Chinese work culture

Nikhil Bhale · Dec 3, 2024

Good day,

Recently I was in China for 2 months. I was at a shipyard getting a new Jackup barge ready for my company.
The work culture there is horrible even to my third world view (Indian).

Work starts at 0700 hrs in morning.
Lunch break at 1100 hrs.
Resume work at 1300 hrs.
Dinner break at 1700 hrs.
Overtime work 1800 hrs to 2200 hrs.
If overtime is till 1900 hrs then no dinner break at 1700 hrs.

This schedule is followed 7 days a week. You cannot opt out of overtime.
If your boss decides you need to work, you work. No questions asked.
No leaves, no breaks.
Worker are disposable, if you refuse there are others ready to take your place.

Even ladies have to work same duration. And shipyard work is mostly physical work.
I saw lady welders working full day inside the tank with no fume extraction equipment in use.

When I went to the tank for inspection I could not stay there for more than 10 minutes.

Wages are minimal. If you don't work overtime everyday its difficult to make ends meet.

Companies prefer China as shipyards are cheap. And they process the work faster.

Regards
Nikhil

GreenTwin · Dec 3, 2024

I work long hours, but I do the work for myself and my company, so nobody is forcing me to do it.
I often just outwork my competitors; they want to work an easy 8-5 job, Monday through Friday.

The joke I tell people is that I want to retire one day, and work part time, so I can cut back to 80 hours per week (LOL).

I create my own destiny though, and nobody tells me what to do, or how to do it.
I sell quality designs, and that is my only advertisement (the quality of the drawings).

I worked corporate for 18 years, and while it was a necessary evil, it allowed me to earn a living while learning what I do.
I finally got to the point where I was working for folks who were exactly like Dilbert's boss, ie: incompetent, and one day I decided to do my own company, and bypass all the bosses.

Started my company in 2003, and have never looked back, and no regrets.
I travel with a computer, and work wherever I go, 7 days a week usually.
I do have a comfortable chair, and good climate control (there has to be some perks somewhere).

Edit:
I heard a story about many of the movie stars who got jobs in the shipyard to earn money on the side.
Many of them came down with lung disease, due to the asbestos insulation that was used on much of the piping.
Welding fumes are not good for you either, especially in an enclosed space.
And welding zinc-plated sheet metal also can produce some bad fumes.
I worked in a cooking oil packing plant when I got out of high school, and it was very hot, and they would disinfect the adjacent packing line as you were working, using a high pressure house.
You had no choice but to just breath whatever they were spraying.
Another job I had was at a custom van shop, and they glued everything together with toxic sprayed-on contact cement.
I will probably die one day from that exposure.

These jobs are what convinced me that four semesters of calculus was not so bad after all.
.

Nikhil Bhale · Dec 3, 2024

I was thinking that with communist/ socialist government exploitation of poor will be absent. All being equal and all that stuff.
But it is exactly opposite.

GreenTwin · Dec 3, 2024

It is a lot cheaper to produce things when you eliminate OSHA and EPA.
Unfortunately I think in many contries, workers are expendable and easily replaceable.
The early part of this Century had some very bad working conditions in the USA, with people living in factory towns, and basically working as indentured servants.

I was watching some ytube videos about how some folks thought the pyramids were constructed.
Can you imagine dragging a multi-ton rock up a steep grade, along with many thousands of others, all pulling on ropes ?
Now that would be tough work.
I imagine the pyramids cost a lot of worker's lives.
.

abby · Dec 3, 2024

Sounds like being employed by Amazon, or Hello fresh here in the UK.
Not to mention Just eat , Diliveroo etc etc.
Dan.

GreenTwin · Dec 3, 2024

At one point, I was going to get a job with a large electrical equipment supplier, instead of opening my own business.
I applied for a position, and was well qualified for it.
The problem is, if you are over 40, your resume may go directly into the garbage can.

I got the last laugh though, for the last 20 years I have not allowed that manufacturer's equipment on my projects, and a typical project that I do has electrical equipment in the multi millions of dollars.
Karma is a beach.
.

Toymaker · Dec 3, 2024

Nikhil, your description of Chinese labor conditions sounds similar to those in Mexico. I'm now retired, but 40 years ago, as part of my job working for an American company, I made regular trips into Nogales, Mexico to install and update automated electronic test equipment at the assembly plant. Several hundred laborers sat at rows of work benches, 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, soldering wires and components onto printed circuit boards. The huge room was poorly ventilated and the air was so thick with the smell of soldering flux as to make your eyes water after only a few minutes of exposure; I can only imagine the damage being done to those workers lungs after years of daily exposure.

Workers were expected to show up every day, no excuses, sick or not,...those that didn't show up for work, or that left their station for any reason, were immediately replaced,...permanently.

But the most shocking work condition was that the assembly laborers were expected to "entertain" any visiting engineer or manager from the US side of the company that needed (or wanted) to stay overnight in order to complete their work the following day. On several of my trips to the assembly plant, the floor manager personally told me that I could pick any lady I wanted from the line, and he would have her sent to my hotel room for the night after her shift was over. I reported the floor manager's offer to my management, believing he was acting as a pimp, but I was informed that this was standard work conditions in Mexico,...get used to it.

scottyp · Dec 3, 2024

GreenTwin said:
It is a lot cheaper to produce things when you eliminate OSHA and EPA.
Unfortunately I think in many contries, workers are expendable and easily replaceable.
The early part of this Century had some very bad working conditions in the USA, with people living in factory towns, and basically working as indentured servants.

I was watching some ytube videos about how some folks thought the pyramids were constructed.
Can you imagine dragging a multi-ton rock up a steep grade, along with many thousands of others, all pulling on ropes ?
Now that would be tough work.
I imagine the pyramids cost a lot of worker's lives.
.

I am planning to visit the building of the pyramids first thing when I get my time machine finished. That is, if I can get it to work, it turns out that time travel is not as easy as I thought.

Richard Hed · Dec 3, 2024

Nikhil Bhale said:
I was thinking that with communist/ socialist government exploitation of poor will be absent. All being equal and all that stuff.
But it is exactly opposite.

There is a side issue with that: Stalin (arguably the worst human ever to put feet in shoes), in order to bring the ussr into the modern world, killed millions of people. BUT he succeeded. Stupidly, he would have succeeded sooner if he had not killed all those people.!

Richard Hed · Dec 3, 2024

GreenTwin said:
It is a lot cheaper to produce things when you eliminate OSHA and EPA.
Unfortunately I think in many contries, workers are expendable and easily replaceable.
The early part of this Century had some very bad working conditions in the USA, with people living in factory towns, and basically working as indentured servants.

I was watching some ytube videos about how some folks thought the pyramids were constructed.
Can you imagine dragging a multi-ton rock up a steep grade, along with many thousands of others, all pulling on ropes ?
Now that would be tough work.
I imagine the pyramids cost a lot of worker's lives.
.

Yes, and without child labor as we would call it.

However, the pyramids were NOT done with slave labor as peo;ple have been led to believe. The workers were paid in bread, beer and onions. If you compute the number of years and the number of blocks, it is something like one block every two minutes (Not sure of the exact number). However, there is a new theory that the blocks were not hauled there at all, that is, it was a type of concrete mixture that when it hardens is exactly like those blocks. That would speed up the project considerably. Saw it on utub

scottyp · Dec 3, 2024

I’ll let ya know…

L98fiero · Dec 3, 2024

Richard Hed said:
Yes, and without child labor as we would call it.

However, the pyramids were NOT done with slave labor as peo;ple have been led to believe. The workers were paid in bread, beer and onions. If you compute the number of years and the number of blocks, it is something like one block every two minutes (Not sure of the exact number). However, there is a new theory that the blocks were not hauled there at all, that is, it was a type of concrete mixture that when it hardens is exactly like those blocks. That would speed up the project considerably. Saw it on utub

Well, if you saw it on Youtube, it must be true!

Richard Hed · Dec 3, 2024

L98fiero said:
Well, if you saw it on Youtube, it must be true!

well, it wasn't silly stuff, it was very serious and clearly scientific

GreenTwin · Dec 3, 2024

I saw it on youtube university..........the school of all things...........good and bad..................
.

Richard Hed · Dec 3, 2024

GreenTwin said:
I saw it on youtube university..........the school of all things...........good and bad..................
.

That's where I got my medical degree. Now I'm a brain surgeon

SmithDoor · Dec 4, 2024

GreenTwin said:
I saw it on youtube university..........the school of all things...........good and bad..................
.

It was good about 10 to 15 years ago. Now to many trying to make money.

There was on guy about 8 years ago talking welding and NR standing for North Ridge earthquake. Most probably not think about . NR Was around before the earthquake.
I even call the manufacturer the sales person confirmed it was around before and was just code for ther product line.

After that found a lot of errors on other topics.

FYI I have used youtube and I have becareful.
It is a good place to find information

Basically viewer be ware.

Dave

timo_gross · Dec 4, 2024

Nikhil Bhale said:
I was thinking that with communist/ socialist government exploitation of poor will be absent. All being equal and all that stuff.
But it is exactly opposite.

In capitalism "people exploit people"; in communism it is the the other way round ....

scottyp said:
I am planning to visit the building of the pyramids first thing when I get my time machine finished. That is, if I can get it to work, it turns out that time travel is not as easy as I thought.

This old tony on youtube has working time travel equipment

I would be worried. Once arrived, it is confirmed that indeed slave labour was used and when the first time travellers arrived from the year 2030 construction speed could be increased considerably.

abby · Dec 4, 2024

Slave labour or not it was bloody hard work and the forensically examined remains of the supposed working people show many healed injuries and joint wear. lets face it most of us are just tools or weapons for the ruling class regardless of when or where.
Archeologic digs in the UK have found a period during the bronze age where the excavated remains show no injuries due to violence and well developed bones and teeth , it is believed that these were halcyon days with plenty for everyone , doubt we will see them again.
Dan.

lathe nut · Dec 4, 2024

I am 74, when I was raised up and in my 20's I was raised on a cattle farm, Rice Dryer and run a steam engine to flood rice land in SW Louisiana, I was the third generation of Slave, let me qualify that word, we had a house furnished, rotten, roof leaked, several years with no electricity, we did not get that or running water till I was in the Second Grade, life was great, no more out house, pitcher pump, Kerosene lamps, all we had was a light bulb with a string to pull, said all of that to qualify the statement I was a Slave, could not leave the plantation, all you needs were met with very small check (240 dollars) once a month in 1974 I was out of the Army and jobs were hard to come by, so back to the plantation, then one day a guy noticed how much I worked and could do, he said I have you a job for you starting you at 2,400.00 a raise in 30 days, I told the fellow I am a Slave, did not have enough money to rent, light to be hooked up, a good car to get to work, he said I will get all that done, he did, I worked very long hours, 4 days off a month, soon I knew the business and loved the work, I was put in Sales and stayed there 43 years, I repeatedly told the fellow how much he meant to me and I was not going to tarnish his repetition, never thought of retirement but a 68 and the Oil & gas industry going down again, I volunteered to leave so they would not lay off some younger people with families. I feel for those who are in forced labor but not much respect for those that gouge the working man with his high pay and lack of work ethics.

Richard Hed · Dec 4, 2024

Here's one study abut the pyramids: https://cen.acs.org/articles/86/i6/Search-Concrete-Evidence.html

I'm looking for the utub one.
Here's a good one from MIT: https://news.mit.edu/2008/gathering-concrete-evidence

Chinese work culture

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