Asian Adventure Essay, Research Paper
Great, I think to myself as I stare into the bathroom mirror, another long day at the stinking T.V. factory. As I rush down the stairs to the street I bump into Ms. Chong, my neighbor from across the hall. She asks me if I would like to eat some fish and rice later, but I decline, as I may be working late. I hurry to the station and jump on the crowded train and ride it towards the factory.
Luckily I make it to work on time and change into my work uniform. My job at the television plant is to pour the foam packing peanuts into the shipping boxes after the finished televisions are put into them. My job is pretty monotonous, but I like it because I sometimes shoot my co-workers with the foam peanuts that come out of the hose. Everyone always gets mad at me because they think I’m a slacker. They just don’t know how to have fun. My boss, Mr. Wong is a real piece of work. He is always on our backs about productivity, and he is always comparing us to other factories, telling us how unproductive we are compared to them. I think I’m the only one who ever complains about the guy. Everyone else acts like Mr. Wong is a super great guy; I think they are all a bunch of brown nosers.
As the months roll by, my job becomes more and more boring. Rumors begin to spread throughout the factory. Rumors that our plant is going to be closed down and sold to another company. It is more than likely that if our plant is sold my co-workers and I will be replaced, and we will be out of a job.
So I begin to search the city for a new job. Just in case my old one ends. I am able to find many jobs in the fishing industry. These jobs don’t appeal to me because the smell is bad, and the pay is low. Finally I am able to find a position as a mailroom clerk in a computer company.
Sure enough five months later my television factory is sold and all the workers are replaced, including me.
Luckily for me I am able to get the job in the mailroom at the computer company. The name of the company is Wang Global. Wang Global builds computer boards for cash registers. It also buys integrated circuit technology from other companies and modifies it, then resells it. I like the people at Wang much better than the people at the television factory. I also like my mailroom job much better. All I have to do is put incoming mail from giant bins into slots that corresponded to certain people and offices in the building. The job isn’t as easy, but it pays more, and I don’t feel as dumb as I did as a foam peanut packer.
After about a year of being a mailroom clerk my manager notices I am doing a very excellent job. My manager suggests to our supervisor that I be moved onto the assembly line. The supervisor agrees and I am placed in a two-month class on computer board assembly. I am taught exactly what I need to know for my new assembly line job.
My job on the line is to make three solders on a small computer board. The job sounds easy enough, but I quickly learn that it isn’t. On the line I am given only a small amount of time to make the solders on each board. If I do not complete the solders in the given amount of time I receive a demerit. I am informed that if I receive a certain amount of demerits my pay will be cut, and if the demerits continue I would eventually lose my job. My pay is now three times what it was in the mailroom. My responsibility is also three times as much as it was in the mailroom. There are three people down the assembly line who depend on me making the solders correctly.
It takes a couple of months to get used to the pressure that is on
The good news is that my supervisor has been keeping his eye on my production and me and likes what he sees. He tells me that the enthusiasm I show in my work could really make Wang Global some money; therefore I am being moved into a research lab position. The bad news; the pressure is really going to be on me now.
I spend the next six months in an on the job training program with about fifteen other people who are going to be promoted to research. Luckily, these classes are free, so it is like I am getting paid to go to school. At the end of the six-month training, I am issued a test to see if I have learned anything in the training course. I pass the test with an average score. The next week I find myself in a research lab making five times what I has been making about four year ago.
My job in the research lab is to analyze integrated chip and circuit board designs. I will attend a meeting with the other researchers once a week to collaborate our ideas to improve the speed and reliability of these chips and boards. My job is very intense and demanding. Often I have to work sixty to seventy hour weeks. The pay however makes it all worth it.
I love my new job. Monday mornings I actually look forward to going to work, unlike when I worked at the television factory and dreaded the thought of going to work. The quality of my life has improved. I am in a larger apartment in a better part of town, have a small motor scooter and now I don’t have to take the stinking train to work. My new apartment still doesn’t have modern plumbing, but hey who does? I never had it before so I guess I don’t know what I’m missing. I am able to eat better now also. I try to eat a variety of food instead of rice for every meal.
The years pass and I continue working in the research department at Wang Global. On several occasions supervisor and managers ask me if I would be interested in an executive position, but I decline. I really do love my job in research. Eventually, I do take the supervisor position for my department, but this is after working for the company for about six years.
As supervisor I make Wang Global a lot of money developing new chipsets and board designs from existing plans bought from other oversea computer companies.
Things go great until foreign companies start refusing to sell us their technologies. All of the oversea technology producing companies, primarily in the United States begin to catch on to the Wang Global’s moneymaking strategy and stop selling us new technology. This spells bad news for Wang Global and for my research department especially. Without new technologies coming in, my department has nothing to do and none of us know how to come up with new technologies ourselves; therefore, Wang Global doesn’t need us anymore. Within a year my whole department is informed that we need to clear out our things, and start looking for new jobs.
Luckily, I remember from my ECO 281 class back at Central, that this whole technology buying business will be coming to an end at about this time. Over the years I have been saving a large portion of my paycheck every week and putting it in high interest CDs and bonds. I have invested the other portion of my savings in Internet business startups so I am doing quite well. So, I decide to just retire and live off of my savings, I am quite happy with my life. However, most of my old co-workers in my research department killed themselves or have ended up living in the streets after Wang Global let us go