Working during the day and driving a forklift part-Time at a courier transfer station late at night, this is the Beijing Life of a 31-year-old man whose trajectory was disclosed after the diagnosis of the new crown, making many people feel that life is not easy. Unbeknownst to many, it is the huge number of part-timers who hold up the operation of the express transfer station. They come from all over the country and sleep only three or four hours a day for a substantial income.
Wilderness land
“Work, come here! “
With a distant shout, a sparse group of part-timers at the subway entrance marched toward the road. The target was a white van; any later and there would be no more room. A middle-aged woman ran, holding a plastic bag of water cups like in the air and keep kowtowing, others also followed.
Here near the capital airport, no tall buildings, only bare tree trunks to meet the thin winter sun. The first time I came to see such desolation, Ah Long almost turned back. If there was no Epidemic, he was working as a helper in a college cafeteria. When school ended early, he moved into an Internet cafe and picked this part-time night job at a courier transfer station on the job board to earn money.
The winter in the north, the whole day blowing the harsh northwest wind, everyone is wrapped tightly, cotton clothes, cotton hat, gloves, only revealing the eyes. This group of people, Ah Long stands out, he wore a long white down jacket, the previous day sorting express sleeves dirty black. Clothes 85 dollars online, it seems not warm, he blew his nose while complaining about this hell, “even a bottle of water have no place to buy. “
Liu supervisor standing next to the van, wearing a black body, clip a briefcase, looks about 30 years old. The workers surrounded him tightly and fought for the only pen to sign in the book. A young man forgot to bring his ID card and was scolded by him, no ID card to me back. Someone who registered his name over the line also received a rebuke, “Write me the fuck up! “
A Long and I sat in the van when it happened to be the last two seats left. A yellow curly hair of the northeast sister came again, she has been doing more than ten days in a row, many people recognized her and greeted her. Northeast sister just arrived in Beijing not long ago, living in the southwest side of Fengtai, more than four hours round trip, sometimes wake up first to do a part-time job such as glass cleaning, and then to sort the courier.
“Can stay up at night, get used to it. “Curly-haired sister said she used to set up a barbecue stall, sleep two or three hours is enough.
“I can not, yesterday came a day, my husband said I was crazy. “Yan from Tianjin Jixian said with a little pouting tone. She still came back-to-back. The main wages have gone up, 210 yuan a night yesterday and 230 today, “it’s a loss if I don’t come.
In between waiting for people, people in the car to have a chat. Most of them are unfamiliar faces, but Yan can always find someone to talk to. Ah Long’s Marriage aroused her interest, he and the object are less than marriageable age, but in Hebei Handan hometown wedding, bride price out of 200,000. Yan said that was not expensive. Yan also has a son, 22 years old, working in Beijing, has not yet started a Family, which is now her biggest preoccupation.
In the car, the most discussed is how to survive the night. This is the coldest winter in decades, the early morning of January 7, Beijing’s temperature was nearly -20 degrees Celsius, the lowest record in 54 years. Xia, from Gansu, started this part-time job in those days. That is really cold, she said, her feet are frozen numb, standing can not stand. Early in the morning after work, the insulation cup splashed water, splashed into the cup of water droplets instantly into ice stains, touching slippery. A young girl’s description is more exaggerated, playing a cup of hot water, put a moment, and then drink the second sip of ice.
Bloated cotton clothing gradually filled the carriage, late to the bench, more late to bend over and stand. At 5:00 in the evening, people arrived, the 10-seater van carrying more than a dozen part-timers, driving two kilometers away from a Shunfeng express transfer station.
The park where we were about to arrive had two part-timers on the evening shift diagnosed with New Crown some time ago. But most people have not heard of the situation, and those who have heard of it do not particularly care. Xia said, watching others are earning money, they are idle and particularly anxious.
The car played a Cantonese song, Beyond’s glory days, the sun outside the window just set, the haze converged on the sky. No one speaks anymore, some people close their eyes to rest, as if a great battle is coming, the warriors are enjoying the last peace.
Streamline
I found this job in a local part-time job group. Multiple agents sent out recruitment information about it, and the description of it was all: “Pure small piece sorting, easy work. ” The requirements were simple, “Male or female, 18 to 55 years old. “
There are all kinds of jobs in the part-time job group. A project recruiting security guards, requiring a height of 183cm or more, under 35 years old. An Internet company’s special duty post, more requirements must be a veteran, under 30 years old. There is also a recruitment only said to be under 29 years old adult female, subsidies 15,000 to 80,000, “no physical contagion, height of 1.5 meters or more can be”. Some other job sounds light, give the specified short video double click like, a like a piece, but someone said into the group have to pay membership fees first.
In contrast, the courier sorter is a good choice. The requirements are low, the pay is high, and you can see the cash on the same day.
Our leader is more than forty years old, baby face, dark face, we call him Laohei. He is not a SF employee either, but belongs to the same manpower company as us. Old Black’s big job is the roll call, he does not know such as “Zhen” more strokes of the word, but does not affect his aura as a manager. “Huang what, how to read this word”, as if the name is complicated is not the other party.
He led us into the second warehouse, the workshop seven or eight meters high, as cold as the outdoors, surrounded by conveyor belts around and in the middle. A large platform on the second floor, also paved with conveyor belts.
At 6:10 p.m., 20 minutes before the start of work, the team assembled, and Old Black lectured, telling everyone to work hard so that the next day “to put 230 pieces in your pocket. Yesterday, a big sister was seen by the management to be working with only $230. Yesterday, a sister was seen by the management to work with only one hand, the old black specifically criticized, “there is a hand without simply cut it off. “
Tonight there are probably hundreds of people will be put into battle. Look up, are mercenaries, just vests of different colors, representing different manpower companies.
Many people do not know that in the express transit station, outsourced workers to far more than regular workers. According to public financial reports, the percentage of labor fees paid by SF to outsourcing companies has risen year after year, reaching five times the salary of employees in 2019. Analysts say the move could result in significant labor cost savings.
With everyone in position, our team’s post is the sorting line. A machine covered with a red lattice iron mesh quickly spits out a conveyor belt, like a snake spitting out its letters, one frame after another. The work station surrounded by sharp steel plates on both sides is less than one square meter. A sack a sack of express mail pouring down, to do is to find the bar code, face up, and constantly into the center of the grid.
Some express can know the content from the outer packaging. A blind box from Bubble Mart, a set of teaching materials from Xuezhi, or clothes from Vipshop, Food from Netflix snack stores. It seems to be far from the life of the workers, but the veteran staff can know at a glance what can be put into the conveyor belt, and what belongs to fragile or fresh and can not.
In this small sorting plant, the most frequent type of express is letters, which are easy to put up, but if the gloves don’t fit, it’s easy to pick up two at the same time. When the old black patrol, several newcomers gloves are not qualified, we then have to take off the gloves and sort with bare hands in the winter.
Rarely a chance to breathe. The flow line is very well designed, as long as a batch of goods picking, “slide” will continue to rotate and bring in new goods. Every now and then, packages come in like a landslide and must be held in two hands to keep them from falling to the floor.
Newcomers quickly adapt to the rhythm. Two or three seconds to complete a drop, 20 a minute, thousands an hour. It’s just that time always passes slowly. “It’s just boiling. “Many people comment on this job and say. Keep simmering, simmering until dawn, and you can earn that job.
Most of my fellow workers were in a gap in their lives. A senior girl took advantage of the New Year to come to work, before she was in the electronics factory, piecework wages, always grabbed but the old staff, “in addition to quarrel nothing to learn”. Home improvement company salesman because they can not learn the design, was eliminated, came here to temporarily settle. Of course, there are also farmers from neighboring provinces who take advantage of the winter break to make a living in Beijing. Here, you can even find traders who claim to be helping others to speculate in stocks, taking advantage of the weekend to work part-time, and former salesmen of fund companies, “lured” by friends to come here. It’s a good idea to experience life.
Many people also lost their livelihood because of the epidemic. The small Xia is a housekeeper in a five-star hotel, the rooms are not doing well, and Huang, a pastry chef in Shunyi, has closed her store because of the epidemic, and they all live in far-flung farmer-built houses, thinking of making one last buck before the year.
The middle-aged people who are forced to make a living are considered the main force in the mercenary army. This is what the agent of the part-time job group told me, these people usually do security guards, cleaning a kind of work, empty will be part-time to earn money, but also has been able to do. Only one white-collar worker signed up for this temporary job from her, a sales champion of a state-owned bank, probably because the guarantee went wrong and he had to pay back 20,000 yuan every month, so he could only take advantage of the night to earn some more money.
If there is no accident, in the next 12 hours, all will stand in this small grid where it is difficult to turn around and repeat an action. But accidents can come at any time.
This night, the second floor platform of the “turning bag” has become an urgent support post. I was called by the old black to go there, each dumping mouth, have been piled up a few people high empty sacks. My job was to turn them over and look for the missing express mail. In about two hours, I went through about a hundred sacks, and all I got was a letter and a small courier box.
Gear
When she was doing her job, Yan thought of nothing else. This is what she likes most about this job, “no brainer”.
Yan has done some part-time jobs, the easiest being labeling in a mask factory, sitting around, free to swipe her phone, but that was in the first half of last year, and the mask business is long gone. She also went to the supermarket to do packaging, the same is standing, no sorting courier to save.
Yan has big eyes, looks early 30s, smiles brightly, she also loves to laugh. This makes it impossible to see the ups and downs of her life. When the child was six years old, the first husband died in a car accident, the second husband was also a sports car, cheating, taking more than 100,000 savings. She went to the northeast to open a dumpling store, met her current husband, who works as a security guard in Beijing, and defected to her.
Her husband’s salary was not high, just over 3,000, but Yan was content, at least every time the money was handed to her, to get by. She is 46 years old and knows how to be content with the smallest happiness, even if her husband is now “just so-so” to her son.
In Beijing, Yan has been working as a sister-in-law for two years in a row, spending the New Year in the East. In a year, she doesn’t see her son for more than 24 hours. This year, she said she had to give herself a vacation, can not return home, together with a New Year in Beijing. During this time, she did not take a sister-in-law order, she was looking for a part-time job to earn some money. The son’s bride price of more than 100,000, she has saved to, but the wedding has to buy a building, the down payment will be hundreds of thousands of it.
But Yan is now not to think about this. In their rural areas, the girls are working in the city, dating has long been discouraged, the children themselves talk. The end of the year is everywhere with money, a few days ago she also gave the child’s mother played three thousand, health insurance, and the unified transformation of water pipes what, are the child’s mother advance. She didn’t tell her son about her part-time job at the courier factory, and he definitely didn’t let her come, nor did her husband, but he couldn’t control her.
Compare, sorting express income has been considered high. But said easy, no one really feel so. Dry to the latter part of the night, Yan’s mask has been wet transparent, clinging to the mouth, big eyes also dulled down.
In the transfer station, no work is really easy. Wang Xiaowu had been sent to unload, a night down, ten nails are bruised, has not faded. This middle-aged man always wears a camouflage uniform to work, has been working here part-time for a month, is the longest I know to do temporary workers, his name comes from his own family ranked fifth. Another college student who has done small unloading said, dry one day, ten days did not slow down.
After unloading, and then through manual sorting, courier again into the conveyor belt, followed by machine identification, according to the delivery area, swept into the sack. Bagging requires manual encapsulation with plastic buckles, Yan has done this position, that is also overwhelmed by the work, a bag is not packed, the new bag will be full, can only rush to buckle the valve, blocking a steady stream of falling courier.
After packing, someone else will use the cart to send the package to the new assembly line. Wang Xiaowu said, these couriers will be sorted again, further subdivided according to the mode of transport and destination, and then dumped into the new assembly line. In the transfer station, no department is completely independent, only when all the gears bite each other, mountains of parcels can be completed overnight in a thorough transit.
At the back of this workshop, I saw the final step of the transfer station, loading. A truck waits by the assembly line, and the part-timers take off the courier and neatly yard it into the vehicle. They also wore the vests of the outsourcing company. In fact, even the people outside the shop who wear protective clothing to disinfect back and forth are hired on a temporary basis and billed by the day, just like us.
After turning bags for two hours and going back to the sorting line for another two or three hours, about 3 a.m., Old Black brought me back to my new position, yarding. At the transfer station, time was also a sorting criterion, with some express shipments required to be sent out by 6:30 a.m. (our closing time) and others not as urgent, and it was the latter that I needed to sort.
I proposed that I signed up for sorting, not this manual work, old black did not reprimand, but like a big brother in the jungle pointing out to his little brother, “people women can unload the goods,” “If not for money, who wants to come here in the middle of the night? “He also said that his salary is actually lower than those of us temporary workers, only two hundred a day, do a day count. He only had two days off a month, and always kept brewing milk tea at night to ease the sleepiness.
It’s all about the money, the two temporary workers who carried the goods over also endured the work beyond their physical capacity. A skinny Shanxi man, his glasses lowered to the tip of his nose because of sweating. He has a goldfish store in the suburbs of Beijing, and business is not good in winter, so he came here to save money for his young son, who is still in junior high school, to buy a house. Another young man’s left foot had just been run over by a cart, and he had a big blister and was limping. He came to Beijing to play and spent all his money, so he came here to earn some money to go back to buy some New Year’s Eve goods.
Speed up! Speed up!
From high up, the entire staging warehouse itself is a sophisticated apparatus, and everyone is a part of the apparatus. The highest power on the surface of this apparatus is the horn. A person holding the horn, holding the horn is wearing the gray uniform of SF employees, the two words on the back represent his identity: management.
When the operation of the warehouse is out of balance, the horn will command the people on the production line to adjust their positions. More often than not, the horn is responsible for urging the part-timers: “Speed up! Speed up! “
The later in the night, the more excited the horn becomes, constantly directing the workers to speed up, “Pour! Back up! Down! Pour! Pour! ” “Turn the bag of hurry up, hurry up, too slow, the standard is three a minute! ” “Line 9, speed up, speed up! “
From time to time, the speaker will also make the final threat, “as long as there is a bag did not turn, regardless of the time, I saw to me to leave! “An old employee said, the day before someone did not turn the bag, was driven home in the middle of the night, did not get paid for their work.
This day, standing behind me, Ah Long became the focus of care. The morning before he fell asleep on the subway, the road tossed four hours, a day without sleep and over, the first half of the night began to doze off. Whenever this time, the speaker will remind “line x, how someone fell asleep! “
The only break allowed is dinner around 11:00, one person a box lunch. This is still near the end of the year, and because of the epidemic manpower constraints, the welfare given.
People took turns eating, and sometimes did not finish, the loudspeaker will be urged to go on duty. Later, the midnight meal was changed to thin rice and steamed buns, and the boxed lunch was changed to be distributed after work the next morning, with people standing on the side of the road while walking to eat.
The more we got to the end, the more the loudspeaker would inspire. More than two hours left, the horn said, there is more than an hour to the end, “accelerate, accelerate, hold on, we will win the battle tonight. “More than an hour left, the horn said, “Speed up, speed up, only half an hour left. “Another half hour passes and the horn says, “Speed up, speed up, the last car, it’s over when it’s done. “
Sister Xia thought she was fast enough, but the horn kept referring to her line, and each time her heart raced and her hands were busy.
Sister Xia is the most willing to suffer among the part-timers I know. She comes to work here for more than ten days in a row, without a day off and sleeping four hours a day. She is only 36 years old, but has wrinkled hands. She and Yan are friends who met here and both live in a peasant house in the southwest suburbs of Beijing. They say they are friends, but they have little time to get to know each other.
Ten years ago Xia fled her home in Gansu and came to Beijing with only one idea, to earn money. She couldn’t stand her mother-in-law, who didn’t even have an egg to eat when she was pregnant, was driven to the fields to collect wheat with a big belly, and was even reprimanded for spending 5 yuan at the drugstore. Now she is the one who sends back $2,000 a month to support her mother-in-law and two children. Her husband studied in college and found an office job in Beijing, getting more than 3,000 a month, never responsible for the family’s expenses.
Xia can’t do anything else, before she has been doing cleaning, one person on the shift of two people. Later into the hotel, from three-star to four-star to five-star, clean up a room ten, she can clean up to more than forty a day, to do the face waxy, can not lift the arm, can not eat.
In the hotel, she was trained to treat people politely and not to speak or walk loudly. Here, she felt that there is really “no human touch. “
But Wang Xiaowu and Yan think that’s because Xia has never seen stricter management. They have been to the transfer station in Tongzhou, where there are more goods, management is also more stringent, “and people are not the place to raise masters. Wang Xiaowu’s wife used to work in a Taiwanese shoe factory, that management is called powerful, “not scold you, said very gentle, but gentle ‘kill you ‘, a minute not to work, directly told you to go, no second chance. “
In the transit station, not everyone can accept such pressure. Wang Xiaowu saw a lot of people walking straight away, mostly young people. Many people do a day and no longer come, only those who have the pressure of life middle-aged people will insist on coming to work, take him, in his hometown in Anhui have three children to feed.
Even veteran employees have times when they can’t stand it. On the night of the part-time job, I witnessed an argument. At two or three o’clock in the middle of the night, when the management overhead waved their hands violently in command, a three-year-old employee behind them shouted three times toward the top, “What are you shouting for?
Management heard, and then choked back: “What did you say? “The old employee did not speak. “How old are you, quit and get out! “Management called the old black and demanded that he take him away. Old Black tried to plead, explaining in a voice so soft it could barely be heard towards the head, “I’m just two old people”, but quickly accepted the truth. After the old employee left, management was still not relieved and made a phone call, “xxx (name of manpower company), give me one less count today, he scolded me. “
Smarter people will learn how to endure, or simply ignore the horn. Even like Wang Xiaowu, enjoy the pleasure of sorting the courier, the faster the better, flying to the conveyor belt to put the goods, let him enter a realm of forgetfulness, forget the cold, but also forget the time.
Just wait until 6:30 and it will all be over. Old Black assembled the team on time and led us out of the staging area. When we left the warehouse, several fellow travelers were limping, probably from the cold or from soreness.
Yan’s two feet also could not support. But she still plans to come in the evening, “after a day. “Although in the restaurant Sister Yan would divinely instruct the waiters, she was always obedient in the factory, and with this obedience and her ability to maintain intermediary relations, she always got top dollar, usually ten dollars more than the others, in the morning.
Xia will also continue to come, only to work every day and earn money, she feels solid. Sister Xia likes to sing, by a Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, in the hotel annual meeting took the third prize, in the rental house she also from time to time while dancing and singing. But some time ago, she went back home to Gansu, to two children to do school transfer, rented a house in the county, three or four months spent more than 20,000, she saved up. This time back to Beijing, she felt more pressure to earn money, no longer have the heart to sing, “feel as if they are old, singing can not get up. “
When she walked out the door, it was still light, and the crowd was scrambling to get into a bus going to the subway station, until the doors were full of people. Surrounded by another group of unfamiliar faces, no one spoke, all quietly waiting for the bus to start. The winter sun was late in rising, and there was no other movement on the highway except for the sound of the trucks that kept pulling into the transfer station.
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