Edit | Zhuoran

In 2020, migrant workers quickly became a hot word sweeping the Internet. At the end of the year, we found a group of "post-95" migrant workers, trying to find some answers about the life, work and future of the younger generation of migrant workers from them.

Among them, there is a 19-year-old "China Garden God" who goes out to work, travels to many places, and works part-time on the basis of "daily knot"; Some rural girls fought wits with the intermediary for the high return fee, and even missed visiting their sick mothers.

Among them, there are also Sichuan boys who dropped out of junior high school and traveled all over China to work, but were disappointed with their lives because of endless mechanical labor; There is even an assembly line worker whose dream was disillusioned after he entered Foxconn because of the original intention of looking for a girlfriend.

While "involution" is sweeping the workplace and campus, what kind of struggles and dilemmas have these young groups outside the mainstream experienced in this process, from having great expectations for work and life to getting lost in mechanical work on the assembly line?

The following is a true story about them:

For "high rebate"

I can't go to the hospital to see my mother.

Xiaoyan is 22 years old and comes from Luoyang, Henan.

My home is in the rural area of the county, and few people in our village can go to college. At most, I will go out to work after finishing high school. Like everyone else, I went to work in Wujiang, Suzhou at the age of 19 and assumed the responsibility of supporting my family.

In three years, I went back to my hometown once-I worked overtime on holidays and got three times my salary.

I'm usually very frugal. I rented an old farmhouse, but it was cheaper. Reluctant to buy skin care products. I only have a can of cream less than 10 yuan. I'll wipe it after I wash my face.

I will call my mother all the money I earn from working. She is in poor health and always needs money to see a doctor and buy medicine. It is not uncommon for me to live frugally like this. At least some of my good friends are as poor as me.

I have a fellow villager in Xinxiang, Henan. I call her Sister Tingting. She is over 30 years old and not married. She has always wanted to buy a house and take root in the city. She has been saving money while working for several years, and seldom sees her buy new clothes and shoes. But Sister Tingting can never keep up with the rising rate of house prices, so her dream has not yet come true.

In order to earn more money, I will resign from my present factory during the factory recruitment season, and then go to an intermediary to find a job with high return expenses.

The so-called high rebate is to sign a labor dispatch contract with the employment agency and send it to the factory to work in the name of dispatch. After finishing the work, the factory will give the intermediary a sum of money, and the intermediary will call us after deducting the service fee.

In this way, the factory can quickly recruit a large number of employees in the recruitment season, and it can also make more money for me.

In this way, I once worked in a food and beverage factory for three months and got more than 7000 yuan. Plus three months' salary, my income is twice that of working in a factory.

But there are many black intermediaries in Suzhou. After working for an hour, either you can't get the rebate, or he will deduct the rebate for various reasons and finally get the money, which is far from what we talked about before joining the company.

Most employees have not signed legal labor contracts with employment agencies, but both parties have made verbal commitments. In this labor relationship, workers are at a disadvantage. So, once this happens, you can only admit that you are unlucky.

Last year, one of my little sisters introduced me to an employment agency, which was recruiting a large number of employees for a paint factory. The agent said he could refund 10 thousand in two months.

This figure is the highest in all the refund work I have ever done. I quit my job without hesitation and went to this paint factory.

Because it was the peak order period, I didn't have much rest for two months. The whole person was like a walking corpse-I woke up to work. I'm too tired to sleep. I can't rest until the leader speaks.

This factory produces all kinds of waterborne industrial paints, waterborne colored tile paints and PS plastic paints. I haven't heard of them, but it doesn't affect my work here.

I am only responsible for a small link in my production line, and other operations have nothing to do with me. Working in a factory, everyone is like a screw, just nail it to your responsible position.

This leads to the high turnover rate of factory personnel, and it is difficult to retain people, which also leads to "high rebate", which is to retain people.

On the 47th day after working in the paint factory, my mother's illness became worse, and I still have 13 days to get the refund, so I can't bear to hand over the money.

Those two weeks seemed like a year to me. I work in the front line of production, and I am always worried about receiving a phone call from my hometown telling my mother that she has left. Because we can't take our cell phones with us at work. Rush to the lounge to check the SMS as soon as you have a rest.

When I come home from work every day, I take off my work clothes covered with paint, which smells pungent. Before I had time to wash my face and take a bath, I couldn't wait to call home and ask about my mother's illness.

Dad always thinks that my work is not stable enough and glorious enough. Every time I call home, he always advises me to go home. My mother's illness this time gave him another reason to let me go back to my hometown. However, my attitude is clear. I need a job. I need money. I don't covet the speed and fashion of the city, but for me, this is the best place to earn money to support my family.

After two weeks, the agent told me that the paint factory didn't settle the service fee with them-they wanted to drag me money.

I had to call the police and tell them that I urgently needed the money to go home and treat my mother. When the police left, the agent knew that I had bought a ticket to go home the next day and began to delay with me again.

That night, I once again felt that life was too difficult, especially for uneducated and fragile girls like us. It seems that everyone is qualified to bully us.

The intermediary saw me crying hysterically and didn't want to cause trouble. He deducted 2000 yuan from me and sent me 8000 yuan. I can't pester the intermediary with this two thousand dollars. I must go home to see my mother with the money as soon as possible.

After returning home, I settled the medical expenses with the hospital, and my mother's condition improved. She will be discharged from hospital in a few days.

Life seems to be getting a little kinder.

It is not easy to find a girlfriend in Foxconn.

Many middle-aged women work in factories with their sons.

Nan, 1998 An ordinary worker of Foxconn.

This is my fourth month at Foxconn.

I went out to work after I graduated from vocational school. Two years ago, I traveled all over the country. Worked as a waiter in KTV, and also delivered takeout for a while, changing several cities in the middle. I don't have any plans and purposes, and I haven't saved any money.

I feel too old this year. You can't just fool around and want to go back to your hometown for development. My hometown is in Lvliang, where there are no job opportunities. Young people go to Taiyuan, the provincial capital.

People who work in Taiyuan usually go to the construction site or serve as apprentices. I couldn't bear the pain. I didn't have a suitable job at the moment, so I joined Foxconn in Taiyuan as a general worker. Factories like Foxconn provide accommodation, stable wages, and the money earned is easier to save.

Figure | Workshop working environment

There are generally several ways to enter Foxconn, which can be introduced by internal employees, or you can go to the factory to recruit yourself. More people come in through labor agencies.

General engineering education is mostly junior high school and vocational school, and junior college and undergraduate are basically cadres.

My basic salary is 2 100 yuan, and my normal working hours are 8 hours a day and my overtime hours are 2 hours. Work six days a week and rest on Sunday.

Foxconn's overtime pay is 0.5 times the salary of 65438+, twice the salary on Sundays and three times the salary on legal holidays.

Generally speaking, working hours and overtime hours are relatively fixed, and overtime wages can also be settled normally. However, in the peak season of production, it is ok to rest for half a month.

Figure | Workshop environment

At Foxconn, everyone is looking forward to working overtime, because there is no money to earn without working overtime.

If it is in the off-season of production and there is less overtime, it won't be long before many people "take the bucket and leave".

It is called "fighting" because workers have less property. When they leave their jobs, they put all kinds of daily necessities in a plastic bucket, and then they can leave with it. Also known as "fighting".

The off-season and peak season of production are basically determined by the order quantity received by the factory. Generally speaking, Foxconn began to enter the peak order period in May, stabilized after the Apple conference, and slowly turned into the off-season.

Accommodation is provided in the park. Eight of us live in a dormitory, and we have a staff dining room for dinner. Accommodation will be deducted from the salary every month, including meals in 400 yuan and accommodation 1 10 yuan.

But I prefer to live in the park. After all, the environment and living facilities here are much better than outside. There are restaurants, cinemas, basketball courts and badminton courts in the park.

But I seldom go to these venues, and most of my workmates and I still play games for our daily entertainment.

There is a co-worker in our dormitory in 1999, and his the glory of the king has been ranked as the king of one hundred stars. He often tells us that he wants to be a professional e-sports player most, and always says that he will work for a while to participate in professional e-sports trial training.

Working at Foxconn may be similar to life at school. I haven't been to college, but I heard that college is also a dormitory collective life. In our dormitory, there are people from all corners of the country, Shanxi Province has the largest number, and there are some people from neighboring provinces.

Part of the reason why I entered the factory was that I heard that it was easy to talk about people here. As soon as I came in, I thought I could talk about my girlfriend's marriage, but I found that this was not the case.

The ratio of men to women in the factory is 7:3, and most young girls look down on working in the factory. Among the general workers recruited now, many female employees are women in their thirties and forties, and even many women take their sons to work in factories.

Nowadays, girls have seen a lot of the world and will not be easily fooled by wage earners. I tried chasing after several girls, but it didn't work. According to my observation, girls in the factory are willing to find those small leaders in Shuai Shuai to fall in love. Those easy things in the factory, a man looking for two girlfriends, are all old.

At present, Foxconn's personnel are highly mobile. Most people can only work for three or four months and save enough money to leave. There are even many people who come back to work in the peak season of orders and resign in the off-season.

Foxconn is not a long-term job. It is ok to save some money, but you can't learn anything. Someone in my hometown has opened a snack bar, and selling spicy duck neck is quite profitable. When I save enough money, I also want to try to open my own shop.

Halfway across China to work.

The longing for the future is gradually erased.

Xiaolong is 22 years old and comes from Sichuan.

I stopped studying after junior high school. I have been wandering around my hometown, wasting my time. The biggest city I have been to is the county seat of my hometown, until one day, my father told me that you should learn to earn money to support yourself, otherwise your parents will die, how can you fill your stomach? So, after 20 19, with my father's recommendation, I followed my fellow villagers to Kunshan.

In order to save money, we took a shabby green leather train, bought a hard seat ticket and changed trains halfway.

The train was so slow that I slept almost all the way. I woke up several times and opened my eyes. The train is still running, and I feel that there are several worlds between my hometown and Kunshan.

The train finally entered Kunshan. The station is very short and old, and it doesn't look like the necessary facilities of a big city at all, which makes me doubt whether the city is really as developed as the legend.

The fellow villager called a black car. The driver said Kunshan was fine. He came here with nothing, and now he has bought two houses. "There are factories and jobs everywhere, and there is no money at all. It depends on whether you have the ability to make money. "

I thought I must work hard, buy a house and a car here, and bring my parents to live in the city.

We live in a town in the south of Kunshan, and the rent is 1650 yuan for one month. There are many factories here, and the streets are full of foreign accents, most of which are local restaurants. Every night, people who speak various dialects sit in various small restaurants to chat and eat.

There is also an upscale shopping mall in the town. Every weekend, cinemas, KFC and supermarkets are crowded with people. There is not much money in my bank card. I can't imagine where these people get the money to go to the movies and eat fried chicken. However, the feeling here is that life is very comfortable, but you have to have money.

When I came here, my decadence in my hometown suddenly dissipated. I want to work hard to make money.

My hometown introduced me to their electronics factory.

On the first day of work, the company personnel gave our new employees centralized training. It was a training room about the size of two middle school classes, full of young people in their twenties like me, with far more men than women.

Personnel gave us a day's training, mainly about the company's development history, work discipline, salary payment and so on. I hope we can stay and develop for a long time.

"Bullshit, cheat ghosts", I heard a man scold behind his back.

Employees working in factories are particularly mobile, especially in large enterprises. Colleagues on the same production line may be brand-new faces next month. For the personnel department of the factory, maintaining the stability of employees is one of the important tasks. Therefore, many enterprises will cooperate with employment agencies or human resources companies to maintain the continuous flow of personnel.

The factories are all dust-free, and the personnel asked us to transfer 100 yuan to buy her dust-proof clothes, saying that she would be reimbursed after she left her job. I was dubious and finally paid 100 yuan. However, five or six young people at the scene refused this request and were driven away by personnel.

The people who paid the money were divided into five departments and ten groups. I was assigned to assembly line 4, and the person in charge was a line leader named Li, who gave us a job.

After working for a month, although I am familiar with the production line, the product qualification rate can not meet the requirements of line length, and I am scolded by him almost every day. I even started to be afraid to go to work. For me, going to work there is like going to the grave. The complicated product structure is very difficult for me who just entered the factory, so the product qualification rate has never gone up.

The line leader forced me to work overtime unconditionally on the grounds that I could not complete my performance and could not get overtime pay. But my basic salary is only 3 thousand yuan, but I have to work here from 8: 30 in the morning to 1: 30 in the evening.

When the qualification rate of my products went up, the line leader specially arranged for me to work at night and wouldn't let me work at day shift.

Because I have been wearing dust-proof clothes, one day, my skin developed a large area of rash, which was particularly itchy. I asked the captain for leave and wanted to go to the hospital. The captain asked me to finish my work first.

At that time, I thought, I am sick, and the line leader wants me to continue working. What's the difference between me and the machine I operate? Instantly aroused inner anger.

In fact, because I have been working overtime some time ago, my head is groggy and my mood is low. The "hatred" for the line length has long taken root.

In a rage, I ran to the personnel department and offered to leave.

Later, I looked for a job for a few days, but none of them suited me. There is less and less money in the pocket. Because I share the house with my fellow villagers, we can rent the house as a whole. If I have no money to pay the rent, it is estimated that my fellow villagers will not tolerate me.

The longing on the green leather train and the inspirational words of the black car driver have all been erased at this moment.

I am what others call "China Garden God".

I feel inferior, but I am happy.

Xiaowu 2 1 year-old from Baiyin, Gansu.

/kloc-came out to work in Gansu at the age of 0/9, and did countless jobs in three years.

My first job was in Hefei, Anhui Province, working on the assembly line of a power plant. Overtime in that factory is endless. If I can't do it for more than two weeks, I can't stand "ruthless exploitation" and leave my job with a salary of more than 2,000 yuan.

The second job is still in Hefei. At that time, a small company recruited people. I went in and found something wrong. I felt that I was doing pyramid schemes and ran out that day.

During my stay in Hefei, the city gave me the impression that it was very rustic, as if it were an old man without the vitality of young people. So I decided to leave Hefei and come to Guangdong.

In order to make money, I take jobs as long as I have them, and most of them are assembly line operations. I have done 360 lines in garment factories, watch factories and furniture factories in Dongguan, Shenzhen and Zhongshan, involving almost a dozen.

When I was working in Zhongshan, I made a very good friend, Ge Biao, whose hometown is in Guizhou, also came out from his hometown to make money, and there was a similar situation.

One day, he told me that I would take you to a good place. I asked where to go, and he said he would know when he went. In this way, I followed Brother Biao to Kunshan.

When I first came to Kunshan, I felt the same as Dongguan and Shenzhen, and there was no so-called "fun" by Biao Ge. Brother Biao said that you have never been to China Garden.

In this way, I followed Brother Biao to Kunshan Chinese Garden last year. It was really interesting to find Kunshan when we arrived. Before it was standardized, this place was simply a happy paradise for me.

When I first arrived in Kunshan, my friends and I added up to almost 4,000 yuan. We decided to play for a few days before looking for a job.

During that time, we played games in Internet cafes day and night, ate and drank Lazar in Internet cafes, and didn't see much sunshine outside for about seven or eight days. Internet cafes are crowded with young people like us. We are not worried about the future. The word ideal is just a simple word for us. We live in the present, play in the present and enjoy the present. This kind of life is free and easy.

Here, eat instant noodles when you are hungry. When you are sleepy, you fall on the chair by the side of the road. If you want to play, go to the internet cafe for a few days. If you have no money, go to the factory for a few days.

I'm really tired after playing day and night for a week. I want to go to the hotel to get a room to sleep. Brother Biao said that the hotel was too expensive, so we went to the nearby community to rent a day rental house. A big sign at the door reads "Daily rent, one day in 25 yuan", which is outrageous.

I didn't know until I went in that it was cheap for a reason. A house with three bedrooms and one living room is divided into six spaces, each with bunk beds.

My friends and I slept here for four days, watching the landlord keep bringing new people in and out. I don't know how many people changed the bed I made.

Play enough, sleep enough, and make a daily knot. The daily knotting work in China gardens is a dime a dozen. We will do it in the factory with the most money, and we can earn about 300 to 400 a day.

Once we went to a pharmaceutical factory to do a human trial of drugs, which cost 500 yuan a day.

Before being injected with drugs, we signed a similar responsibility letter with the factory. I don't know if this so-called experiment is formal-anyway, I can risk my life for money, but fortunately, there is no problem in the end.

Although life is not moist, life here in Kunshan is really free, which is what Brother Biao said-the fun of this place.

Sometimes when I look at those people who are rushing to work at the factory gate in the morning and evening, I feel that they are too tired to live, and I don't envy them at all.

Until one time, brother Biao and I went to the skating rink and met a girl named Xiaowen. I decided to go after her then.

We added WeChat to each other. Chatting with her at night, boasting that I am a manager in SS (a famous factory in Kunshan), which costs more than 8,000 yuan a month.

I was so bad that I wanted to get Xiaowen first. After all, I haven't had that kind of thing with girls, and I really want to try it. I'm going to talk to Xiaowen about all the processes between boyfriend and girlfriend, and then break up, so that we can be together and separate.

After chatting for more than a month, Xiaowen finally agreed to be my girlfriend. I changed my mind when Xiaowen gave me bread and cookies made by myself as a girlfriend.

I think in this world, besides my parents, there is even a stranger who loves me, and it was at that moment that my inferiority was triggered.

I am what others call the "God of China Gardens" at the bottom of society. I have no house, no car and no stable job, and I smell lazy all over. It was also at that moment that I decided to stop being careless and hanging on the wall, find a stable job and do it well.

Note: hanging on the wall means that you don't have a fixed job, just like hanging on the wall, you don't have to be decadent. Words in the circle of great gods)

At that moment, I also understood those people who were wearing helmets and riding battery cars to and from work at the factory gate.