# Tesla factory in Shanghai forcing employees to sleep at work **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 19, 2022, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087 "2022-04-19T22:36:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/1 "2022-04-19T22:36:19Z")
After a three-week covid-related shutdown, the Tesla factory in Shanghai is starting back up again and forcing its employees to sleep at work, working 12-hour shifts, 6 days a week. China is such a terrible fucking place. > **[Tesla's Shanghai Factory Will Reportedly Force Employees to Sleep at Work](https://gizmodo.com/teslas-shanghai-factory-will-reportedly-force-employees-1848806106)** > > After restarting production, the company seems desperate to make up for lost time. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/2 "2022-04-19T23:15:35Z")
I sometimes nap at work, but nobody forces me. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/3 "2022-04-19T23:23:59Z")
Self-driving cars built by workers chained to the oars. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/4 "2022-04-20T00:45:21Z")
Aren’t you the boss/owner? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/5 "2022-04-20T01:27:28Z")
Well, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/6 "2022-04-20T02:33:16Z")
Yeah, that’s what I want. A high tech car built by unhappy elves. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/7 "2022-04-20T02:42:15Z")
ummm, you really don’t know jack about China manufacturing, do you now? Not to minimize this, but the vast majority of migrants from the countryside want to work the maximum number of hours and minimize their spend. Many if not the majority of migrants are not overly happy with Western mandated work hours - they want the overtime as there is fuck all else to do in a remote factory city. They typically live in factory dorms, which Tesla China apparently does not have on site. I would guess then that the factory dorms are supplied by the Shanghai government, outside of the actual factory grounds, and therefore don’t qualify as a “closed loop” system. Unlike say Foxconn, where i worked for 4 years, typically had dorms connected to the factory. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/8 "2022-04-20T03:58:08Z")
So jobs pay so low and people are desperate for money that they will work under horrible conditions to stay alive. Doesn’t sound like a happy group to me. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/9 "2022-04-20T04:22:37Z")
So it is the employees that want to work those long hours? Would you happen to know how much they get for working overtime, what kind of benefits they receive, and what the retirement plans are like? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/10 "2022-04-20T16:47:23Z")
Doesn’t matter if they’re forced to comply. It is what it is just as house arrest is for cities under covid restrictions. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/11 "2022-04-20T16:48:09Z")
And what cities would those be? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/12 "2022-04-20T17:00:43Z")
You’re asking me about China’s clampdown on cities due to covid? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/13 "2022-04-20T17:02:58Z")
Sleep at work? I knew Elon Musk disliked “Woke” stuff, but this is ridiculous. /s [As an aside, when one knows that even black people stopped using “woke” because of abuse from some corporations and then the right wing info sphere using it as a slur, that word is useful nowadays to find out how deep inside the rabbit hole of right wing sources of “info” someone like Musk has gotten into,] ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/14 "2022-04-20T17:08:16Z")
My mistake-I thought we were still comparing China to the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/15 "2022-04-20T20:14:50Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Not to minimize this, but the vast majority of migrants from the countryside want to work the maximum number of hours and minimize their spend. I’ve heard interviews with so many workers over the decades, from many different countries, that are in that situation. And they do want to work maximum hours, get maximum overtime, then go back to the country. But this is such a good headline that, as an Anti-Muskovite, I’m eager to have another reason to hate Tesla. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/16 "2022-04-20T21:21:42Z")
> [@digs](#): > > But this is such a good headline that, as an Anti-Muskovite, I’m eager to have another reason to hate Tesla. Which is probably the function of the headline in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/17 "2022-04-22T05:53:07Z")
[quote=“Magiver, post:8, topic:963087”] So jobs pay so low and people are desperate for money that they will work under horrible conditions to stay alive. [/quote] Ummm, let’s put it this way. It’s relative. Most peasants in china see working 12 hours a day 6 days a week in a factory as being an upgrade from life in the country side. Of course, being in the first world, this sounds horrendous, and maybe it is. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/18 "2022-04-22T06:04:23Z")
Czarcasm, the peasants leaving the countryside to work in the factories, or in construction _want_ to work those long hours. Phrase it a different way: they are far from home living in a dorm and eating cafeteria food. They can put in a 40 hour US work week or they can bank more than twice as much by working an 80 hour week. These people are there to work hard and bank as much money as they can, and then get out as fast as they can. It’s not like the leisure time in a factory dorm or government affiliated dorm is fun. Nike mandating a 40 hour US work week is not what they want since they don’t have a US paycheck. I have spent plenty of time in factories in China, and a lessor amount of time in Taiwan and Viet Nam. Most were Taiwanese or foreign joint ventures, so somewhat better conditions than the typical Chinese domestic factory. And, yes, Nike and other major branded factories had slightly better conditions. Not enough that the peasants coming to work seemed to prioritize “foreign” factories to any great degree. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/19 "2022-04-22T17:26:40Z")
Wanting to work and living in a dorm to gain more hours is different than being forced to work. Is the Tesla story a hit piece to make Musk look bad or are they truly being held against their will? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087/20 "2022-04-22T17:33:58Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Is the Tesla story a hit piece to make Musk look bad or are they truly being held against their will? I think they have the choice of being cooped up at home or cooped up at work. Because of the Covid lockdown, of course. So my guess would be a hit piece. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tesla-factory-in-shanghai-forcing-employees-to-sleep-at-work/963087.md?page=2)