Microsoft

[- Paul -]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266643/Microsofts-Chinese-workforce-tired-stay-awake.html

The image Microsoft doesn't want you to see: Too tired to stay awake, the Chinese workers earning just 34p an hour

To be fair, MS aren't the only ones using this particular firm

Microsoft is not the only company to outsource manufacturing to KYE, but it accounts for about 30 per cent of the factory's work, the NLC said. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Foxconn, Acer, Logitech and Asus also use KYE Systems.

[Albert Tatlock]

I usually slump at my desk like that, waiting 2 hours for something Microsofty to happen, with the county thing oscillating between '30 seconds' and '9 hrs 40 mins' to go.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

Oh no, they should be bloody grateful. If it wasn't for the involvement of these companies in places of of poverty then these workers would be picking out a meagre existing on some small piece of land. But no, their work goes to steadily improving living standards through economic growth. Who knows, in 10 years time these same workers might be given a coffee break or will receive 80 pence per hour! There may be little reason why these people should even bother living - their lives seem to meaningless, but it's all for the betterment of progress.

[jimbms]

God bless America, fucking interfering dictatorial arseholes

[When Skies Are Grey]

Daily Mail story = credibility concern.

 

Of the picture couldnt possibly be taken out of context now could it!

[La_Dolce_Vita]

Yes, it is the Daily Mail, but the Mail isn't much less credible than any other tabloid. I don't even see how this story is that surprising. I am of the understanding that this sort of working system takes place across Asia. Long hours, few or no breaks, workers sleeping on site, and very poor pay.

 

God bless America, fucking interfering dictatorial arseholesWhat is the issue with America?

[jimbms]

God bless America, fucking interfering dictatorial arseholesWhat is the issue with America?

 

What you mean bar the fact that every country the stick their interfering noses in they try to change that nations way of life so they conform to the way they want it, or the fact they think they can bully any nation into doing what they want.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

The situation for these Chinese workers is specifically an American thing. It is just the situation for all workers where there is no legislation to prevent workers having everthing squeezed out of them and turned into nothing but slavelike animals. It's one of the reason why western set up in these countries - they can get away with far more because there is little or no worker solidarity and little legal protection. But other companies do it.

The company I worked for had staff who, I recently found out, stayed and worked unpaid overtime (in excess of two or three hours) to 3am in order to get work finished. Otherwise they would be get bollocks by the Managers and were at risk at losing their job. It's what happens when capitalism is allowed to go unchecked. It's why workers in the west bandied together to resist it.

[- Paul -]

Interesting that the smuggy wailoid seems a very popular newspaper here.

Still I expect if they have invented this, they'll be slaughtered by MS in the courts if it's a malicious report.

[mæŋksmən]

God bless America, fucking interfering dictatorial arseholes

 

Fuck me!! i actually totally agree with jimbo.

[cheeky boy]

Get used to it, the way things are going that will be us in ten years time. Except we will be supplying the Chinese home market

[manshimajin]

Daily Mail story = credibility concern.

 

Of the picture couldnt possibly be taken out of context now could it!

I have no idea of the context of this photo.

 

OTOH if you had come into the office in Tokyo at 11.30 - 12.00 any day you would have seen a lot of Japanese staff slumped over their desks in a similar pose. It was normal Japanese practice to take a nap at lunchtime - they even had a word for it ohirune 'lunch sleep'. The Japanese consider that it is very healthy to have short naps during the day. If the Daily Mail had published a photo of this and invented a story to go with it they could have made a credible 'expoitation' story for readers who really don't know what is going on. Of course the media would never do something like that...or would they?

 

I don't know if there is a similar practice in China but the number of people slumped forward and their position is almost identical with what happens in Japan.

 

The other issue that is not as simple as is sometimes made out is whether people are being 'exploited'. To an extent anybody who works and pays taxes is 'exploited'.

 

Wages should be judged against purchasing power and local comparators not against what is paid in the UK or the USA. Do the Chinese themselves consider that working for Microsoft is a terrible choice or are they keen to work there?

[Bombay Bad Boy]

Get used to it, the way things are going that will be us in ten years time. Except we will be supplying the Chinese home market

Unpaid overtime till 3am? Bloody part-timers, this was me on the Island, 10 years ago.

 

And anyone starting up their own business, dreams of knocking off at 3am.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

The other issue that is not as simple as is sometimes made out is whether people are being 'exploited'. To an extent anybody who works and pays taxes is 'exploited'.

It can be that simply. The issue is one of the extent to which they are exploited.

 

Wages should be judged against purchasing power and local comparators not against what is paid in the UK or the USA. Do the Chinese themselves consider that working for Microsoft is a terrible choice or are they keen to work there?

And the choices available. If the only choices you have are to work in places where you are heavily exploited then that's your lot in life.

[manshimajin]

It can be that simply. The issue is one of the extent to which they are exploited.

And the choices available. If the only choices you have are to work in places where you are heavily exploited then that's your lot in life.

All I am saying is :-

 

Firstly, don't necessarily assume that because the Daily Mail has a photo of a row of people in China slumped forward at their desks that this means they are being exploited. China may have a similar culture to Japan on taking naps at work.

 

Secondly, of course if people have very few choices where they can work it is possible to exploit them. But some people in Europe assume that if people are not being paid European wages (Western European wages) they are being exploited. That may be no more the case than that of say a bank clerk here.