This week, I worked for five days from Tuesday to Saturday at two different factories. The first factory is a satellite component manufacturing plant occupying a three-story workshop building, producing heat pipes, solar panels, and other components for a “commercial space” enterprise in Beijing. Inside this factory, there are young workers around my age, as well as middle-aged workers in their forties and fifties, and nearly half of the workers are women. These workers earn only over 3,000 yuan per month, with a scheduled workday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a one-hour break in between. I initially applied for a job operating a hot press to produce solar cells. During the interview, a thin, long-faced engineer with glasses, showing a clearly contemptuous attitude, took me to see the hot press machine and the fitter workshop. Then he said they could hire me for a fitter position here; their working environment is similar to a third-party laboratory I worked at before, but their technical level is actually not high. The heat pipes for satellites in space are surprisingly handmade by experienced fitters. (I used to think that industries like this would use 3D printers by now.) I also noticed that outside this factory’s workshop, it is the only one in the industrial park filled with parked cars, while other factories’ entrances almost have no cars. Many people in this company commute by car. The workers here are quite friendly and welcoming to me as a newcomer. A young worker who interacted with me asked about my background, where I live, and what I used to do. However, during my two days of trial work, I was working in their workshop but didn’t know anything. I could only do tasks like lifting pipes and polishing parts. No one taught me how to do things I didn’t know. When I asked what work I should do, the person in charge was also dismissive, saying I should watch (on the first day) and help out by pulling rulers (on the second day). However, everyone working in the workshop already had their own tasks, and even pulling rulers was done by others, so I couldn’t get involved. By the end of the second day, I decided to try another factory as a fitter on the third day. I then sent a message on WeChat to inform this company that I had an accident riding my bike after work and would be a day or two late. When I started working at the second factory, I received a notification from HR that my trial was not approved and about the trial pay. This is the situation at the first factory. (I’ll continue with the current factory later.)
On Thursday, I entered a factory that produces laser cutting machines. I started a week-long trial work, and before starting, the front desk and HR of the factory asked me to sign a one-week probation agreement. It was similar to a short-term labor contract. After signing and taking a photo of the document, I was taken into the workshop and arranged to work with an experienced employee named Wang.
My job this time was assembly fitting, mainly assembling machines, which involved using an electric drill, drilling holes, tapping (cutting threads into drilled holes), and screwing parts together.
When I first started, I didn’t know anything. Under Wang’s guidance and supervision, I learned what the tools and work objects like drills, taps (thread-cutting drills), electric drills, and screws meant and how to use them.
After two days of work, I had learned basic operations like drilling and tapping. I was still not very skilled at tapping and kept breaking taps and drills. When I first learned tapping, I broke one every three screws on average. In one day, I broke five taps. Fortunately, in a factory with large production machines, this was common. Wang directly told me to go to the warehouse to get more drills and explained the reasons for breaking the tools and how to solve the problem. By the third day, I was able to tap screws more skillfully and broke fewer tools.
By the third day, I could complete three tasks in a day and start a fourth.
There were very few workers in the workshop, at most twenty. Workers usually dispersed around to complete their tasks and listened to music with headphones, with little communication.
An incident happened on the second afternoon. HR suddenly called me to the front desk. Based on my previous experience, I felt uneasy. I was mentally prepared to receive my wages, but the other party only asked for my salary card number.
Do you want to eat together at noon? The tables and chairs in the cafeteria probably aren’t single seats, right? Find a worker who seems easy to talk to and say a few words. If you find a cheerful and humorous worker, you can chat about many things. But in reality, most workers are very enthusiastic, so you can speak freely. The content can be a simple introduction of yourself and what you’ve done in the past, where you live, where your hometown is. Then talk about your impression of this factory, how you feel after working for a few days, and many other topics. Once you start a conversation, you can subtly inquire about this factory, such as supervision, worker treatment, wages, or past struggles. If you were a student before, dealing with all kinds of people for the first time still takes courage. But improving this ability has no easy shortcut; try to communicate more actively.
However, some workers like to talk about backward and reactionary bourgeois culture, full of these trash. When a few people chat, it’s okay to listen to him talk with others, but if he talks to me, I don’t know how to deal with it. When meeting someone for the first time, it’s not good to argue too seriously. If the relationship is still superficial, it’s even harder to refute. If I compromise, he might become even more aggressive; if I refuse politely, I might be seen as a hypocrite. Especially older male workers often make discriminatory remarks about women. Due to their age, I feel embarrassed to speak out. My usual response is to smile awkwardly in silence. My verbal communication skills are also poor, and if he asks again, I might be speechless, which would be worse.
This is probably faceism—avoiding attention and being too special. It’s also a petty-bourgeois harmony mentality, afraid that struggles will affect oneself. When faced with rebuttals, I can’t speak out and can only say it’s my own imaginary battlefield. Studying theory seriously can help avoid this problem. If I use workers’ language, casually joking and explaining Marxist principles, they might understand and even think I have my own opinions. Then, rebutting him wouldn’t be a problem. Being unskilled, shouting slogans, and being detached from reality is what makes workers see you as a fool!
The first trial run probably won’t be that Tianbing Technology that had the rocket static ignition result jump to the sky a few months ago…
Although I can’t specify which company, this one probably isn’t
However, manual work by fitters on parts does not mean the produced products are not good; it can only be said that this thing has low structural composition and poor mechanization level.
Are the wages full and complete? Or did they play tricks like giving you shadow wages?
Maybe you can take the opportunity to learn from your experienced master, and communicate with him. I don’t know if there are supervisors inside the factory, but if there are no supervisors and it doesn’t interfere, you can slip to other workstations and chat with other workers. If you feel this is too abrupt or unfamiliar, or after work (or during break time, if there is a break), you can chat with these people first, let them get to know you, and also lay the groundwork for frequent communication later.
This salary was calculated based on the agreed monthly salary.
The situation with dispersed work is like this: we produce a machine that is dozens of meters long. I work on one end of the machine, while an older employee works on the other end. The noise from drills and similar tools is very loud. During lunch, we gather together, but only for half an hour.
Would you wear headphones for pleasure at this time?
Are you still working now? Have you encountered any special things at work?
Just finished work, the trial period is probably ending tomorrow, and I need to discuss signing the labor contract with the other party. Will see how tomorrow goes.
Special things, almost none, at work it’s just using an electric drill, screwing, using an electric drill, screwing. Except for that hairy guy, there’s almost nothing special.
Why isn’t it updated in the Factory Diary? Did you forget this post?
It needs to be updated where, but the update is separated from this post, and later this post should be reposted in that post.
Based on this, start a new post to talk about your recent work situation.
Last Thursday morning, I went to ask the factory HR about signing a labor contract. The HR person from the other factory was not there; it was a temporary worker sitting in the HR position. Later, this temporary worker didn’t know what they were doing, printed relevant labor contract documents for me to sign, and also made phone calls to HR. During this time, I overheard the temporary worker and the other party’s HR talking about not hiring me.
Afterwards, I asked what to do about the reasons for not hiring and the salary issues, and after waiting for the factory director to arrive, I was given a trial work salary.
Subsequently, after leaving this factory, I originally wanted to go look for a job myself.
Not finished, trying to make up for it tomorrow
I suggest you read it yourself before posting. Ideas written directly without processing are very chaotic.
Yes.