For children, the word conjures up images of a magical place - Santa’s Workshop - a place where childhood hopes and dreams can be packed in a sack and put under a tree. This of course includes candies and books, electronic games and software, even clothes and pajamas.
As you know from my last post, I recently spent a week in China. The things I learned while there will have a tendency to slowly come out over time. This is largely due to the fact that I was in such a state of sensory overload, I was seeing and learning things I didn’t even realize I was learning.
One was another meaning of the word ‘workshop.’ Where for us the word conjures a vision of a small, intimate place where artisan quality work is done, either for self, family, or a select group of acquaintances; in China, a workshop is the factory itself. The workshop is the production floor where all the work is done for a particular manufacturer and it is a completely different working environment than you and I have ever known.
The workshop I visited manufactures shaped and threaded parts. In the part of the world that we live in, this would mean steel-toed shoes, safety glasses, and hearing protection at the least. In China, there is probably enough electricity to run the machinery but not to run the lights in the building. When I tell most people this, they ask, “Well, then there were skylights, right?” No, there were not. There was virtually no safety equipment and some of the processes had the very real possibility of removing an operator’s finger. The amazing part of the whole thing is that the product being produced was a very high quality, beautiful product.
I realize there are times we all feel that the US has been beaten in the world market, but I am here to tell you that there are offsets we should never be willing to make. The United States moved through times when we had children working in factories and families owed their lives to the company store. Those times are behind us. I’ve been able to look first hand at those times and can say with certainty, good riddance. We must be proud of what we produce and the manner in which we treat our people.
And let’s continue to encourage the definition of ‘workshop’ as the place which produces furniture for the home and toys for kids and grandkids.
Remember, I still want pictures and words about your workshops to share.
