With the constant hot discussion of iPhone14, Foxconn's large-scale recruitment began to be put on the agenda. However, the online uproar has nothing to do with the workers. They only care about how much overtime they work and how much they earn per hour.

For many years, Foxconn, once called "Guo Taiming's Forbidden City", has remained somewhat mysterious.

With the popularity and popularity of short videos, more and more Foxconn workers become self-media people, and they are active in various short video platforms, among which there are many minor celebrities, such as bilibili Upmaster "Tang Ren Discovers Ordinary", "Lone Ranger 21", "Old True Blindness Beep Beep", "Summer and Autumn Cold vlog" and "Xiongzi Ji" ...

They use rough but true words.

In this Internet age where everyone is directing, through these videos, some people have seen their former selves with emotion, some people have teased and seen their future selves, and more people are just curious, from which they can immerse themselves in the life of Foxconn and get a glimpse of the life on the assembly line.

O1

Foxconn is always short of people

Walking near clear lake, Longhua, we can see such a scene every day: people dragging suitcases and buckets are looking around.

Young people from all over the country were brought by buses and poured into large and small electronics factories in Longhua District, Shenzhen. Foxconn was regarded as a "good factory" by most people.

the first level of entering the factory is the intermediary.

bilibili UP owner "Tang Ren Discovers the Ordinary" (hereinafter referred to as "Tang Ren") once quipped in the video: "At Foxconn, it is not the desire to make money, nor the ringing of the bell, but the intermediary downstairs."

July and August are Foxconn's peak recruitment season. Young people brought by the bus will gather into a stream of people downstairs in the dormitory and line up in the square like a school military training.

in the eyes of intermediaries, these surging heads are RMB. An intermediary who recruits ten people and works for a month can get a reward of about 3,5 yuan-higher than the basic salary of 2,46 yuan for ordinary workers in the factory.

There are countless intermediaries and human resources agencies around Foxconn, which can be called a mixed bag. Large-scale and small-scale, first-hand and second-hand, formal and black-hearted, "introduction fee", "raising wages" and "making up the difference" are quite routine words, which are commonly used by them. For the same job, different intermediaries will give different hourly wages.

Some inexperienced young people were tricked into entering the factory by the roadside, doing the same job and getting lower wages than others.

Foxconn is always short of people and always recruiting people.

According to informed sources, about 5 people leave Fuji every day.

"Tang Ren" once told in the video that after three days at work, his eight roommates left twice: some left voluntarily, some were dissatisfied with their posts and quarreled with the length of the line, and others left without even asking for their salary. "Xiong Zi Ji" mentioned in the video that a colleague in the workshop said that he went to the toilet and never came back. He once complained to the workers next door, "This job is too detailed for me to do."

Compared with other factories, it is quite special that "seven in and seven out" is not unusual in Foxconn. Some people run home after getting paid, and then go back to the factory when they have no money. Others want to go out for a better opportunity and finally go around and return to Foxconn.

Abandoned sleeping mats, bedding, washbasins ..... are often found in the dormitory corridor. Taking them away will become a burden for running away, because there will be new substitutes at the next electronics factory. Some people in the factory specialize in picking up things thrown away by others when they leave their jobs, and they can always get some things, even worn clothes, to disinfect them again and wear them themselves.

In the factory discourse system, "barrel" has long been a special symbol. "Go into the darkest factory and carry the reddest bucket" is a joke, like an oath slogan issued by workers who are moving around factories and struggling in their mobile lives.

The barrel is portable and practical. At first glance, everyone knows what's inside. Its open space is like many people's unknown and wandering lives.

O2

Even those who can survive for more than three months

Foxconn has a large factory area, which is generally divided into four doors: southeast and northwest.

the management here is strict, and few people can get involved except customers and people in the factory. People need to go through a series of procedures: face brushing, body security check and wearing uniforms ...

In order not to affect the cleanliness of the workshop, some departments in the factory need to wear "dust-free clothes", and different colors of clothes divide workers into different grades. There is a saying in the factory: purple is dry, pink is fine, yellow is everywhere, and blue is in charge.

This implies that Foxconn is like a small society.

The final monthly salary in the factory is directly proportional to the overtime hours, so people in the factory greet each other with "Did you work overtime today?" Working overtime requires the approval of the leader, and learning to have a good relationship with people who directly manage themselves is also an essential course at Foxconn.

During the shift change, the flow of people is divided into several teams, and the lockers are full of people: some come out of the production line and some are "ready to go".

change into uniform clothes and put personal items such as mobile phones in the cupboard. They are silent and skillfully operate this uniform and customized action.

UP Master "21st" repeatedly makes 4 small parts every hour, earning 23 yuan income. Sitting around her station are deaf-mute and introverted boys. They don't need to talk to each other, but occasionally make eye contact. Therefore, the "21st" is often with hands at work, but the brain is wandering in the sky.

every afternoon at 3: 15, there is light music in the factory: this is the unified and concentrated outdoor time for production line workers. Workers walked out of the building in droves, picked up mobile phones and cigarettes, and squatted on the stairs and in the park. For them, this is the best way to relax.

strict management, boring repetition, such a life, some people stay for three days, some people stay for three months.

"If you can stay at Foxconn for five or eight years, you must have no idea." Upmaster "Old Truth" lamented his ten years at Foxconn.

At Foxconn, there are about half of the people, and their work starts at night.

At five o'clock in the evening, "Tang Ren" went out of the park restaurant after eating, changed his clothes and prepared to start a new day's work.

Ten hours later, "Tang Ren" walked out of the workshop with a gaunt face: "The feeling of sitting there, my heart is already asleep, and there is no point in living."

Compared with the night shift in the assembly line, the night shift in the department where Lao Zhen used to work is relatively easy, and there is no supervisor to keep watch all the time. They just need to watch the machine run regularly.

When I am tired, my colleagues will go to the woods downstairs to fish, smoke and play games. There are also some courageous people who go back to the dormitory to sleep after 12 o'clock, risking being caught and fired, lying down until five or six in the morning and then coming back to punch in.

the night shifts of the workers are all through.

At three or four o'clock in the morning, when hunger and drowsiness strike at the same time, some workers refresh themselves by drinking hormone drinks. Some people secretly nap for a few minutes, but they have to be on tenterhooks, afraid of being monitored, and even more afraid of being caught by the leaders.

In the factory, those who don't work the night shift are either leaders or pregnant-they need to run at night to ensure sperm quality. Once the baby is born, the night shift will be resumed.

This "anti-human" routine forcibly separates the body and soul.

O3

Longhua "the city that never sleeps"

There are many villages in the city and food streets around Foxconn, and there are Internet cafes every few steps. Together with hair salons and small hotels, they light up the night in Longhua.

"Old Truth" entered Foxconn in 21, and the biggest fun every day is to go to the Internet cafe with my workmates after work through a wasteland (now built as Longhua Xinghe ICO).

As before, the major Internet cafes around Foxconn are still full at night.

compared with returning to the crowded dormitory, the 32-inch display screen, comfortable ergonomic chair and hearty games in the Internet cafe are more attractive.

Young people who haven't found a job can have a comfortable place to stay at only one tenth of the price of staying in a hotel.

at eleven o'clock in the evening, outside the Foxconn factory, working boys squatted all over the street.

Some people have just finished working overtime, and some people are going to work the night shift. Before entering the factory and having their mobile phones confiscated, their greatest interest is to squat down or find a stone bench to lie flat, smoke a cigarette, brush their mobile phones aimlessly and be in a daze.

Longhua Cultural Square at night is also a hunting ground for Foxconn people. There is a disco dance music with feeling in the square, and men and women swing with the rhythm.

There is a serious imbalance between men and women in the electronics factory. For men, it is more difficult to find an object in the factory than to ascend to heaven. "Old True" colleague "Brother 7" found the object while dancing in Longhua Square. He took a fancy to the girl who led the dance, and every time he bought a whole box of water for the girl, after buying it for several months in a row, he wanted to get the contact information of the other party.

Eating a big meal, recharging the balance of the network card, playing games all night, releasing hormones in the dance floor ..... These timely pastimes bring satisfaction to the workers after leaving the assembly line.

it was not until the early hours of the morning that the night at Foxconn gradually quieted down. Life on the production line in the park is repetitive and boring, and the night outside the park is infinitely lengthened.

O4

Foxconn, like a besieged city

Longhua factory covers an area of about 2.3 square kilometers, with more than 1 factories, and it takes 5 minutes to ride around the factory. There used to be more than 3, employees here.

Now, according to the owner of the barbershop in the surrounding village in the city, 8% of the people who came to have their hair cut were Foxconn, but now only 2%.

Foxconn is like a besieged city. People inside want to go out and people outside want to come in.

after leaving Foxconn, "Lao Zhen" worked as a self-media full-time and contacted people from all walks of life. Looking back at his time at Foxconn, he said, "I still think the feelings between people in the factory are the purest."

In the video, he has repeatedly expressed his hesitation and struggle. "Should I return to Foxconn?"

In the past two years, Lao Zhen heard that many colleagues at Foxconn had been promoted and raised. Some people used to have a basic salary of six or seven thousand at Foxconn, but now they have gone to Huawei with a basic salary of thirteen thousand. This worker has been working on a niche machine for more than ten years, and it is estimated that it is less than one in committee of 1. Some people go to other small factories, and some become senior engineers ......

"They are capable, so they make it."

More workers just left Foxconn and went to another factory, and their lives have not changed. Some started tea shops and barbecue shops, some lost money, and some barely made ends meet.

When it comes to the changes of these colleagues, "Old Truth" is inevitably a little sad.

Compared with them, I seem to be a "loser". He only has this resume of working in Foxconn, and in his ten years in the factory, he said, "I didn't devote myself to manufacturing", which led to "less than the top, more than the bottom."

"There are few people who are promoted to management at Foxconn, but you can really make money by doing a good job in technology."

Now it's hard to do it from the media, and "Old Truth" wants to leave Shenzhen a little. He hasn't left Longhua for more than ten years. Like him, there are many workers who haven't left Longhua for many years. The infrastructure in the factory is perfect and the prices outside the factory are affordable. Workers can "live like this for 3 years" in Longhua.

"Where is our future?"

On a quiet path, there is a small door of Foxconn. Rows of tall coconut trees in the fence are very eye-catching. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the workers habitually came to squat under the tree, playing mobile phones and fishing.

not far from the park, there is a 1-meter long queue, and a new group of young people carrying suitcases are coming from afar.

Some pictures in this article are from

"Blinking Old Truth", "The Lone Ranger 21"

"Tangren Discovers Ordinary", "Xiongzi Ji" and "Summer and Autumn Cold VLOG"

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