Foxconn Suicide Bonus?

[currahee440]

Actually I just quit my summer job after 2 days at it. My boss kept pulling out the "You better work hard or else I'm going to fire you because I have a nice stack of applications from people wanting jobs" BS. So I quit. While he got married and is on a honeymoon. He won't be back for a week or two so it's lost productivity. It's going to be a bit of a hard lesson for him on why turnover is bad for a company I have another job lined up so it's all good
But see the Chinese don't have that luxury. I agree that all of this is sad, but what can we do except stand by and watch? We don't have control over anything and unless if we want to start paying $300 for a foxconn motherboard (which I'm sure most of you wouldn't) things won't change for awhile. And even then if Chinese labor becomes expensive all of it will move to Africa. So the cycle will never end.

Managers don't need to value staff. Why should they? They can fire a worker easily on the spot and give it to a more willing individual.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Managers don't need to value staff. Why should they? They can fire a worker easily on the spot and give it to a more willing individual.

if you havent been in a position of responsibilty/power you wouldnt understand. its common sense & just like you said - the boss was being a tosser so you left. the fact that you put up with it for only 2 days shows your lack of commitment & dedication for the job you applied for & they hired you for. not to mention it doesnt look good on the CV (if you put it down that you worked there for 2 days) maybe your boss was just messin & things would change once he comes back from his honeymoon who knows. but if i got into a job & the boss was a total arse, id give the job a month at least, if he still continues id approach him about it & if he wont listen then fine you can leave/resign if you so wish to.

---

RL has proven that workers work harder when their happier. if your mean to your staff then i wouldnt be suprised if they didnt want to work for you. same reason why you left your summer job after 2 days.

as a boss/line/manager etcetc your job is not only to make sure that everything is running smoothly. but to keep those that work underneath you happy to a certain extent. because shouting, verbally abusing or even physically abusing your staff doesnt really promote a sense of well being in the workforce & employees start to think less & less of the company, the managers, the bosses they work for till it just becomes an endless grind & moral hits a low point where 1 individual might influence others not to work as hard because theres no point doing things fast if their only gonna be shouted at or verbally/physically abused.

happy people work harder.

 

[currahee440]

Bear in mind I'm just playing devil's advocate
I don't need to put it on my CV/Resume. It's not like there's a public record for all the companies you worked for. If you or I did put every job we worked for on paper that'd be one very, very long CV/Resume.
Oh and I wouldn't exactly call working in a cornfield a decent job so there's less importance for me to keep it.

But like I said- I have this luxury. Most people do not.

And you are wrong about happy workers = more productivity. People can be just as productive when they're not happy. Sweatshops around the world are case in point. My sociology of work prof. mentioned this to my class. Initially I disagreed but I can see where he went with the statement. People don't have to love their job in order to be productive- just as long as they keep working.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

And you are wrong about happy workers = more productivity. People can be just as productive when they're not happy. Sweatshops around the world are case in point. My sociology of work prof. mentioned this to my class. Initially I disagreed but I can see where he went with the statement. People don't have to love their job in order to be productive- just as long as they keep working.

I never said anything about workers loving their job. but in my experience valuing the people you work with or the ones that work under you motivates them to work harder. if people arent happy then productivity will suffer because they lose the motivation.

try being a team leader of 5 or 6 people - make them work for you, shout at them & verbally abuse them constantly then come back & tell me if they'd care to work for you any longer let alone work hard for you. - its a give n take situation. if youve seen what people who are in a dead end job are like, you'd understand.

low rate of pay, long hours, with no oppotunity for promotion or anything doing mundane tasks.


you need to keep people motivated,

I respect what your professor said - but this is real life.

 

[arnoo1]

I like foxconn,
stupid chinees and Taiwanese people
lol

just kidding

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I like foxconn,
stupid chinees and Taiwanese
lol people

watch what you say man, there are chinese & tiwanese people visit this site too

 

[arnoo1]

watch what you say man, there are chinese & tiwanese people visit this site too

sorry just kidding man

 

[Marineborn]

this is just absolutly horrible in every sense, but when it comes down to it, the company must have a high policy on there employees and the only reason i can see them offering this to there employees which honestly much be temping to alot of them. to beable to have a free mind and know that there family will be okay for 10-15yrs. sadly enough.

 

[newtekie1]

I think this whole thing is sad.

I think it is sad that they only make $132 a month, but that is probably a lot of money to them.

I think it is even sadder that Foxconn trying to do a decent thing, and giving their families a little compensation in the wake of a tragedy is being mis-construde as Foxconn paying their workers to kill themselves.

I think it is even sadder that there are employees that will take advantage of that and kill themselves because they think it is the best option...

 

[arnoo1]

I think this whole thing is sad.

I think it is sad that they only make $132 a month, but that is probably a lot of money to them.

I think it is even sadder that Foxconn trying to do a decent thing, and giving their families a little compensation in the wake of a tragedy is being mis-construde as Foxconn paying their workers to kill themselves.

I think it is even sadder that there are employees that will take advantage of that and kill themselves because they think it is the best option...

I'm 17 en I can't live on 132 dollar,
how those people live in chine and shit,
f**k that does make no sense

 

[Marineborn]

the ecenomy is diff its all about the econmy man ive been to thailand as close as i can get to thailand, currently in korea, but its all about the economy and exchange rate, if there paying them 132 us, that can change into more for there exchange rate, but honestly still cant be that much

 

[Flanker]

In taiwan foxconn already has a reputation of offering say 5% more salary than other companies and give 5x the workload.
from what I can pick up from my dad's experiences (he used to work in some place with occasional business trips to china) taiwan has better working conditions than china by quite a gap (on average), but comparing to western countries exploitation of staff is still pretty bad.

on topic: I seriously doubt these suicides in foxconn factory are uncommon in china (and no i'm not implying this is okay). i think these cases stood out because
1) foxconn has lots of cash and publicity
2) foxconn is, afterall, a taiwanese comapany, regardless of political standpoints, it is still considered foreign comparing to actual local chinese companies. and when someone is pressured to kill himself under the management of a relatively foreign company, it is not going to be unnoticed

I'm 17 en I can't live on 132 dollar,
how those people live in chine and shit,
f**k that does make no sense

cost of living is different all over the world, in more rural areas of china, it would be possible to live off $10 a week

 

[eidairaman1]

If it was possible to live off of 10 bux a Day in the US Id be a rich mofo.

In taiwan foxconn already has a reputation of offering say 5% more salary than other companies and give 5x the workload.
from what I can pick up from my dad's experiences (he used to work in some place with occasional business trips to china) taiwan has better working conditions than china by quite a gap (on average), but comparing to western countries exploitation of staff is still pretty bad.

on topic: I seriously doubt these suicides in foxconn factory are uncommon in china (and no i'm not implying this is okay). i think these cases stood out because
1) foxconn has lots of cash and publicity
2) foxconn is, afterall, a taiwanese comapany, regardless of political standpoints, it is still considered foreign comparing to actual local chinese companies. and when someone is pressured to kill himself under the management of a relatively foreign company, it is not going to be unnoticed



cost of living is different all over the world, in more rural areas of china, it would be possible to live off $10 a week

 

[3volvedcombat]

2 factory's Both at about 400,000 workers measured.

13 suicides convined from both the factorys which = about 800,000 workers

out of 800,000 people only 13 suicides or attempts were commited. I dont know about you but thats actually pretty low.

Suicide by 1 is bad ofcourse.

But in reality those could be the worst of the worst of all workers in those factory's

That was in 1 year

So it seems about right. Probably the workers working over hours were the more stress was there actually could only do it at the factory's because they really didnt have time to do it somewhere else.

Makes sense.

But at least foxconn is not letting the family die off because the working woman or man earning the pay just kills her/his self.

And I belive maybe most of there work force is actually women, because women arnt treated to the best of ability in china, Actually I read it up and China's suicide rate for women is higher then most if any other country racked up.

 

[cadaveca]

Don't foxconn employees live @ the Foxconn complex? Do they pay room and board there, or does Foxconn?

 

[xBruce88x]

i think i read somewhere that they live there, actually i think the article i posted the link to says that.

 

[damric]

A lot of people don't realize that there are sweatshops in the United States as well, but we keep ours in our territories such as Guam, and Northern Marianna Islands. Most of the garments that say "Made in the USA" are made in a sweatshop is a U.S. territory (which does not have the same labor law protections).

 

[xBruce88x]

not to mention all the "under the table" work. you know, where your paid a small wad of cash for the work you've done at the end of the day...no taxes, etc.

 

[roast]

It's not only Foxconn that has such bad work environments.
These kind of stories are rife across several companies. Foxconn just happens to get the most bad publicity from it due to the fact they're one of the largest OEM component manufacturers in the world.

 

[DonInKansas]

If it was possible to live off of 10 bux a Day in the US Id be a rich mofo.

It IS possible to live off 10 dollars a day. We just prefer our current living conditions to the ones we'd deal with if we were on that kind of budget.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Remember, lifes like a shit sandwhich,the more bread you've got,the less shit you eat.

unfortunately its the way of the world nowadays. Most westerers dont give a flying feck for any of the workers in them sweatshops making stuff for well off westerners. If you really care then dont buy the stuff they are making. Its very unfortunate for them workers but there is realistically nothing any of us can do,even if you stop buying the produced goods,its not going to stop the suicides happening. Problem is the companie has given workers an incentive to kill themselves and help out their families.

 

[eidairaman1]

It IS possible to live off 10 dollars a day. We just prefer our current living conditions to the ones we'd deal with if we were on that kind of budget.

the way the economy is with our current leader, it might happen.

 

[damric]

I think they are doing a fantastic job. Just look at the quality products!

Maybe if they could beat the sweatshop workers ~10% more, then I could get a ~10% higher overclock!

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I LOL'd at the article

 

[DrPepper]

I wonder if Al Qaeda get the same bonus' ?