“Taking it to the next level!”
Sometimes it is only in the mirrors of other cultures that we see ourselves clearly.
Or maybe, it’s just a case of American companies with offshored work treating lower-paid workers in other countries the way that they would LIKE to treat U.S. workers but, darn it, just CAN’T…! 
Or maybe they COULD (and do! ), except those darn American workers just won’t consent to being PAID that much less…. Or maybe, American workers like to live with their families in neighborhoods with a little more autonomy and SLIGHTLY more “privacy” (for the time being, at least).
The title phrase, “Taking it to the next level!” has usually been interpreted by U.S. managers as “More work for FREE!” Such philosophies have their own, logical conclusions, however. Like Charlie Chaplin‘s “Little Tramp” in “Modern Times,” more work for free sometimes leaves workers vibrating and twitching around with a “wrench” in each hand, tightening anything that looks like a nut. (YouTube video) (According to Wikipedia, “Chaplin officially retired the character in the film Modern Times (released 5 February 1936), which appropriately ended with the Tramp walking down an endless highway toward the horizon.” Also: “The film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression, conditions created, in Chaplin’s view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization.” (Note added June 6, 2010: And they hadn’t even figured out how to do OFFSHORING in 1936… maybe they STILL haven’t! ) “Modern Times” is definitely a “film for our times.” ) Maybe I should watch the film again, in this Great Recession. There is a delightful SERIES (1-9) of YouTube videos from “Modern Times” that may convince you to watch the film, too! Especially, if you have not yet seen it….)
For any high-tech workers or factory workers (Note added June 10, 2010: Sometimes the only difference is how you “clock in!” ) who ever felt like they “have no lives” or are “living at work,” the Chinese offer both a problem and a solution. (I sometimes felt that way in high tech when I had three hours [or fewer] at home each day in which I was awake! ) (Note added June 6, 2010: Of course, my employer at the time wanted me to work at least two of those three hours online, at home, for THEM! )
You would think that a factory complex with over 300,000 workers sleeping, eating, and working there (three hospitals, a fire station, supermarkets, and restaurants), in less than a square mile (2.3 km²) would be a “Capitalist’s Dream” (don’t you wish that business management majors were smart enough to take some BIOLOGY? ). (Note added June 6, 2010: Think about the IRONY of this phenomenon in a supposedly “Communist” country! Or maybe, it’s just like pigs and men playing cards together in George Orwell‘s “Fairy Story,” Animal Farm….) However, some problems with overcrowding and human nature (or the genetics of “personality type“) seem UNIVERSAL! Managers of assembly lines “… have been abusive toward staff if they miss deadlines or make mistakes.” Imagine, after the business meltdown of the last few years, managers who are intolerant of MISTAKES!
Imagine THAT! (YouTube video from “Modern Times”) 😉 (Remember… 1936!)
The problems are emotional affairs, personal problems, poverty, and depression “…because their directors have criticized them.”
The Chinese solution is suicide.
Like the M*A*S*H* theme, “Suicide is Painless,” … but only if done right.
Sometimes, in the U.S., we do MASS LAYOFFS, instead. That way, the company does not look as though it is responsible for suicides or other problems exhibited by “ex-workers.” (Note added June 6, 2010: While WORSENING the living conditions of the ex-workers and alienating them from their coworker support groups….)
Coincidentally, Carly Fiorina‘s former company, Hewlett Packard (HP), announced today that it is laying off 9,000 workers. (Note added June 6, 2010: See below.)
Interestingly, one of the people who commented on the CNN article found the suicide rates “low” or acceptable. We have heard such comments before: “…they had better do it now, and decrease the surplus population”
Although the suicide rate (10 suicides and three attempts so far this year at Foxconn in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen) is less than China’s average rate of 14 per 100,000, Foxconn has been smart enough to bring in more counselors, to start a 24-hour phone counseling service, and to open a “stress room” where workers can take out their frustrations on mannequins, with bats! (Oh, dear! What shall we do in California if there is a moratorium on aluminum baseball bats? ) All of the new measures have apparently resulted in the prevention of 30 suicides in the last month!
Even Foxconn’s American customers (Apple, Dell, HP [see above ], and Sony) seem concerned about possible impacts on production. All of them have supplier responsibility statements. CNN quotes part of the Apple statement: “We insist that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect .” The other companies have similar statements. The American companies have started their own investigations of the suicides.
Do you wonder why all of this work is being offshored to China?
I guess that there is no shortage of workers, young OR experienced, to line up for jobs here in California, either! Our April unemployment rate, which still ignores large numbers of “workers marginally attached to the workforce,” was 12.6% (and 9.9% in the entire U.S.).
It would be nice if American companies were so “socially responsible” here at home. But it’s tough to live in California on $300 (or even, after the raise, $360) a month…. (Note added June 6, 2010: So… is “corporate social responsibility” only extended to the society with the lowest-paid workers?)
(Oh, and as I have written before, there IS NO “NEXT LEVEL!”) (Note added June 6, 2010: As I really wanted to tell one of my past managers, “It’s just another meaningless corporate ‘buzz’ phrase.” )
(Note added June 02, 2010: Foxconn is raising pay 30% after the rash of suicides, HIGHER than the 20% that they initially proposed. Still, $390/month would not go too far in California….) (Note added June 6, 2010: So, fellow Californians, as we all pretty much realize, we’re on our own.)
(Note added June 6, 2010: Well, it is starting to look like a “global economy.” According to a top Chinese manager:
Not only THAT, but there is a worker shortage, and strikes, and salaries ARE increasing in China:
Yet, in inland provinces, some “… workers prefer to stay close to home despite earning 40 percent less.” Maybe the “quality of life” is better. (Note added June 29, 2010: Well, the 40%-lower wages of inland workers should help companies like Apple, which, according to reports by CNN, are shifting some work from big coastal cities like Shenzhen to northern and central China, rather than accept passed-along increased costs of production stemming from sharply increased wages [above].)
Meanwhile, the global stock sell-off that began with worse-than-expected unemployment data for the U.S. (Note added July 5, 2010: Gee, do you think it could be due to OFFSHORING? ) caused Asian stocks to open sharply lower, as the euro continues its slide against the dollar.
“It’s a small world after all.” )
Wow, that is a lot of change, fast, compared to how long change takes in some American companies. And most American companies would not think of large salary increases or fundamental changes in the way that they do business….) (Note added June 29, 2010: Nope, it looks like “American” companies will continue their “time-dishonored” practice of MOVING ON, to the next country or the next town with lower-paid non-union workers. It was true in union-busting activities in the former steel-producing areas near Youngstown, Ohio where I was raised [and rubber-producing areas near Akron, Ohio], and it is true today.)
-Bill at
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