CSR

ChinesePod: Touring a factory

Check out this recent lesson from ChinesePod, where hosts John and Jenny explore the “harsh realities of doing business in China.”

A Canadian businessman named Peter tours a local factory, one of the largest tool manufacturers in the country, and is surprised to learn that the general manager neglects employee benefits (“yuan gong fu li“).

Some illuminating sound bytes (translated from Chinese):

General Manager Lee: “In your Canada, a factory wouldn’t be able to sustain that many employees!” proudly referring to his factory’s 300-person labor force.

Peter: “That’s true, but I’ve heard that China’s hiring costs have gotten higher.”

General Manager Lee: “Definitely, but those are just national regulations of employee benefits. Just ignore them!”

Peter: “Won’t there be problems if you do that?

Peter: “But then what about me? If I had to do things according to national reguations, I would have shut down a long time ago already.”

Jenny says this is a typical Chinese way of thinking. Employee benefits have gotten better, she says, but it’s still common to run into businesspeople with no regard for fair labor standards.

Read an interesting discussion thread here. People say all sorts of fun things, like “We live on a miserable planet, life sucks for most people,” and, “I promise not to buy a hammer here in China.”

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