Today, we have witnessed too many tool people
Everything about work is never out of date. Although the content of work is different, there are good and bad, and the earning is more than the earning, but the distress of work is almost the most common experience of human beings all over the world.
At the same time that young people start complaining about “shit jobs”, if we pay enough attention to the corners of the Internet, we will also find that workers are demanding better treatment under new technological conditions and new legal environments. What is the reality of work? What are the expectations of the job?
When we began to look back at the important activities that occupy us every day, Zhang Sai sent a sequel to “Sanitary Napkin Rhapsody”. He works in a sanitary napkin factory. The reality of his work is, “The factory gave me noise, dust, and fatigue, and I return them to distraction, recording, and indifference.” His expectation is not to be a tool person. “Today, we have witnessed too many tool people.”
Sanitary Napkin Factory Rhapsody 2: The Darkness of the Night
Written by: Zhang Sai
Buy good books and buy bad books. Received a notice in the morning and transferred to the night shift in the evening. Eat at noon and drag until everyone is gone. Sitting alone in an empty cafeteria, the mood is swaying. When there is no cafeteria, when is there no dine-in, but few idlers open a new world. New World has Aunt Liu’s slap in the face: still playing with mobile phones! Go back and play! Aunt Liu is not a smiling waiter in a restaurant. After the workers finish cooking, Aunt Liu cleans up the tableware, jingling and selling everything. Of the 7 sinks, she occupies 4 of them for washing pots, and 100 workers share the remaining 3. Whoever dares to say that she is wrong, first consider whether her voice is louder than hers. One thing is missing in the cafeteria, a slogan should be posted on the wall: Do not beat and scold customers. The winking me is the last stumbling block for her to get off work at one o’clock, wishing she could sweep me into the trash can with the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
Gotta sleep in the afternoon, anyway. Lying on the bed, you can’t play with your mobile phone anyway, the more you play, the more energetic you become. I have a magic weapon – reading. Reading makes one wise, reading makes one refined, reading makes one energetic, and reading makes one drowsy. Bad books are especially suitable for sleeping pills, so I always don’t want to throw away those two famous books.
The movie “Wild Wilderness”
In the evening, there are only a few night shift workers in the cafeteria, and the workshop is 10 minutes away from get off work. Watching Lao Yan rushing towards the unpalatable meal, I wandered more and more. One day at noon, the dishes were not fried enough, so my cousin came a step late and only brought rice. He put the bowl heavily on his table, and said bitterly, the more industrious the person, the less food to eat, and in the future, go to the line to check in 10 minutes in advance, no, 10 minutes can’t grab those handymen, they are too much, long ago Just get together at the punch card machine, blame them, come early to get food, and get so many. Yes, in the future, the machine will be shut down 10 minutes earlier, first come to the cafeteria to order food, and then queue up to check in.
I don’t want to eat and I have to fight for it, but when everyone grabs it, they are immediately excited. Well now, the first benefit of working the night shift has appeared, and I can cook unpalatable dishes leisurely.
The second benefit of working the night shift starts with Laoyan. When I come to this factory, the first heaven brother will give me the official amulet. It turned out that there were three proprietresses in this factory, and Yu, the major shareholder, was always from another province. Minority shareholders speak lightly and have no sense of presence. The person in charge is the second shareholder, a local aborigine, probably the county magistrate is not as good as the current manager, and the employees just call her the boss’s wife, while the other shareholders have their surnames plus the word Zong. Half of the factory are relatives of the proprietress, machine repair, quality inspection, patrol inspection, warehouse management, security guards, clerks, starters, cooks, workshop directors, all of them. So is my cousin. Although my cousin is my wife’s cousin, I’m also a close relative of the proprietress.
My cousin has repeatedly emphasized, don’t offend others, there is one set of rules in the factory, and another set of rules in secret. For example, the director of the workshop has changed several times. Among them is Director Huang, who has excellent skills and is very convincing. Director Huang doesn’t like joking, he does things in an orderly manner, and he doesn’t ask the mechanic for a drink after get off work. Not long after, the machine broke down, so he went to call the mechanic, and the mechanic agreed verbally. He returned to the machine, but couldn’t wait no matter how long he went. After doing this twice, he went directly to the proprietress. The proprietress went to invite her, but her nephew, Mechanic, was not invited. Director Huang couldn’t wait and moved Mr. Yu out. As soon as Mr. Yu spoke, the mechanic broke his leg. But director Huang was fired at the end of the month for other reasons. Until now, the director of the workshop took root as soon as he came. Don’t be a relative of the emperor, he is also a relative of the emperor. My cousin told me to pay attention. Among the group leaders, only Lao Yan is a relative of the emperor, and Mrs. Yan is a packer. She is on the same machine as Lao Yan. Soon, I learned what a husband and wife file is. Mrs. Yan and the proprietress are sisters. The proprietress was adopted by another family when she was young, and she took care of relatives on both sides when she grew up. Speaking of the past of the proprietress, my cousin’s voice trembled a little. The proprietress used to work as a part-time worker, working like a man on the construction site. When the proprietress was working part-time, she met Mr. Yu’s father, Mr. Yu. She was lucky and took the initiative to recruit her to set up a factory, which is how she is today. Lao Yu is always a good person. As the boss, he is over 70 years old and went to school to start the machine. In the end, he drove more smoothly than the team leader. Mr. Yu can also speak English, and he regularly travels to Southeast Asia every year to secretly investigate the pricing and sales of sanitary napkin products sold in the past, and then decide whether to increase the price of the products in the coming year. It’s a pity that he didn’t live long. When he left, everyone felt that the factory was going to die, because Mr. Yu was too strong and others seemed too weak. Each employee will be issued an “Employee Handbook” when they enter the factory. There is a sentence in it that is not without pride: In 2015, the company’s output value reached 15 million US dollars. At that time, according to Lao Wang’s words, this place was already “women’s world”. This is really a vivid inspirational story. The lady boss we see every day is like a carrot hanging in front of a donkey, and success is within reach. However, my cousin never seems to think about it, and his concern is very specific: we eat rice in a big pot, and a few bosses eat a small stove, but the people who have suffered are different. You see, they often go to the big pot to order our dishes. Not picky eaters at all.
Even with a mask on, the cotton ash from machine No. 10 can still get into the nostrils. After get off work, I would blow my whole body with an air gun and often forget to blow my ears. In the second half of the year, the No. 6 machine was opened, and the dust was mostly reduced, but the machine table was more than half long. In order to maintain communication, earplugs cannot be worn. Sometimes, I can see my breath, like a sharp sword made of fiber, it is long and short. In the past, we failed to realize the erosion of noise and dust on people, and now we still cannot save ourselves.
The factory gave me noise, dust, and fatigue, and I returned them to distraction, record, and indifference.
TV series “South and North”
I put double-sided tape on the non-woven fabric to be used, and put it on the machine. When the material on the other side of the machine is almost used up, I tear off the double-sided tape, press the button, and replace the material. Lao Yan’s voice was louder than the machine, and I said fiercely, tell your mother, how to connect the material, it has to be broken several times a day, tell you that the double-sided tape should be shorter, and you will not listen to it. Then I shortened the length of the double-sided tape again and again. Hundreds of double-sided tapes are cut and hundreds of materials are replaced every day. Every movement of the machine operation becomes muscle memory. So, when I cut the double sided tape a bit shorter, I almost cut my fingers. It didn’t take long, and it was weird, the materials that were replaced that day kept going off track. Laoyan started to get angry at the machine: “Scatter your old mother, sprinkle your old mother, and sprinkle your old mother.” Tell me, tell your mother, make the double-sided tape longer, otherwise the material will always roll up. I take orders and switch to new muscle memory. Before I came, Xiao Chen had been talking to Lao Yan to start the machine. It happened that Xiao Chen and I were driving the No. 6 machine together, and I took a look at the double-sided tape he cut, which was in the shape of a diamond.
The knife cuts the pieces continuously, and the packer shouts from behind, “Hey, fly all over the sky.” I went forward to get some white mineral oil. Laoyan then rushed over, looked at it, and said angrily, “You can’t pump oil, and oil is flying all over the sky.” I debated in my heart whether to fly all over the sky first and then refuel, not to refuel first and then fly all over the sky. I’m too old to argue with people about anything, but I really want to tell Lao Yan, you forgot to tell your mother.
Once the machine breaks down, Laoyan thinks that there must always be someone who is responsible. Sometimes the management will arrange for three people to start the machine. Most of the third person is not familiar with machine No. 6, so he is sure to take the blame. In half a year, several “third persons” passed by on horseback. When picking up the release paper, without exception, their feet touched the emergency stop button. This is a design defect, the release paper is on top, and the non-woven fabric is directly below. If you don’t have long eyes, you will touch the emergency stop button. “The third person” is too stupid, and it is inevitable to make Lao Yan angry. Yan’s wife squinted her eyes and tilted her head at the end of the machine to look this way. When I went over, Mrs. Yan said, it’s better for two people to turn it on and cooperate well. Wow, look at what the machine worker is doing, playing with the mobile phone, no wonder it can’t be turned on, Xiao Zhang, tell the management.
I remembered that when I first started the No. 6 machine, I was also the “third person”.
There were a few minutes before get off work that day, and I was on the top of the machine, ready to pick up materials. As soon as I picked it up, Lao Yan pressed the emergency stop, and I was so surprised that I looked at the materials at hand to make sure I didn’t make a mistake. When I came down from the stairs, I realized that the non-woven fabric had gone wrong. I was not at the bottom, I was not responsible, and escaped unharmed. After cleaning up the machine, I saw the old Yan couple running to the quality inspector and yelling. It turned out that they blamed the quality inspectors for disappearing before the off-duty time.
If the output is sufficient, you can leave work early. The machine is badly damaged, and there is no hope ahead of time. After eating lunch slowly, not one second early, not one second late, just at the stipulated working time, slowly walked into the workshop. Old Yan in that room had already turned the machine on and off, talking like a quarrel as usual: what time is it! It wasn’t until I entered the distracted mode that I realized that it’s a little bit more for Mrs. Yan’s piecework, unlike us who can do foreign work.
Mrs. Yan and the proprietress are similar in shape. One day, she wears the same dress as the proprietress. Out of the corner of my eye, suddenly there was a proprietress looking at me. This is really a punishment.
Night shifts go to work at 20:30 as stipulated. Regulations are just regulations, how flexible Chinese people are. In the morning, Lao Yan asked me if I had a WeChat account for the quality inspection. When the day shift was off work, the day shift quality inspection would notify the night shift quality inspection in real time. If I left work early, I would go to work at 19:30. It’s late, I still go to work at 20:30. I don’t have a QC WeChat. Lao Yan said, I am working with you. I said, good.
At 19:20 in the evening, my cousin knocked on my door and told me to go quickly, you still don’t want to go after everyone else has gone. I said, how do you know. The cousin said, your cousin told me to call you. I was very curious, 24 hours later I met my cousin, she said that Laoyan met her on the way to work and asked her to notify me. My cousin sister-in-law didn’t have my WeChat account, so she asked my cousin to call me. The cousin sister-in-law fired at me with a bang, be active at work, and don’t be rushed. I said, good. The cousin’s voice is powerful. She punched the card, but her face could not be recognized, so she yelled at the punch card machine and signed it. The cousin said that it turned out to be a voice control.
So, I bought supper at 19:10, turned around and went to the workshop to see if the day shift was about to leave. Mrs. Yan has been squatting at the packaging machine waiting for her. She has been here for some time, as if the time before going to work is worthless.
If you go to work early, you will leave work early, and the early time is like not your own time. Chinese people are so flexible in doing things. No, this sentence is too early for me.
At 19:00 that day, I was about to go out to buy supper. There was a knock on the door, and Laoyan smiled and shouted, “Go, go to work.”
I still can’t understand, isn’t it the most worry-free and concise behavior to go to work according to the prescribed time? Do you have to be a smart person? People of the country, can I not be smart, smart, or wise?
As soon as zero o’clock passed, I started to feel sleepy. Standing in front of the machine table, I kept looking for a place to support my hands, kept knocking my head, and sometimes my legs suddenly softened and I stood at attention instantly. Old Yan walked towards me, dozed off all the way, and asked me to wipe off the glue on the free roller. Facing Laoyan, I don’t know whether to nod or kowtow.
The night shift is like a hammer in the hands of a judge, and Laoyan is like a sinner bowing his head and pleading guilty. He sat on the material, and there was no fire in his eyes.
I don’t know if Laoyan’s teenagers are like me, spending the night in Internet cafes, washing his face in the morning, and continuing to work. At that time, everything was new under the sun, and I could listen to a single song all night long.
Documentary “American Factory”
I am old, hopelessly old.
Han Yu said, I am not yet forty, but my vision is vast, my hair is gray, and my teeth are shaken. I used to think that Han Yu was so hypocritical, but now that I have reached Han Yu’s age, I realize that I am not as good as him.
I sat on the material, and I still had youth in my eyes. When I was 17 years old, I worked the night shift. I liked the girl worker who liked to joke the most. In the dormitory, listen to the tape recorder, adjust each tape to the best sounding place, and don’t listen to it. The machine workers went to eat supper, and the female workers chatted on the packaging table. I dumped dozens of tapes in front of them. They may have been engrossed in listening to it, and she may have been in tears. I missed it while grilling rice on the balcony.
There are no young people in our factory. Walking on the road, there are not many young people in the industrial area. Where have all the young workers gone?
My body didn’t get used to it because I worked more than a dozen large shifts. Fortunately, I have muscle memory, so the operation of the machine will not be wrong.
At 5 o’clock in the morning, I thought of Xu Lizhi’s “Voyage”:
I fell asleep on the assembly line at five o’clock in the morning
I want to close my eyes and stop staying up late and working overtime
The end of this journey is the sea, I am a boat
This is a great poem. Let someone who works the night shift explain why it’s great. I started to feel sleepy at 12 o’clock, and I was sleepy until 5 o’clock in the morning, and finally woke up. It was because of waking up that I had the energy to start the journey of distraction and turned into a boat. Now that you are awake, why do you say you are going to sleep? Closing your eyes when you are sleepy is passive, but closing your eyes when you are awake is an active choice to fight against a rigid life. In the workshop, when I close my eyes, I can see the sea.
The movie “Sea Street Diary”
The sea didn’t see it, but the gentle old salt. During the day, he is the leader. That’s right, he is a leader, even a team leader who only manages one employee, he can use his power to perfection.
Around 2007, because my sister-in-law was pregnant, my brother called me to help in his restaurant. At first the business was very good, but then the sister-in-law became more and more inconvenient to move and couldn’t come, so the business suddenly failed. I couldn’t sit still. I heard that being a security guard was easy and I could sleep, so I went with a sleepy heart.
It was a hotel, and I stood at the image post. One day, there was a mother-in-law who scavenged waste. She followed the wind and snatched a plastic bottle. She wobbled like a plastic bottle in a strong wind. She wanted to enter the sales department, so I stopped her quickly. She turned around, and I thought she was leaving, so I returned to my post and stood at attention. Unexpectedly, she turned around again and went in. I was caught off guard and advised her as I walked, but she insisted on walking over and took away a plastic cup on the table, which still had more than half a cup of cappuccino left. I ran to my mother-in-law, as if begging, mother-in-law, this is a hotel, you can go out. The mother-in-law didn’t speak, instead of going out, she went to the bar. The VIP inside looked at me and my mother-in-law in surprise. I can’t pull her, she is so old, the important thing is that she has a cappuccino in her hand. I opened my arms to stop her, and she walked the other way. Our supervisor ran over and yelled at me, my God, Zhang Sai, get her out! At that time, I read a few books a day, and suddenly I came to an idea. She just wanted some waste products. Such old people are not stupid, deaf, or a Weng. Their wisdom is already like Zhuangzi. I took the paper from the bar Give it to her, and she will return with a full reward. Sure enough, the mother-in-law immediately went out after getting a stack of cardboards. She probably couldn’t handle any more. At this time another security guard ran over, and carried her out like an eagle catching a chicken. Looking back, the supervisor pointed at my nose with the walkie-talkie and said, learn! How do you stand on guard? Putting such a big living person in it, even an old guy can’t handle it. Is it shit for lunch? The other leaders rushed over and said, when you came, everyone said you were weak. I was thinking about people’s personalities. I am disappointed. The other executive shook his head and said nothing.
Later, I ended my career as a security guard because of my incompetence.
Career give me a skin. Why don’t I do it? At that time, I realized that work can turn a person into a tool person, but I am sure that I cannot be a tool person. Once a person becomes a tool man, he will do crazy things. A screwdriver can do scissors, an eraser can do sulfuric acid, and a baton can do things like a sledgehammer. Today, we have witnessed too many tool people. And, too much madness.
The movie “Sunshine”
I think of my mother. When I was young, she told me, I never went to college, even if I pick up trash, I have to pay for you to go to college. Later, my mother left first, and I went to work after finishing junior high school. That trash picker, who is she supporting? I don’t know, I just think about my mother.
Even if the old Yan will show his original shape, I still call out: why is the sky still not bright, why is the rooster still not singing. Messenger of light, do you come by snail? I imagined the bridge section of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, and letters must be delivered.
Because I lived in the dark, and because the cave was brightly lit, I longed and believed in the day all the more. There is a third benefit of being a night shift.
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“The Screw is Tightening” broadcast today
Dialogue with Labor Studies Scholar Huang Yu
“Most people have nothing,
Still have to face work”
WeChat scan code to listen directly
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