Factory Diary:
Preface:
Recently, through a recruitment poster, I contacted a car parts factory. So I participated in this interview. When I arrived, HR gave me a yellow vest that seemed to indicate I was an outsider and took me to visit the factory. After entering, I found that the organizational structure there was very high, with various intelligent machines operating independently. This was different from the car parts factory I had worked at before. The workers here are not individuals operating one or several machines, but are responsible for overseeing an entire production line, which also looks quite exhausting. At this moment, a fat man dressed in a different uniform from the workers suddenly appeared to meet me. HR briefly introduced him to me, and he then showed a very shrewd expression, smiling at me with a very commercial attitude, asking why I left my previous job and whether I had experience. After briefly dealing with him, he was still very polite to me, but this might also be due to his use of Confucian tactics (smiling while introducing my work experience to the other party, then actively talking about his own work experience in a persistent manner, aiming to control the situation). Afterwards, he seemed more relaxed and took me to another workshop to meet a ‘line leader’, who was also very shrewd, smiling at me and briefly explaining the job responsibilities. During this time, the fat man (later identified as the workshop director) occasionally said to me, ‘Let me be blunt: if you’re lazy, this job isn’t suitable for you,’ and also promoted the idea of earning more through hard work, saying ‘happiness comes from striving.’ When I mentioned that there were few workers at the workstation, he said, ‘This is because we believe the cake is only so big; think about it—if you eat cake, do you want everyone to be full or just stuffed? We want you to be stuffed…’ He turned his own increase in worker labor intensity and exploitation into a misguided concern for the workers, which was very disgusting. After hearing these harsh words, he said, ‘If you want to come to the workshop, contact me anytime,’ and I guessed I had passed the interview. However, the interview this afternoon made me feel very uncomfortable; these people are too hypocritical, which also made me feel very resistant to this place. Finally, they arranged for me to have a health check the next day, and my job search for today came to an end.
After learning that I passed the health check the next day, I went to the factory to complete the onboarding process. This factory is very disgusting. The probation salary is only 4,000 yuan, with no social insurance, and I had to sign a third-party labor dispatch contract. Even the work clothes cost 190 yuan out of pocket, with no reimbursement. HR, facing this situation, pretentiously said, ‘You can choose not to wear it in the first seven days, and you can get a refund later.’ I was speechless; even Nazi laws stipulate that work clothes should not be charged. Moreover, the company’s payday is surprisingly on the 26th of each month, nearly a month’s salary in advance, which is really unscrupulous. After some effort to complete the work clothes and onboarding procedures, I officially started work the next day.
Does that mean returning the work uniform for a refund later?
No, si la ropa de trabajo se ensucia, no se puede devolver.
Due to my previous relaxation at night and not updating the factory diary in time, I have now been employed for 9 days. I will gradually share the situation of these days.
Week One Situation:
This week, I mainly followed my mentor Xiao Hu to work on the outer circle grinding of the automatic line, performing ultra-precision integrated processing. Xiao Hu looks about 20 years old, with yellow fireworks perm hairstyle, wearing Nike Air Force Ones, which made me feel he was out of place in this factory. He rarely speaks. For the first two days, I basically just followed him to work; he didn’t teach me any useful knowledge. Sometimes when I proactively asked him about work, he didn’t explain in detail how to do it, which made it difficult for me at times. During the week, through communicating with him, I learned that he is a Miao ethnic person from Qiandongnan. He started working here at 17 and has been here for four years. However, despite being here for four years, he has no understanding of this city at all. When I mentioned other place names in this city, he was completely unaware. His life outside work is just chatting with his girlfriend and watching short videos. Occasionally, his friends send him borderline content, which he always treats with a sly smile. Also, through talking with him, I learned that his seniority in this factory is even longer than my line leader’s. He proudly showed me that he is the third person to join the workshop WeChat group (meaning the third to join the group). Moreover, I learned that over these four years, by working overtime in the factory and doing some part-time jobs (he didn’t specify what), he successfully bought a Toyota Camry outright and kept it at the company. He didn’t boast about this to me, but I guess he is proud of it. When I learned about the salary situation, I found out he earned about 7,000 yuan last month plus a 4,000 yuan year-end bonus, totaling 11,000 yuan. A few days later, he immediately bought a Huawei watch costing about 1,600 yuan, which was quite a shocking price. Besides, when I talked to him about strikes in nearby factories and some workers resisting this factory’s system and conflicts with the capitalists, he always took a mocking attitude, not serious about workers fighting capitalists, but rather playful. I thought this might be related to his “high salary” in the factory and his very closed and dull life, so he can only bury himself in material stimulation, showing a strong petty-bourgeois lifestyle mentality.
This week, through dealing with him, I felt he was impatient with newcomers working together. He often spoke abstractly when teaching me, and scolded me when I made mistakes, treating me poorly. During this time, I didn’t actively argue with him to avoid escalating conflicts because I had previously said I had worked for two months, but now I was acting suspiciously, so I didn’t act rashly. This is roughly the situation of my communication with Xiao Hu this week.
The second coworker I met was Xiao Xue, who looks about thirty years old. Initially, he was also an apprentice like me. He came about two weeks earlier than me. Compared to Xiao Hu, I preferred communicating with Xiao Xue. He was friendly and patient in teaching me work knowledge and told me not to rush to learn everything, just mastering one thing a day was enough. Through talking with him, I learned he used to work at another local auto parts factory and came here due to commuting changes. He told me the factories in my area are the worst in the city; having two days off per month is already normal, and my factory doesn’t even provide labor protection supplies. Even the tools for debugging/maintenance workers have to be bought by themselves; the company won’t spend a penny, which shocked me greatly. Because the auto parts factory I worked at before wasn’t so brutal; at least they provided labor protection supplies and had at least one day off per week (my current one day off per week is mainly because I am an intern). After that, I didn’t have deeper communication with him, and two days later he was transferred to another line, leaving me alone with Xiao Hu.
In the latter half of this week, another coworker came to my workstation. His surname is Du, and I call him Xiao Du. When my line leader introduced him to me, he said Xiao Du had worked in related jobs for some time and could be considered a mentor. He also looks about 20 years old, initially silent and not talking much, rarely communicating with my mentor Xiao Hu, just occasionally staring at the machine. But I really didn’t expect that he spent the whole day with his hands in his pockets, watching the machine without touching materials, the entire 8 hours like this. So I like to call him the “King of Slacking Off.” I admired his slacking behavior, and my mentor Xiao Hu didn’t pressure him or urge him to learn. He successfully slacked off the whole first day, but on the second day, some incidents happened. My “dog” line leader, who occasionally inspects the production line, found Xiao Du completely not working and was very dissatisfied. On Xiao Du’s second day, the line leader came to Xiao Hu while Xiao Du was in the bathroom and angrily said, “Make that new employee work! Look at him with his hands in his pockets all day, tell him this is not a place to slack off, at least let him load and unload materials!” Then the line leader left angrily. Xiao Hu smiled at me and said, “He (Xiao Du) knows everything about machine operation; what can I say to him?” He didn’t say anything to Xiao Du. However, later I told Xiao Du about this, warning him to be careful of the line leader and told him what the line leader said. He showed a disdainful expression towards the line leader’s words. I said my line leader is cunning; he doesn’t openly pressure Xiao Du but uses Xiao Hu to control and suppress Xiao Du to divide workers and undermine their unity. He agreed with me. Then I told him this factory has no labor protection and is very brutal. He agreed and said that’s why he didn’t work at first because the factory didn’t provide labor protection, and no one asked him to work then. I supported his view. But under pressure from the line leader, Xiao Du restrained himself and started working. After that, he was the worker I interacted with most on this production line.
Through deeper communication with Xiao Du, I learned he is not a simple “mentor.” Although he is 23, he used to be a technical worker like a line leader in a factory. The machines there were exactly the same as here, which explains why he got up to speed so quickly. I asked him about his relationship with workers when he was a line leader. Xiao Du said he managed up to 8 people, but because he was young (only 21 then) and got along well with workers, the relationship was very harmonious. I then asked what he would do if his superiors asked him to suppress workers. He said, “I would nod and agree in front of the leaders, but I would tactfully explain the situation to the workers, persuading them to meet the production targets. But if they really can’t, I would tell the leaders, ‘Maybe some employees are in a bad mood; they should be understood.’” I summarized his behavior as “not offending either side,” which is a middle path. However, the middle path is untenable because the workers’ and capitalists’ conflicts haven’t escalated to serious clashes yet. If it does, real class interests will force Xiao Du to choose. I didn’t discuss this with him in detail later but learned more about his past and life.
Xiao Du is very low-key among workers; he doesn’t think he is superior because he was a line leader or has some skills. At least so far, I haven’t felt that. He usually talks abstractly about his past and doesn’t want to appear very experienced. From asking about his life, I learned his daily routine is to meet his girlfriend after work. He met this girlfriend on chat apps like Momo and Soul, which shocked me because I thought these apps were mainly for soliciting or scams. When he talked about using these apps, he sometimes revealed his male chauvinist views. He told me the first time he chatted on the platform, he saw a fair-skinned, beautiful woman and arranged to meet offline, but was disappointed and quickly dumped her. This shows his dating view is mainly to satisfy his sexual desires. I also learned he owns a car, a Changan SUV (I don’t know the model), and his car has a sticker of a two-dimensional anime girl in Japanese kimono with a sexual expression. Combined with his occasional sexual jokes to me, I feel his sexual mindset is complicated (I clearly expressed my dislike for such jokes and told him about being harassed by a male manager before, but he only thought that person was ridiculous and avoided telling me such jokes but still made sexual jokes to others). Overall, I gradually became familiar with Xiao Du, and he often taught me ways to slack off so I wouldn’t work too hard during the internship, as working hard doesn’t increase pay. He supports workers fighting capitalists. When I told him about a worker being fired and fighting for his rights, cursing the “dog capitalist,” he admired and agreed, saying only struggle can make these bosses afraid. But when I asked if he would fight if fired, he said no need, just find another factory, no need to entangle with these capitalists.
The above is my first week’s situation in the factory. Overall, I met three workers and preliminarily understood the factory’s labor discipline, the “dog” line leader and the section leader (line leader’s superior), and their work. In short, the workshop’s labor discipline is loose; wearing earphones is allowed, and a few using phones is tolerated. But since the “dog” line leader and section leader often patrol, vigilance is necessary.
Es increíble, no lo considera una vergüenza sino un orgullo.
Originally, Momo and Soul are software for lower-status men to try to deceive women and have sex with them. Combining these experiences, this person’s misogynistic and pornographic thoughts are very serious. If he is solely focused on these things, he wouldn’t be able to fight against them. It is necessary to try to change his pornographic ideas, debate relevant issues with him, and inform him about materials showing women are oppressed.
He might be the type of person who thinks “people fear fame, pigs fear fat,” and once the leaders know he has high labor skills, they will want him to do more work.
Week Two Prelude:
My second week at the factory began with attending the factory’s morning assembly. Here, the factory morning assembly refers to the entire factory’s assembly, as the workshop assemblies are irregular and rarely held; the specific situation will not be described here. The whole factory assembly starts every Monday at 7:55 AM. This week was my first time attending, and looking around, there were roughly several hundred people participating, seemingly all early shift workers (however, I later learned that the assembly system is so harsh that sometimes even workers on the middle and night shifts, starting at 5 PM and midnight respectively, have to attend, which is undoubtedly very brutal). Workers stood in rows with the workshop entrance as the axis of symmetry. At the front of the lines stood the workshop managers and section chiefs, and even the notorious quality director and factory director stood at the very front. The workers showed disdain towards the assembly; many looked down at their phones and chatted occasionally, not taking the assembly seriously at all. After briefly observing the surroundings, suddenly a round-bellied middle-aged man with a fierce look shouted, “Attention!” With this abstract command, the assembly began.
The entire assembly content was about the production status of each workshop from the previous week, as well as some production accidents and failures to meet standards. The disgusting factory director expressed extreme hostility towards workers when discussing issues of insufficient output and product quality. He arrogantly declared the implementation of a last-place elimination system, saying things like “Everyone is here to make money” and “We don’t keep slackers here” to condemn workers for not working hard. He even went so far as to call workers who do not work “dog shit,” which was very infuriating. Moreover, this person hypocritically responded to workers’ complaints about insufficient rest days by proposing a “flexible rest system.” Initially, I thought this meant one day off per month, single day off one week, double day off the next, but to my shock, the so-called flexible rest system was like the high-level academic institutions’ “three to four hours off one week, one full day off the next.” This was very shocking and fully reflected the reactionary nature of the factory under the Nazis today. They grandiosely call it the “model new-era industrial worker,” but in reality, it is a model of capitalist control and oppression of workers, which is very infuriating. Finally, this meeting lasted nearly 40 minutes, basically full of nonsense, and ended abruptly.
It’s hard to hold on, parasites are like this, they won’t be like fools and still boss around the workers from afar.
Week 2 Situation (First Half of the Week):
This week, I was mainly assigned to soak materials in anti-rust oil and then pack them. This is considered menial work. Strictly speaking, I started this job at the end of last week. This work is far from machines, involving simple repetitive labor, which is very boring. I was sent by the section chief to a temperature-controlled workshop to work alongside a nearby lathe processing intern. During this monotonous work, I chatted with this lathe worker about some interesting things; I will briefly refer to him as Xiao Zhang.
Xiao Zhang also looks relatively young. This is his second job; his first job was as an e-commerce intern in a medium-sized restaurant. He and his classmates were assigned to work there together. In the restaurant, he witnessed the sinister and despicable side of capitalists. He revealed to me that the restaurant’s “freshly squeezed juice” was entirely made from concentrated juice mixed with water but sold at a high price of 50 yuan per bottle (some say 150). Since the restaurant mainly served local bureaucrats, who were obsessed with their bourgeois face, they would order a glass when entertaining guests, which was quite lamentable. He also exposed that food dropped on the floor was picked up and used directly, with no concern for market supervision or food safety inspections, likely due to collusion. Moreover, his salary was very low—I have forgotten the exact amount—and mistakes were fined. He is from southern Hunan and told me that except for Changsha, the economic situation in Hunan is poor, and Changsha is a city that sucks people dry. His internship wage was only a few yuan per hour. He also revealed that many business owners in southern Hunan collude with bureaucratic capitalists, protecting some enterprises through connections. He openly stated that China is a country based on personal relationships, and ordinary people like us without connections have no foothold in society. Then he told me about his past struggle against capitalists in the restaurant and how he led coworkers to resign collectively. The cause was that my coworker could not endure the brutal exploitation by capitalists and had frequent conflicts with them. The capitalists tried every means to fire him and his coworkers (let’s call one Xiao A). Xiao Zhang resigned voluntarily, but the capitalists withheld his wages. In extreme anger, Xiao Zhang decided to lead other coworkers to resign together to strike back and successfully rallied them to quit. However, something strange happened. Xiao A’s family is bureaucratic capitalist; when he was oppressed by the restaurant capitalists, he called his father to handle the matter, using bourgeois connections to suppress bourgeois capitalists, which is quite abstract. Eventually, under pressure from the bureaucratic capitalists, the restaurant capitalists relented and paid the wages. I think this was largely due to Xiao Zhang’s leadership in mobilizing coworkers to fight. However, Xiao A’s use of family connections made Xiao Zhang feel that without connections, fighting is futile. I said that if workers united to fight, capitalists would definitely compromise. Xiao Zhang said people’s hearts are divided and told me that although he led some to resign, some were willing to be capitalist lackeys and stayed to work in the restaurant. I did not specifically refute him on this.
Afterwards, we talked about the current state of the revisionist society. Since he understood some of its darkness, I told him that China before reform and opening up was not like this; workers had high status and management power. He agreed and gave some specific examples. Then we talked about how revisionists promote connections and social favors, which is actually promoting Confucianism. These ideas benefit rulers and influence the working masses’ thinking. He agreed and mentioned that Confucius’s teachings are imperial strategies, always used by the ruling class as ideology. I said Confucius was very reactionary; his descendants surrendered crazily during the Anti-Japanese War, and the Japanese even worshipped Confucius, showing he was a great traitor. He agreed, citing the Cultural Revolution and the criticism of Lin Biao and Confucius movement (surprisingly), and lamented that religion numbs the masses. Then I said such reactionary ideology has always been opposed to the working masses throughout history. I gave the example of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and told him that in ancient times, laboring people often used religion as a guise to oppose rulers. He agreed and said Chinese Taoism is progressive. I refuted his view, saying Taoism is also reactionary ideology, but historically, laboring masses transformed Taoism into their fighting philosophy. I pointed out the Yellow Turban Rebellion as an example. After I spoke, he added, “The Taoism I mean as progressive is the Taiping Dao.” From his remarks, I was surprised he knew so much. So I asked how he acquired this knowledge. He told me he wanted to seek historical truth and was skeptical of current society, so he read books (unspecified) to learn about history. His understanding of the Cultural Revolution came from his grandparents, who seemed to support socialism, which is why he told me so much about that period. After discussing these things, we paused the discussion and went to eat.
Later that afternoon, when we were doing menial work again, I wanted to continue talking, but a new worker came, who seemed to be Xiao Zhang’s playmate. Their intense talk about playing CSGO made it hard for me to join. Through communication with them, I gained a more comprehensive understanding of Xiao Zhang. It turns out after his first resignation, he went home to live off others. Feeling that living off others for over a year was too long and would upset his family, he came back to work in the factory. He always held an attitude of disdain for labor and felt forced to work. I also learned he is heavily addicted to the internet, spending 4-5 hours daily at internet cafes playing CSGO and watching matches, feeling spiritually empty every day. Also, when I told him about workers being fired for slacking off by capitalist bosses, he blamed the workers, saying they slack off too much and upset the section chief, so the capitalist firing them was justified. Although Xiao Zhang himself slacks off heavily, he thinks slacking off is immoral. Thus, his thoughts are complex and need further observation and communication. However, since I am in grinding and he is in lathe processing, we meet daily but don’t talk much, which is indeed a problem.
I have indeed resigned and stopped doing it. At that time, due to a relaxed mindset and some matters to handle, I did not continue writing.
This worker has been a skilled worker in the factory for three years. He is not a technician but an ordinary worker like us.