Hello everyone, today I want to talk about a very realistic topic — why more and more people nowadays would rather take odd jobs or part-time work than work in factories?
In fact, the answer is heartbreakingly simple: the exploitation of workers in factories has reached an extreme. That kind of dark, selfless life is really not something anyone is willing to endure for a long time.
I. Beyond the Limit: Work Intensity That Leaves No Room to Breathe
When it comes to working in a factory, the first things that come to everyone’s mind are probably “two shifts” and “12-hour workdays”, but only those who have truly experienced it know how suffocating this intensity is.
Most factories on the market now require 12 hours of work a day, with two shifts rotating, and only 2-4 days off a month. Half of the 24 hours a day are spent on the assembly line. The machines don’t stop, so people can’t stop either. Even slowing down a little will lead to being urged and criticized.
After 12 hours of high-intensity work, the whole person is exhausted and numb. When I get back to the dormitory after work, I don’t want to do anything. After taking a shower and scrolling through my phone for ten-odd minutes, I have to go to bed quickly — not because I don’t want to enjoy life, but because I really have no strength left. I can only force myself to recharge for the next day’s work.
Such days repeat 26-28 days a month. Except for barely having a few days off during the Spring Festival, I work almost all other holidays. Compared with white-collar workers in office buildings, factory workers have at least 90% fewer holidays a year. Others’ weekends are for leisure, but for them, weekends are a luxury.
II. A Dead Cycle Without Self: Work → Sleep, and That’s It
The life of a factory worker never has “surprises”, only an endless cycle: work → sleep → work → sleep, day after day, year after year.
When you wake up, you rush to the assembly line and mechanically repeat the same movements; when you get off work, you go back to the dormitory and fall asleep immediately. No hobbies, no socializing, not even time to eat a good meal or have a good chat with your family.
What’s even more suffocating is that there is no private space at all. Most factory dormitories are 6-person rooms, 8-person rooms, or even 10-person rooms. Dozens of people are crowded in a small room, and their schedules interfere with each other. It’s a luxury to want to say something from the bottom of your heart or stay quietly for a while.
I really can’t find a more appropriate description. Such a life is just the factory compressing workers’ living space to the limit. Besides working, it’s just sleeping — no different from a mobile robot. Sometimes I even feel that this life is more painful than that of a prisoner — maybe this metaphor is not appropriate, but it’s really the most genuine feeling.
III. Only Through Comparison Can We Realize How Cruel Factory Life Is
It’s not that people are delicate now, but that factory life really deprives people of their basic rights as “humans”.
On the contrary, even if white-collar workers in office buildings are tired, they can go back to their own rental houses or homes at night and have their own small space; on weekends, they can meet friends, go for a walk in the park, and do what they like; during long holidays like May Day and National Day, they can also travel, rest well, and recharge themselves.
But what about factory workers? They have nothing. Except for occasional rest days and a few days off during the Spring Festival, they don’t even have a full day off on usual days. Their daily life is either working on the assembly line or lying in the dormitory — no private space, no private life, and even no self.
Working in a factory means that your hobbies, socializing, and family companionship are all deprived. Eating, drinking, sleeping, and even going to the toilet all revolve around the factory. Most of your life is spent in this closed world. The so-called quality life and family companionship are all unattainable luxuries for them.
IV. The Nature of Factories: An Emotionless Profit-Making Machine
Factories never care about workers’ feelings. They are essentially emotionless profit-making machines. The capitalists behind them only want to compress people’s time and living space to the limit to seek maximum benefits.
For many workers, working in a factory is equivalent to losing their freedom. No choice, no self, they can only be passively pushed forward by the assembly line, consuming their youth and physical strength day after day.
V. Some People Are Forced to Work in Factories — It’s Never “Willing”, But “No Choice”
Some people may ask: if it’s so hard, why are there still so many people working in factories?
The answer is really helpless: most people have no choice. To survive, to save some money, and to support their families, they can only be forced to enter factories and accept this exploitation.
Especially in recent years, with the poor overall environment, more than 10 million college graduates pour into the job market every year, making it more and more difficult to find a job. I have seen college graduates from second-tier universities who can’t find suitable jobs and are forced to work as general workers in factories, security guards, clerks in physical stores, and even cleaners; the situation of junior college students is even more imaginable.
If they had a choice, who would be willing to go to a place like a factory that can’t even guarantee basic dignity and life? Everyone’s choice is a helpless one made by circumstances.
VI. Not All Factories Are Like This, But Good Factories Are Really Rare
I must make it clear here: I’m not denying all factories with a single stroke. There are also some relatively humanized factories on the market, but they are so rare that they are scarce.
For example, when I hadn’t graduated, my school assigned me to practice and study at FAW-Volkswagen Engine Factory. As a joint venture between a foreign enterprise and a state-owned enterprise, the management there is very standardized. You don’t have to work 12 hours a day; instead, there are three shifts, with a standard 8-hour workday, one day off a week, normal holidays, and relatively good benefits.
But such good factories are really too few. Moreover, such factories almost never recruit from the society; most of them recruit on campus. Ordinary laborers in the society have no chance to get in at all.
On the contrary, most private factories on the market essentially exploit workers’ time and life to the limit, do not treat people as humans, and the wages are generally not high.
Final Thoughts
I’m not denying factories, nor am I saying that you can’t work in factories.
If you really have no way out and no choice, it’s completely okay to work in a factory for a year or half a year as a transition, or work for a period of time to save some money. But please remember: don’t have any expectations for that place — it’s just a springboard for you to make a living, not a place where you can place your youth and hopes.
I hope everyone who struggles for life can have more choices, be treated gently, and have their own life and light.
Interaction at the end of the article: Have you ever worked in a factory? What do you think factory life is like? Welcome to leave a comment and share～
