Chen has a calm, modest manner. The atmosphere of her home is cheerful and easygoing. Her husband stays in the room to help watch the children. The older daughter, 8, watches television on one side of the room, politely keeping the sound down so the adults can talk. The younger child, 2½, is more rambunctious, running about noisily from sister to mother to father.
The family's religious beliefs are evident in the small altar hanging on the living room wall. It holds a statue of the Buddha and an incense burner. On the same wall are two photographs of Buddhist masters. For ten days every month, Chen eats only vegetarian meals—which are available at the company cafeteria—and the family often visits mountainside temples on holidays.
Things are not always satisfactory, but they never get to a point that I can't stand it. I prefer a steady job instead of one where I have to worry about getting laid off someday. Assembly line work isn't interesting, but as long as you stick to one thing, you can make something out of it.
Altogether, I've been doing this kind of work for almost twenty years. I started at another company when I graduated from junior high. My parents were poor and asked me to find a job to support myself if I wanted to keep studying. I saw an ad for a job at an electronics factory, so I applied and had an interview and got hired. The company had a kind of cooperative program with a vocational school, so I got to work and go to school at the same time. When I graduated, I kept working there. It was when we decided to buy this apartment that I quit that job. I'd worked there almost twelve years. Then I came to this company around seven years ago. We bought this apartment, because it was pretty cheap then, and the whole family finally settled down here in Panchiao [Taipei county].
There are four departments at my company: stereo products, electrical engineering, communication products, and electronics. I belong to the electronics department. Under this department, there are several sections. I'm on a quality control team that checks circuit boards. We do these boards for our own brand and we also do OEM for other brands.
The quality control teams are not on the line. We sit in a separate area, a little bit away from the end of the line. Each of us has an inspection table. People send products over in carts. We just sit there and pick out the products that pass inspection. Some of the ones that don't pass can be fixed, and we'll send them to the repair section and throw away the ones that can't be fixed. The products that pass inspection are those that meet the standards—there's this pamphlet of standards. We have to memorize the standards and also use our own experience to decide if a piece is good or bad. For instance, if the circuit is half a finger longer than it's supposed to be, it doesn't qualify because it's going to cause a short circuit. This will affect the whole electronic appliance and of course it could hurt our company's reputation. People will say that our products don't last long enough.
We also pay a lot of attention to the outer appearance. For instance, if the paint is uneven, we don't want it. If there's a hair stuck under the paint, we discard the board. Business today is more and more competitive. Even though the appearance won't affect the way a product functions, people are picky, and we have to be just as picky. Big companies have all figured this into their costs. (Chen takes down a memo pad hanging on the wall and shows that it was made from a discarded circuit board. She also shows another board that was made into a New Year's card by her company.)
Assignments are given to us as a group. There's a set quantity for the group, but no specific quantity for each person. You can even choose what you want to work on—big-sized boards are easier to check, but they're heavier. There's one particular kind that I hate the most. When you're working on it, you breathe in a lot of fiber dust. Some of my co-workers wear masks, but I hate that. It kind of blocks my breathing.
I believe it's predestinated when you're going to die. You can't force any change. I'm a Buddhist, and I more or less believe in fate. Everything has been decided already. You don't need to struggle too hard; it's useless.
We're offered an annual health checkup. I think there should be no problem [for early detection of a disease]. Wrist injuries are a more serious problem. One board isn't heavy at all. But you inspect the top side, then turn it upside down to check the other side. After you inspect it, you toss it aside and that uses basically the strength of your wrist. I also need to pile them up—there are fifty pieces to a stack and I pile the stacks up till they're about as tall as I am—and take them to the packaging department. One piece isn't heavy, but you feel the weight when you carry a lot of them at once. At our health checkup, the doctor thinks if we can still toss a board, we're all right. But I always feel some slight piercing pain, even when I'm not working. I guess if I quit the job, they'd recover pretty quickly.
I also started becoming nearsighted the second year I started working here. The job is pretty hard on your eyes. Well, I could tell them that my eyes were bad, and they'd transfer me to another department. But I don't want the transfer. The best part about this work is that it's not on the line. We don't have that kind of time pressure, so we work comfortably. Can't make the schedule? We can work overtime. Of course, we don't slow down on purpose to work overtime. I just mean that we can go faster or slower. It's very nice to have that kind of flexibility. Yes, sometimes I get bored—it's mechanical repetition. But this job actually involves a lot of brain work. Each board has its own individual problems. It's kind of challenging trying to pick out the ones that don't pass inspection. You can feel a sense of achievement, especially when you're the first one to find out and tell your co-workers that some part has a tendency to be defective.
Our work is from eight to five. But we usually arrive by seven fifty-seven and have a three-minute meeting. We read out loud the seven major principles of our company—the rules for handling work and human relations. Our foreman will discuss things like the recent quality reports, what's the response of the business department, what part we should pay special attention to, and so on. [Chen's younger daughter suddenly yells out, "Ma!" and runs to give her a hug. Chen puts the child on her lap for a few moments and tries to keep on talking.] It's only a five-minute ride from my house to the company. But most days, I have to take my two daughters to school. I take the younger one to her preschool two blocks away and the older one to a school in the next district.
My [older] daughter has to walk home by herself when she gets off school at noon. My mother-in-law lives with us, so she [the daughter] has somebody to take care of her at home. My mother-in-law also picks up the younger one around five-thirty. After I go to work, I'm stuck there. And normally, we have to work overtime. I work for two extra hours every day. So I usually get off at seven or seven-thirty. There are always lots of orders coming in. We can't finish them with the hands we've got.
The overtime pay is higher than the regular pay, so some people like working overtime. The first hour of overtime, I get paid one hundred thirty [US$5], and starting from the third hour, I get paid a hundred fifty [US$5.80]. The foreman always hints that there will probably be at least three hours of work to try to get us to stay. I can use a few extra bucks, but my kids are growing up. I need to take care of them. Some people actually enjoy having the opportunity to work overtime. We also have an evening shift [2:00-10:30 PM] and people working that shift make almost seventy thousand [US$2,700] a month. I only make a little over thirty thousand [US$1,150] a month.
Before they hire you, they ask if you can work overtime. If you miss a couple of overtime assignments, the foreman will start asking you questions. You won't get fired, but you won't get a good year-end evaluation. You'll get less of a bonus [it is customary for employees in Taiwan to get a substantial bonus for the Chinese New Year]. It's no big deal, but it also affects your promotion. Salaries are different for different positions and that's important for us. Actually, I don't think this [overtime policy] is right. We all can use some leisure time. But our company doesn't set a limit on how many overtime hours we can work. I guess they hope we can work as many hours as possible. Under the law, there's a limit. But to be honest with you, everyone of us has passed that limit. My husband doesn't appreciate it, either. When I come home, I give my kids a bath, put them to bed, and then I have to do some chores around the house. My mother-in-law cooks dinner, so I don't have to do that. [The younger daughter starts crying for some milk, and Chen asks her husband to go to the kitchen and prepare some.]
Another thing some people complain about is that female and male employees are treated a little differently. The men get a family bonus [if they are married]. Their hourly pay is also higher, plus this family bonus. Their opportunities for promotion are better, too. It's been this way all these years. The union says it will try to make the employers change.But the fact is that men have to raise families. I don't think the fact that they are paid more is a serious problem or unfair treatment. There isn't such a big gap that I can complain about it. I think it's reasonable; they do have a family to raise.
Well, in general, this work is steady. The pay isn't bad. And there are good benefits. I need to keep working. The kids are still young; It will cost more and more to take care of them in the future. So I guess I'll stay put and work overtime for many more years to come. [Laughs.]
—interview by Eugenia Yun