In mid-January this year, with the continuous help of comrades, I finally completed the procedures to suspend my university studies and decided to directly enter the life of a worker. After the suspension period ends, I will not resume my studies and will drop out directly. On January 21, I was working as a trial employee at a milk tea shop of Brand A, but I was unfairly dismissed for refusing to pay a fine. On January 23, I officially started working at a milk tea shop of Brand B, planning to do this long-term to undergo labor reform, to transform my exploitative class mentality, and to communicate more with fellow workers for propaganda. I plan to open this thread to record my thoughts on labor, starting tonight, so I’ll create a post first.
Expectations 
February 1st
Today I worked the afternoon shift, from 10:00 to 19:00. I woke up at 9:10 in the morning, was in such a hurry that I left without eating. In the morning, I looked for my long-sleeved work uniform but couldn’t find it, neither in the store nor anywhere else. I had to temporarily wear a short-sleeved work uniform, but I didn’t know if it belonged to a coworker, and I was worried about not having a spare uniform. If the manager found out I lost it, would she make me pay? (But I definitely can’t let her find out, and it’s hard to say whether I lost it.) Looking back, my worries were just manifestations of fear of conflict and struggle. Actually, it doesn’t matter if I lost it.
In the morning, I also overheard the deputy manager talking in the store about how Xiao X’s attitude at work was not right, and that he was an hour late. I misheard and thought it was me. I wondered what was going on—I wasn’t an hour late. Then I doubted whether I had misheard, and I thought they probably wouldn’t say bad things about others face-to-face. But I also thought the deputy manager would probably say these things directly. I started doubting whether I really was an hour late because I didn’t see the schedule clearly. But that idea was very unreasonable and harmful, as it was just fear of conflict and struggle. I should have asked directly at the time, and I was planning to ask in the afternoon.
In the afternoon, I found out that it was actually a coworker from 2008 who was late by an hour because he overslept that morning. He didn’t eat lunch at noon and then worked for 8 hours straight. I was very angry—this deputy manager is such a traitor to workers. He directly said in front of my coworker that his attitude at work was poor. What’s the big deal if he was late by an hour occasionally? He was just being exploited. But I also think that although my coworker is three years younger than me, he is much more independent. He started working at 15, while I was still in school until I was 20. He must have a lot of perceptual understanding of the dark side of capitalism, but because of capitalism, he hasn’t been exposed to Marxism. I need to help him learn about it and promote it to him.
Today I also reflected on my own wrong ideas. Recently, I’ve encountered situations where I was fined for packing errors, and I have had slave-like thoughts of compromise. Today I realized that I am undergoing labor reform, and I should see myself as a worker, standing on the side of the proletariat. But this doesn’t mean I want to be an unconscious proletarian still in a spontaneous state (in fact, even the proletariat generally doesn’t want to be fined or agree with fines, and some have already fought against them). Some workers, like my coworker from 2008, are influenced by wrong ideas and are just trying to make a living. They didn’t fight against fines; in the first month, he paid over a hundred yuan. But we are Marxists, and we must learn from the masses and stand in front of them to fight for their rights. We must fight against capitalists over fines. My own thinking is actually a tailist mentality, and I must change through struggle.
February 2nd is a Monday, and I have a day off. The next six days, I will work the evening shift from 1:30 to 10:30.
February 3rd
Today is Tuesday, I worked the evening shift from 13:30 to 22:30. I originally thought there would be few orders, but now that elementary school students are on holiday, there are a bunch of people coming to drink milk tea, so I was busy from start to finish. The person I worked with today is a winter vacation worker, she is the same age as me, a sophomore. In the afternoon, I learned about something very infuriating. I asked the winter vacation worker how much her January salary was, and she said between 4000 and 4500 yuan. I asked why it was “up to 4500” (because she is a winter vacation worker, only working for a month, so there’s no issue of becoming a regular employee), then she told me that the store manager said if her performance is good, she can get 4500, and if not, 4000. I said that’s too unfair, everyone should be paid equally for equal work. My current salary is 4500 yuan per month (plus 100 yuan for full attendance, totaling 4600 yuan). If I learn all the positions, it might take three weeks or a month to become a regular employee, then I will earn 5000 yuan per month. The winter vacation worker then told me that other colleagues earn between 4000 and 4500 yuan per month. I was shocked after hearing this, and I also thought of my coworker from 2008, who during his first month of work, due to a packing mistake, lost over 100 yuan in compensation. At that time, he could barely earn 4000 yuan a month. It’s so unfair.
In the evening, another incident happened. There was an order that required a small topping, but I (or maybe another colleague, I can’t remember clearly) forgot to add it, and the customer came back. At that time, the winter vacation worker went to handle the complaint, contacted the assistant manager, and sent a picture from the customer. The assistant manager said there was an issue with my coworker’s cup sticker, as it didn’t have the small topping label, and it was roughly understood that I was the one who packed it. The assistant manager said that the store account cannot process partial refunds (which is actually possible, but the assistant manager wanted us to pay the refund), and asked for the customer’s Alipay account. The coworker also said she would handle this matter and asked me to continue washing dishes. I thought that this matter definitely shouldn’t be paid by my coworker, as it’s not really her fault. Anyway, if the assistant manager wants me to pay, I won’t, and employees shouldn’t have to pay. I planned to ask the customer if she could wait until her next order to add the small topping. The winter vacation worker was hesitant, unsure if that was okay, and asked the assistant manager, who said it was fine to ask. I told my coworker that at the milk tea shop I used to work at, employees were never asked to pay for mistakes; the store manager handled such matters, and I told her not to pay. If they ask me to pay, I won’t, and I won’t pay. I also told her I would ask the customer if she could wait until her next order to add the topping. When the customer called, I asked her opinion, and she said it was okay to wait until next time. Later, I was still washing dishes, thinking about this incident. I also had some wrong thoughts at the time, feeling that I made a packing mistake and caused trouble for my coworker, but actually, packing errors are normal. The real issue is that the store’s rules are too barbaric, and this should have been handled by the store manager.
The store closed at 10 p.m. At 9:56 p.m., a couple came in asking if they could place an order. I was very conflicted. I hesitated because it was so late and I didn’t want to take the order since the store was about to close, but I also had a slave mentality, thinking about how during a previous holiday, a coworker at another milk tea shop had closed the delivery system before closing time to refuse orders and was caught by the store manager. I thought about whether the store’s surveillance cameras might catch me. Both thoughts were selfish: the first was that I didn’t want the trouble of taking orders late, and the second was that I wanted to enjoy a peaceful work environment without conflicts with the store manager. In the end, I decided to take the order for myself. Later, the winter vacation worker was quite angry, pointing out my rebellious slave behavior, asking why I didn’t say it was not allowed to order (actually, she was the one placing the order). I also didn’t consider her feelings at the time and even defended myself, saying I wouldn’t do it again, and that I was really afraid the store manager would see the surveillance footage and find out. I didn’t really want to take the order, and it was quite annoying when I did. The winter vacation worker said the store manager wouldn’t watch the surveillance. I think my initial attitude was very reckless, and I defended myself. Tomorrow, I will work the evening shift again with her, and I want to talk to her about my thoughts, criticize my behavior, and not make excuses.
February 4th
These past two days I worked the evening shift myself. On the 4th, I worked the evening shift with my holiday part-time coworkers. In the evening, I packed an order but accidentally left out a small ingredient. Afterwards, the customer started contacting the store’s Meituan account. At that time, my coworker asked me to go wash the pots and bowls in the shop, saying she would handle the matter herself. The coworker contacted the assistant manager, who said they needed to ask the customer’s Alipay account for compensation. I also looked at the store’s phone; actually, there was a Taobao flash sale order earlier that day for a large milk tea, but my holiday coworker made it a medium instead. She also asked the customer’s Alipay account, but neither of these two customers replied. I kept thinking about the mistake I made in packing the Meituan order. Now that the New Year is approaching, the assistant manager and the store manager don’t dare to open the store (to avoid staffing issues during the New Year), and I also thought this time I must stand for justice.
Today, I also tried using the store’s Meituan account on the phone; it clearly offered the option for a partial refund, but the reactionary assistant manager insisted that employees should pay the money. In this matter, the customer didn’t even receive the product, yet employees are made to pay extra money paid by the customer—this is too reactionary and shameless, always trying to profit from everything. Moreover, the economic relationship between the assistant manager and the store is clearly exposed. The assistant manager is extremely selfish because she gets a commission from the store’s sales, so as long as the store’s account balance is a little short, she acts as if her life depends on it and makes employees compensate.
I was also thinking about how to persuade my holiday coworker not to compensate for the mistake in the Taobao flash sale order. I also had thoughts of avoiding conflict and delaying the issue—hoping the customer wouldn’t reply, and if they did and demanded compensation urgently, the assistant manager and the store manager would be the ones to pay. This idea was also reactionary; I knew I had to seize the opportunity to fight against the assistant manager and the store manager.
When closing time was near, the customer asked if they could place an order. I told them we were closed and couldn’t take any more orders. My coworker was very happy and said I was right. I told her that it was absurd to say we could still take orders when we were about to close, especially since she was the one who took the order yesterday, which caused trouble for her, and I apologized. She happily said it was okay. We finished work at 10:30 p.m., but my coworker kept checking the hygiene repeatedly, worried it wouldn’t pass inspection, and asked me to continue cleaning. I asked if she had overtime pay, advised her not to work for free, and mentioned that the cleaning wasn’t very strict, so it should be fine. But she replied that it indeed wasn’t cleaned thoroughly. I still need to ask her about her thoughts in the next few days (she has a day off on the 5th, and I’ll ask again on the 6th).
I will update the diary for the 5th on the 6th, recording my thoughts in a timely manner.
When will the original poster update?
Today I updated. Recently, my life has been too liberal, and I haven’t been diligent in writing my labor diary. I need to persist in writing to strengthen discipline.
From 2/5 to 2/8
Recently, there have been fewer incidents, so I’ll just summarize directly. The main thing is about Alibaba, this heinous company, doing something where asking a question on the Xia Qian Wen app can get you free milk tea. At that time, I was working the evening shift, and when I arrived, I didn’t know the order volume had exploded. When my winter holiday coworker went to take a break at the front desk and asked me to pack, I saw a bunch of orders at the front desk. Later, I also checked the store’s phone and learned that when we opened at 10 o’clock, there were already 100 orders directly flooding in. It was very exhausting then, completely overwhelmed, but there were still customers with very bad tempers rushing to催单, and even elementary school students demanding on-the-spot orders.
In recent days, every time there’s an order surge,现场 customers often催单, and these催单 customers are also parasites, as if we are deliberately slow and not doing their orders, desperately催单. I also think that in real production relations, they are probably in the position of工人贵族 or bourgeoisie, managing workers, and they want to squeeze剩余价值 (surplus value) from workers to the extreme, always complaining that workers are “too slow” when working; some even say, “Why can’t you make my drink first,” very selfish and self-interested, truly feeling like they have some privilege. Sometimes when customers order on-site, I am still using the POS machine and ordering system, and they quickly finish their要求 for three cups of milk tea, I simply can’t remember them all. They don’t consider whether the staff can remember, and sometimes I ask them to repeat because the mall is noisy and I can’t hear clearly. They become very impatient.
I also wonder how they view店员 (staff). They probably think店员 are just泥腿子 (rustic workers), uneducated and only making milk tea. They might also think they are doing脑力劳动 (mental labor), with “knowledge capital,” or just feel that they are richer and superior to劳动人民 (working people). Honestly, when I was opportunistic at school, I looked down on the劳动人民 who supported me. But after actually working, I feel that the等级差别 (hierarchical difference) between mental and physical labor is completely unreasonable.
Taking my own感性经验 (sensory experience) as an example, I usually need to learn how to wash dishes and utensils, learn how to make milk tea. Doing these things quickly and well is really not easy. I can’t do it as fast as劳动者 (laborers) in society, and I am not very熟练 (skilled) at making milk tea yet. Moreover, the劳动 (labor) of milk tea店员 (staff) is actually creating价值 (value), but mental labor does not create actual value.
Rest on 2/9, then work evening and middle shifts
Since Tuesday until now, mainly there have been issues such as our store not having gloves, I not having suitable autumn and winter work uniforms, my shift scheduling being quite chaotic, and matters involving the store manager, assistant manager, and colleagues. I will find time to talk about these in the coming days.
Are gloves and autumn-winter work uniforms currently provided? If not, can we fight for them? This is clearly a legitimate right, a standard for milk tea shops. Not wearing gloves means hands will get sore and cracked from washing. Without warm clothing, working in the cold will cause frostbite, especially for women, as prolonged exposure to cold can affect menstruation. This is particularly harmful to female workers (since there are many women in the service industry). Just ask him, on what grounds does he refuse to provide them?