wages with low labor intensity, now either pay less or have disappeared altogether. Previously, Manner Coffee’s employees, overwhelmed and throwing coffee powder at customers, prompted the company to rapidly create many temp positions, ostensibly to relieve worker pressure. But in reality, they used temp workers to further reduce staff, turning a two-person shop into one with a regular worker and a temp. Regular employees had to teach temp workers on the job, who, due to inexperience, made more mistakes, ultimately burdening the regular staff. Manner also abolished the previous “thirteen-month salary” system, replacing it with year-end bonuses, but their online audits penalize even minor errors, lowering regular employees’ ratings and deducting wages. As a result, wages for baristas in a large city have fallen from around 8,000-9,000 yuan to 5,000-7,000 yuan, driving many away. This is a clear example of capitalists squeezing workers through this method!
But many people also have no choice but to take temp jobs. First, many workers are unemployed and cannot find jobs, so they work multiple temp jobs simultaneously to survive. Many of these workers are newcomers to the city, unable to find work, relying on temp work to get by, earning a little for overnight expenses, and even reluctant to wash clothes because rent for washing machines is too high. They have extensive experience with daily-paid jobs and often recommend them to me. Second, many proletarians with formal jobs are forced to do temp work during weekdays due to economic pressures, working up to sixteen hours outside, and it’s even more common to do temp work on rest days, with no days off for the entire month. Although wages here are slightly higher than in other cities, the cost of living, especially rent, is much higher. Many have children to support, increasing their expenses. Women are also among these workers—working two jobs daily, then returning home to care for children, living a life of constant toil, under heavy oppression. Third, students also do temp work. Although they are not the majority, mainly vocational school students, they do exist. As the working class faces increasing economic hardship, many petty bourgeois students are also forced to work, gaining social experience. However, students who can do temp work tend to be more free; those under deeper oppression or in greater poverty are either locked in fascist schools or have already had to do long-term work.
Temp work is a tactic used by capitalists to expand exploitation of workers, but it also allows some students to access society and develop more sympathy for workers—except for those who do it purely for enjoyment, to drink more free employee beverages, or for trivial reasons—most experience some ideological change.
For us, working as temp workers also has certain benefits. Since temp work is extremely unstable and involves frequent changes of workplaces, it allows contact with workers from many fields, enabling us to learn about their experiences and various forms of capitalist exploitation through communication. Many temp workers are numerous, so we can also connect with many people in society, especially the unemployed or those about to fall into the proletariat. This broadens our horizons. Moreover, if communication is good and propaganda is effective, we can establish networks with fellow workers, maintain regular exchanges, and expose more issues. In a sense, because your work often changes, you don’t need to worry about saying the wrong thing or being fired—if you confront the shop manager, they only have the power to blacklist you from their store. This is a valuable exercise, as during temp work, since shifts last only a few hours, almost no long-term communication occurs except during meals. The main opportunity for exchange is during employee meals, but you can’t only talk then; otherwise, you become a wooden figure the rest of the time. Also, since temp workers are generally unskilled, how they consider their labor intensity is an issue—capitalists and even some employees may want you to work harder, leading to conflicts. How to resolve these different types of contradictions is a test. It’s impossible to truly do no work or to be extremely passive because that would upset fellow workers, but you also need to reason with them, clarify the division of labor, and help others understand your situation, which can lead to exchanges. These are significant challenges. Engels once said in “On the Strike of London Dockworkers”: “If they (referring to unskilled dockworkers, marginalized from various industries, unable to join any unions, only taking daily wages) could unite and, with their firm spirit, make the powerful dock companies afraid, then we would not need to feel pessimistic about any part of the working class.” The unity of unskilled workers is hindered by their dispersion and competition with skilled workers. Although service sector temp work is somewhat better than physical labor like porters and less competitive, it still faces the challenge of managing relationships with other workers, which is an important training. If we gain such experience and can quickly establish contacts and spread revolutionary ideas, we will be better prepared for long-term work in the future.
So, how to communicate with workers during temp work? If the exchange is superficial, it’s quite easy. If you have previous work experience, you can talk about your past life, why you chose to join the working class, your ideological shifts, and social news. Combining your experience, others’ situations, and social realities makes communication not difficult. It’s technically simple. However, for many petty bourgeois intellectuals who are used to a small-bourgeois lifestyle, with narrow horizons, timidity, and low-level interests, there are many ideological hurdles. First, you must maintain a proper attitude toward work, constantly think about how to help workers, how to spread social news, and how to promote Marxism. To do this, you must always remember the responsibility of Marxists. If you only go for free employee meals, drinks, or to relax and indulge in low-level interests, or fundamentally see yourself as a petty bourgeois intellectual who will eventually “return,” then you will be at a loss in front of workers and unlikely to achieve any results. Only if you see yourself as a member of the proletariat and make a firm decision to do so can you gradually develop a shared class sentiment through joint practice.
In fact, in the process of communicating with workers, the difficulties are not many. The selfishness of the working class is much less than that of petty bourgeoisie. They are more tolerant of your naive mistakes in communication; most of the time, instead of helping them, we often need their help. During this process, our class stance will undergo a significant transformation. On the issue of building class feelings through communication with workers, I personally have not done enough. Because I often indulge in relaxation at work, empty my mind, indulge in low-level interests, and forget our goal of engaging in labor, work becomes a pure source of suffering. Afterwards, I tend to pursue small benefits like employee meals or the comfort of lying in bed after work. Ultimately, talking to workers during work becomes a headache. So, the issues mentioned above are also my own problems, but through communication and understanding their feelings, broadening my horizons, this itself becomes a motivation for ideological struggle.
Exactly like that. In the service industry, because many service workers are bankrupt petty bourgeoisie or even bourgeoisie, they do not have the harsh, centralized working conditions like industrial workers. Compared to them, they lack solidarity, and the most obvious manifestation is that the number of strikebreakers is very high. Some shops even have nine out of ten veteran employees as strikebreakers, often helping the shop manager to block and suppress new workers. These people are just like the idle dogs in Lu Xun’s writings: “All dogs, even if they are raised by a capitalist, actually belong to all capitalists, so they are tame in front of all the rich and bark wildly at all the poor. Not knowing who their master is, it is precisely because they are tame in front of all the rich that they belong to all the capitalists. Even if no one raises them, they become skinny wild dogs when hungry, but they still are tame in front of all the rich and bark wildly at all the poor. At this point, they are even less clear about who their master is.”
Among these veteran employees, the most reactionary are often the most servile, and some even become “preparatory shop managers.” Such people are not friends of ordinary workers but enemies. 
I can relate to the year-end situation. I was applying for a dessert shop clerk position in a shopping mall, and they actually told us we needed to achieve 1 million in sales per month just to get a meager year-end bonus. Not only that, capitalists also like to split some overproduction bonuses. There was a foolish store manager who gave you the year-end bonus, and during the probation period a few days ago, those so-called formal employees would even ride on your head. These formal employees are the so-called “sales experts,” acting as the store manager’s mouthpiece, instructing you to mop the floor and clean, which to outsiders seem unnecessary tasks.
Everyone with a clear eye knows that the year-end bonus is actually just workers’ overtime pay for weekends! They also invented the garbage thing called a 7-day probation period with no wages, flexible employment in maintenance, splitting service industry overtime pay into personal performance. It has become fixed overtime hours reaching a terrifying 224 hours, and only hours over 224 are considered overtime.
In the picture, the base salary is 2300, position allowance 180, fixed overtime pay 919 (performance), “personal production bonus” 400 (decided by the store manager), full attendance bonus 200, team “dividends” 900. In the end, I didn’t go to this company. Compared to factory physical labor with fixed wages and layoffs, this store pays too little, doesn’t include meals, and the salary for 224 hours is only 3800. So I didn’t go. It’s hard to imagine that two hours away from home, in the most bustling commercial square in the city center, with this monthly salary minus the cost of eating out and transportation, there isn’t much left for rent.
Previously, I went to do the collection work, and only then did I realize how uncomfortable it is to work continuously for 4-5 hours without sitting down. Being told off for crossing my arms, and the rules about the “Sunshine Kitchen”—a place specifically for sorting trash where you’re not allowed to “steal food” (to reclaim residual value)—and other labor discipline measures. Thinking about others working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, with no rest on weekends and holidays, it’s indeed exhausting. At that time, I learned about another gig where people often worked, and I mentioned to him that due to maintenance (fiscal crisis), the gig would be taxed based on labor remuneration (20% tax on the part above 800/month). From this, you can also see where the money from the national subsidies for maintenance is being extracted from. However, I didn’t have much experience sharing back then. When he asked if I would go in the next two days, I said I had things to do and couldn’t go, which probably weakened his willingness to communicate with me. (This person is also quite complicated; initially, he would bring a pot for me to wipe the table, and later, seeing that I was not very skilled at wiping, he told me to still carry the pot; later, when cleaning, if I did a sloppy job, he wouldn’t directly criticize me but would explain the reason while working). Later, I also had the idea of finishing work and taking a break. It’s also important to communicate more with colleagues during normal times and look for opportunities to promote oneself.
So, 800 is taxed, right? The mid-repair is too outrageous.
Ridiculous, those who go to do part-time jobs are already unemployed, this completely leaves no way out for workers.
For us, work should be a conscious activity of labor reform and propaganda. Therefore, the state during work clearly depends on one’s mental attitude. If the mind is slack, work will only be seen as torment, and this kind of labor will not only fail to reform thoughts but also easily lead us to develop reactionary ideas of disgust towards labor. Only by understanding the significance of labor intellectually can we actively communicate with others during work. I deeply realize this; if I think about comfort, I will feel that going to work is too tiring, and I basically avoid talking whenever possible, just passing the day. Only by thinking about the meaning of labor reform can I actively communicate with others and gain something.
Today, it was freezing rain, and I was riding my electric bike to work. The wind had already penetrated through my thick cotton pants, making me feel like I was about to freeze to death. But on the way to work, there was still a delivery person wearing thin autumn pants, at the intersection pulling down his pant legs to cover more skin. This delivery person might have to deliver in such weather for more than ten hours, constantly facing cold winds and freezing rain. Why do they wear autumn pants? Probably either because they have no money to buy winter cotton pants or because their original pants just got washed and they have no spare to change into. The working class is forced to endure this suffering by economic pressure. The parasitic university students, that is, the unemployed intellectuals, have privileges compared to the broad masses of workers—they are not only free from this suffering but their luxury consumption even causes more delivery workers to suffer in harsher weather. It’s almost a criminal act. Isn’t this lifestyle a kind of experiential voucher of the bourgeoisie? So many university students in college are contaminated with bourgeois airs, enjoying parasitic and luxurious lives, and ultimately, to continue this lifestyle, they resort to more desperate speculation, becoming lackeys of the bourgeoisie. Even those who don’t become lackeys have their thoughts become more decayed. This is inevitable because university students and workers do not live the same class life at all.
Moreover, a person does not automatically become proletarian in thought just because they become a worker and engage in wage labor. Today, I really felt this during work. I met a worker, he is 18 years old, and he started engaging in wage labor after graduating last year. But he still indulges in gaming; from his student days until now, he has spent over ten thousand yuan on games. So when I talk to him about politics, he’s not interested. The first topic he brought up was gaming; he asked me what games I played, and I told him I used to play, but after starting work, gaming consumes too much energy, so it’s better to sleep and recover; the content is too empty, so it’s better to read news; it also wastes money, giving it to game capitalists, and I can’t save any, so I stopped playing. I talked about some of my past experiences with reactionary games like Battlefield 1 and 5, which simulate world wars and killing, but on the Russia-Ukraine battlefield, it’s the working people who are forced to slaughter each other. I showed him some videos of soldiers’ real situations on the Russia-Ukraine front, but he was indifferent, saying he had seen those videos. After a while, he even showed me his game account, displaying his gun skins. I also talked to him about my past struggles with the economy and the system of unpaid overtime, but he remained indifferent. Later, I found out that he doesn’t need to save money at all; all his expenses are covered by his father. His life is still parasitic, and most importantly, he has a backup plan. Therefore, he can escape wage labor at any time and doesn’t need to worry about the economic coercion. So he doesn’t consider overtime pay, his coworkers’ situations, or the interests of the working class; naturally, he doesn’t think about class struggle either. Such a person, even if they are a worker, still has reactionary thoughts.
For a long time before, I hadn’t updated my gig diary and experiences, and it was because I hadn’t participated in gig work for a long time. My life had become increasingly reactionary during my long student years, and the infrequent gig work also revealed its limitations. The biggest problem was that I relied on student life as a backup, and after work, I could still return to the dorm to indulge and enjoy. This lifestyle made it impossible for me to have the same thoughts as workers. Although I can listen to many advanced workers talk about their oppression and struggles, knowing they are often overworked and poorly paid, I worry about their wages being insufficient, and I know they are exhausted every day, sometimes working two jobs. The workers around me used to be more advanced, but I couldn’t truly feel their suffering because I couldn’t experience the hardship of being whipped by the “renminbi’s whip.” Our lives are vastly different. This external factor is very bad, so even though I have many days of gig work and many experiences to share, I have no motivation to share or analyze them one by one. Because I am determined to completely break free from the old life and truly become a worker—an authentic worker—this is why I wrote this diary.
Does the role of labor in ideological reform diminish when there is a school-backed pathway?
This paragraph is very well said. I’ve been doing gig work for a few months now, and I truly resonate with it. Although I am only working in a sector doing miscellaneous tasks at a site, I have seen many people. Proletarians are not at all what they are imagined to be as “uncultured” or whatever; rather, they are completely forced into it. Also, when I communicate with some female workers, I find that from certain aspects, they are actually more progressive than male workers. College students, because they enjoy a decayed lifestyle, often eat irregularly, and sometimes even after working until past 1 a.m. at the site, they neglect to eat.
There is also a very good discussion about this propaganda issue. I think I am actually doing very poorly in this aspect—just clock out on time, do my own thing, and not say a word. In fact, students doing gig work, like in restaurants or similar sites, are completely different. Setting aside their appearance, because they don’t care about exploitation (now I personally feel that very few people in college worry about money because most have subsidies), they are indifferent to the lives of the proletariat, showing a completely indifferent attitude towards their lives and deaths. And as someone studying Marxism, I also need to reflect on this.
一般学生主要还是寄父母的，并不靠打工养活自己，所以对于工资也比较随便。资本家就喜欢用学生兼职压低工价，而一些工人也会因此排挤学生工，这也是资本家分化工人的结果。在我老家有一些大学生纯粹想玩去一个影视城当群演，有的工资都不要，当地普通兼职的人就很不满这些学生的行为。不过归根到底还是资本家加强剥削的手段。