It was not.
No, I'm pretty sure they'd just like to set themselves up for retirement. If they work overtime now, they'll be able to afford to retire later. Or send their kids to school. Or send themselves to school. They'd actually like to be prepared for the future.
That's their choice. Not sure if China still has their one child policy. If so then too many children is not the problem. This is the government over there's issue. Not enough jobs for the people so people are forced to take overtime on the ones they have. It is good from the business's point of view. Less overtime rates paid out = more employees they can hire or more cost savings in employee wages saved.
You may want to learn a little more about other cultures before making blanket statements.
A lot of workers in China come from the rural areas where there are not as many jobs. They work at these manufacturing plants because they don't have the necessary skill sets for "professional" jobs. The majority of their money is sent home to their family so they can survive.
That's the government there's issue for not having the employment rate high enough so this practice is not needed to be done. And if a large percentage of the population don't have job skills then the government needs to provide training centres for this training. China's economy is one of the worlds best now. They just need to manage it better so things like this can happen.
You need to lay off the ignorant juice for a bit. Even in developed countries like the US there are people working three jobs and 80 hours a week. The difference? You don't get overtime when you split you time among 3 employers. Or how about the college student that works two ort time jobs to pay for school. I suppose they are living above their means too? Maybe their "means" is putting their baby sister through more education, I suppose you think they should stop that are only work as much as they need in order to support themselves?
And this whole time you're thinking only low income jobs, right? Salaried employees in the states often out in over 40 hours. The most recently famous caree to do this is software engineers. Or take doctors. My dad is one of the lower paid doctors and routinely puts in 50 hours a week. I've got an idea! Let's go back in time and force Steve Jobs to go home after 40 hours
If a person wants to work more, for whatever reason, and they are still producing quality work and aren't burning themselves out, I say let them. I don't think they should be forced to work more, mind you, but be allowed to? Of course!
Don't call me ignorant. I am not.
I am in a career that often puts in 70+ hours a week when there is the call for it. And there is not huge wages at the end of it. I know the feeling. But I manage my money well and do not live above my means. And I am ok. Yes I can not have everything I want. But that's life, I got over it and I'm fine. The issue here is not the hours you are told you will be doing or the hours in your contract. The issue here is people asking for extra overtime not stated in their job description and expecting to get it.
I would hope all these people are actively looking for a better job in which they don't need all this overtime to survive. Is there a job out there for them? Who knows? They might never find it. But they can still look for one. I am all for the limiting of extra overtime hours. You've done your job, you've worked hard for the hours you are contracted for, then go home. If the employeer wants or expects you to do the overtime they will be notified about it. But expecting that there will be overtime just waiting for them to take is not right at all.
What an ignorant comment.
It was not. It was how I felt about the issue. if you disagree with what I said fine, we all have our opinions, but don't call someone ignorant when they are not. Thank you.
You're right, Maybe they should just cull their family a little.
Well if their one child policy works it will cull their population if a 20-50 years. As the death rate will outweigh the birth rates. The only issue you will have till until that time is an ageing population. Too many elderly people and not enough young people paying taxes and the like to look after the elderly population. Australia has this issue a little. And yes it is a big issue. And I don't know if there is an easy fix for it. But it won't be forever. And it's a necessary evil If you want to reduce the population as a whole. You just can't have another war or plague to cull the population. We are human beings and not savages. So this is a tricky issue indeed.
You can't distill the issue down to those two points. What about areas where the cost of living and raising a small family can't be done on a full time salary in the only jobs available to them?
I live in NYC and know plenty of people who are not living above their means but are working a second job over their full time one. I could never make the blanket statement placing the blame on this (or depending on OT) on them.
Actually you make a good point and I agree with you. But . . . .
If you are paying for parents or other people in your family, not much you can do about that. That is a very hard situation and I really feel bad for them. And hope they can somehow manage.
For the ones who are looking after a wife/husband and/or a child and they cry poor. I say that's their own fault. it's your own choice to get married and have a child. (apart from the arranged marriages). Being married and having children is an expensive thing. And I'm sure most people don't look at "can I afford this" before they do those things. People here in Australia don't on the whole think about these things too.
It's not your employers responsibility to always give you overtime to look after your spouse/child. That is your own responsibility.
Please tell me what plant you live on? Work a min. wage job for 40 hours a week and tell me you can pay your basic bills. Rent, phone, food, insurance (car and renters), gas and of course entertainment. Now that you see you can't I wont you to work twice as long for a 4th less and see if you complain when your OT is cut and you didn't ask for it.
I agree with you. But what you say is not the point I am making.
I'n not talking about general overtime the employer makes you do. That's in many jobs these days. Just a part of life.
But expecting the overtime to always be there is just wrong. If I was an employer I would just up the hours they need to work, if they were always needed to do overtime. So it would be for example a 50 hour a week job and no longer 40 hours with 10 hours overtime each week. Just random numbers and no indication of the hours they work. But my point in the example is sure 50 hours is no overtime rates. But you would get a guaranteed 50 hours . So that's a stable 10 more hours you'd get every week so you can plan your life around that. Job hour and income stability is a nice thing to have.
Overtime being cut is not cool at all. If it's in their contract they have to do X number of overtime hours a week then fine they can complain. But if it's not and they are just crying over a privilege they were given then I feel nothing for them. It's a employees responsibility to do the work hard etc etc. And it's the employers responsibility to give safe working conditions etc etc and provide the numbers of hours of work stated in the job description.
So my point is not about working the minimum for a full time job. 38 hours a week in Australia. On busy weeks I could do 70+ hours a week. The point the possibility for me to do those kind of hours is in my contract. Asking for hours above and in extra to your job contract or employment agreement and crying when you don't get them is just not cool.
If a majority of the population over there need these overtime hours then the country has a crisis on it's hands. And the government there needs to fix things.
Even as many outside observers have criticized Foxconn's working hours over the past several years amid increasing publicity, others have noted that rather than excessive overtime being required by the company, many workers are requesting as much overtime as they can get. For many workers who have moved far from their homes to work at Foxconn, their goal is to earn as much money as possible as quickly as possible so that they can return home
This quote from the original post sums up exactly what I am trying to say here. They are requesting as much overtime as they can get and crying when the employer says no, and only gives them the overtime that the company requires. If the original article here is right, then their goal is not to just make enough to feed their families, the goal is to make as much money as fast as they can by maximising the overtime. The employer possibly worked this out and put a stop to it. The employer did nothing wrong there. The employees still get their full working hours plus all the overtime the company requires of them. Just they are being told no you can't do all the crazy amounts of overtime they want to do. Simple really.
