Being a Construction Worker in Sydney

By Han Wenhao

Aquestion was raised on Zhihu.com, the Chinese version of Quora: “Can the young generation endure the hard moments in life?” One answer,which received over 20,000 thumbs-up, came from a reply of a young man named Han Wenhao.Born in Shandong Province, Han Wenhao applied for an Australia Working Holiday Visa after graduating college and received it unexpectedly. He flew to Sydney and experienced the blue collar life as a construction worker.

Here is how Han Wenhao recalled his days in Sydney.

Obtaining a Construction Worker Position

It was in early August of 2017 when I bought a plane ticket from Hefei to Sydney via Shanghai. I just wanted to see whether I could survive in a foreign country with my own abilities, diligence and English competency.

I booked a youth hostel online in advance, which cost less than 20 Australian dollars(approximately 100 yuan) per day because it was a low season in the winter. I had three roommates from Italy, Chile, and South Korea.

Four of us slept on two bunk beds in that tiny room that was no more than 15 square meters. The Italian guy had also just arrived at Sydney with a working holiday visa. We revised and printed English CVs together, and then made copies in the library. We sent CVs to every company that might hire us, and jokingly called the door-to-door interviews“street sweeping.”

In the first month, we sent CVs every day and received one or two interview calls from employment agencies, but none of the companies hired us. While the money in my bank account dwindled, I began to feel worried and counted how many days I could last.

One day, while I idled around,my phone rang, and I heard a voice from the other side,“Hello, there is a vacancy in our construction company, and we are recruiting new workers…”

I easily made it through the interview the next day. This kind of job was not very demanding.It just required proficiency in English and a strong body.

The day after that was my first day on the construction site, a night shift actually. I arrived at Pitt Street at 5 pm and was led to a conference room where the foreman was about to introduce to us new comers the basic information and rules of the project. The meeting started at 6 pm as scheduled and I was introduced to three new colleagues, two from Germany and one from France. The foreman then gave us safety vests,helmets, shoes (the steel toe cap provided protection when heavy stuff hit the feet), and dust masks.

Nothing Is Easy

A Germen colleague and I were responsible for removing a suspended ceiling. Even though the Styrofoam ceiling tiles were not heavy, we needed to raise our heads most of the time. My back hurt after just several minutes.Moreover, the dust from the ceiling made it hard to breathe,even when I wore a mask.

We worked 11 hours from 6 pm to 5 am every day, including 15 minutes of paid smoke breaks(the foreman always let us rest 30 minutes) and a 30-minute unpaid meal break.

The job was a challenge to me, especially the first three and half hours from 6 to 9:30 pm—it always seemed to last forever.There was always loads of works waiting for me, but my arm muscles were often too sore to lift above my head and it seemed like a century before the break time arrived.

Thirty minutes of meal break was too short to enjoy. It passed so quickly that it felt like I just sat down, had a sip of water and a bite of bread, and went back to work.It fully demonstrated the theory of relativity.

It appeared that all my colleagues were physically stronger than me, especially those two Germans. They were so energetic that they could hum songs while working, while I felt completely exhausted.

After the first shift, I dragged my feet slowly back to the hostel.It was 8 in the early morning when I got back to my room. I hurried to eat some bread and drink a glass of milk, and then went to bed. I woke up at 3 pm and went to the market to buy food for supper and my midnight meal. It was almost 5 pm by the time I finished supper and prepared my midnight meal. So I had to leave again and start a new night of work at 6 pm.

It was extremely tiresome the first week. I kept telling myself,“Nothing is easy for adults.” I kept telling myself that this is what it meant to cut myself off from my family economically and shoulder my responsibilities as an adult.

Conflicts in Intercultural Communication

While coping with work pressure, I also had problems communicating with colleagues from different countries. Culture is a river and each of us is a fish swimming in it. We are not aware of where the river is, but we are bound to it. Even if I jumped into the Australian river, I maintained my way of thinking and life attitudes as a Chinese fish.Therefore, it was inevitable for me to encounter problems and even conflicts when living with“fish” from different countries in the ethnically diverse society of Australia.

My German colleague Jackson was stubborn and maintained absolute fairness at work, but the Italian foreman liked to allocate work in a casual way.For example, two workers were in a group. One was responsible of removing floor slabs, and the other was responsible of putting the slabs into dump trucks. The work of dumping slabs was not so tiresome, so Jackson demanded to trade jobs every 20 minutes.

In my view, the workload was pretty much the same. It was inconvenient to switch jobs every 20 minutes because they needed to climb up and down the scaffolds again and again.As the other workers didn't agree with Jackson's suggestion erther, they argued and finally agreed to follow the foreman's arrangement.

In fact, it was hard to define absolute fairness. For instance,Sherry, a blonde girl from New Zealand was another colleague of mine. She was only responsible of pushing the button on the elevator, but got the same pay as the male workers who had to toil all day long.

I found that Australian people had developed a unique way of resolving the conflicts in the cross-cultural context. First off,there was zero tolerance for any racial or religious discrimination.No matter who had conflicts,nobody could discriminate based on the other's nationality,ethnicity, or religion; otherwise,he or she would be fired. Second,the complaints channel was very effective and efficient. Any employee could write to the relative department and complain about any unfair treatment or discrimination. Once verified, the company would definitely rectify the problem and give a reasonable solution to the complainant.These principles guaranteed that workers with different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds could work together harmoniously.

I got my first payment at the end of the first week. They transferred 1500 Australian dollars to my bank account and I got 1200 after paying tax, which was equivalent to the monthly salary of a white collar in China.

When the first check came in, I was down to my last 100 Australian dollars. I had mixed feelings when getting my first payment, but I knew I had succeeded in surviving this new life in Australia.

(From Chengdu Economic Daily, October 6, 2018.Translation: Li Li)

在悉尼当建筑工人

文/韩文豪

知乎上有一个问题：“现在的年轻人吃不了苦吗？”获得两万多点赞的一个回答，来自一个山东小伙子。他叫韩文豪，大学毕业后，因为一个偶然的机会，他申请到了打工度假签证，飞抵澳大利亚的悉尼，结结实实体验了一把建筑工人的蓝领生活。

下文便是韩文豪对那段生活的亲笔回忆。

“扫”到建筑工

2017年8月初，我买了一张从合肥转上海飞悉尼的机票，我想看看，靠着自己的智力、体力以及英语能力，能不能在这片完全陌生、举目无亲的异国他乡生存下来。

我提前在网上预订了青年旅社，冬季是旅游淡季，因此，青年旅社的日租只要不到20澳元（约合人民币100元），我的房间里还住着来自意大利、智利和韩国的三个小哥。

不到15平方米的小房间里，我们四人睡着两张上下铺。那个意大利小哥也是刚到悉尼，也是打工度假签证。我和他一起修改、打印英文简历，然后去图书馆复印，再去大街上“扫街”——挨家挨户给所有可能录取我们的店面投递简历。

一个月里，我们每天“扫街”、投简历，也收到过一两家职业介绍公司的面试电话，可没有一家企业录取我们。银行卡里的钱越来越少，我开始紧张起来，随时计算带来的钱还能坚持几天？

终于有一天，在我漫无目的地闲逛时，手机响了：“你好，我们建筑公司现在有职位空缺，正在招新的劳工……”

第二天的面试，很轻松就通过了。其实这种技术含量不算太高的职业并不要求什么专业素养，面试主要考核的是英语水平和体魄。

第三天就要去工地上夜班。当日下午5点，我早早到了工作地点皮特街，被领到会议室中，等待工头来给我们介绍工地的基本情况和基本规则。6点，介绍会准时开始，和我一同入职的还有两个德国小哥、一个法国小哥。工头给我们发了反光背心、安全帽、安全鞋（鞋尖由铁支撑，即使被重物砸到脚，也基本不会受伤）和防尘口罩。

没有“容易”二字

我的工作是和德国小哥一起拆吊顶。虽然吊顶大多由泡沫板制成，并不重，但要时刻仰着头，干几分钟就会觉得腰酸背痛。拆掉吊顶时会带下来很多粉尘，即使隔着防尘口罩也觉得呼吸有些困难。

我们从下午6点干到第二天凌晨5点，11个小时。中间有两段休息时间，一次是15分钟的带薪抽烟时间（工头大多会给延长到半个小时），还有一次是30分钟的不带薪夜宵时间。

这份工作对我而言极富挑战。尤其是从6点到9点半第一次休息前的3个半小时，简直是我人生中最漫长的：仿佛一眼望不到头的活儿，手臂酸痛到基本抬不起来，休息时间似乎还有整整一个世纪才能到来……

30分钟的夜宵休息时间也转瞬即逝：刚坐下，喝一口水，吃一口面包，30分钟就没了，又要艰难地站起来，继续工作，真是另一种时间的“相对论”啊。

我觉得其他工友的体力和耐力都比我好，特别是两个德国小哥，干起活来似乎有使不完的力气。当我感觉自己都快累虚脱时，人家还能一边哼着小曲一边工作。

第一天下班时，我几乎是拖着脚慢慢挪回旅社的。回到房间已是早上8点，赶紧吃口面包、喝杯牛奶，便倒头睡觉。一觉醒来，已经是下午3点，又要赶紧去菜市场买食材回来做饭，还要留好晚上要吃的宵夜便当。吃完晚饭，装好便当，差不多就到5点了，马上就得出发。6点又要开始新一夜的工作。

第一周是最难熬的，我不断告诫自己：“成年人的世界里没有‘容易’二字。”自尊心和羞耻心也告诉我，我必须跟家里“经济断奶”，必须自己负担起作为一个成年人的责任。

跨文化交际冲突

适应压力的同时，我也面临与同事的跨文化交际问题。文化就像一条条河流，我们每个个体都是河里游动着的鱼，我们感受不到河流的存在，但是我们依附于河流而存在。即使跳进了澳洲社会的河流，我依然是一条“中国鱼”，依然保留着中式的思维方式与处世态度。在澳洲这样的移民国家里，和来自世界各国不同种类的“鱼”共处，出现问题、产生冲突几乎是不可避免的。

比如我的德国工友杰克逊，做事喜欢认死理，一定要讲求绝对的公平；我们的工头是意大利裔，安排工作充满意大利式的洒脱。举个例子：两人一组工作，一个人负责拆楼板，另一个人负责把拆下的楼板收起来放进垃圾车。相对而言，收建筑垃圾的活儿稍微轻松些，于是杰克逊就要求每隔20分钟互换工作。

在我看来，工作难度差不多，而且最重要的是，互换的话，工人每隔20分钟就要从脚手架爬上爬下，很麻烦。所以其余的人都不同意，争吵一番后，还是按照工头的安排来。

其实，所谓绝对的公平很难界定。比如来自新西兰的金发美女工友雪莉，她是电梯工，只负责按电梯，听起来很简单轻松吧？薪酬待遇跟我们这些出力气的男工人一模一样。

我发现，澳洲社会早已进化出自己独特的一套方式来化解这种跨文化交际产生的冲突。首先就是对种族或宗教歧视零容忍。随便谁和谁产生冲突都可以，但是绝不能在冲突中攻击对方的国籍、族裔或宗教，一旦有此行为，基本上直接丢工作。其次便是十分完备的投诉机制。任何一个小工都可以直接向公司邮箱写信，投诉自己遇到的任何不公平对待或歧视。一旦投诉被查实，公司一定会更正，并且给投诉人合理的答复。这些原则，基本保证了各个族裔、不同文化背景的人可以一起共事。

熬过第一周后，工资紧跟着发下来，直接打进我的银行卡里：整整1500澳元，税后1200多澳元（合人民币6000多元），抵得上国内白领一个月的工资了。

这个时候，我带来的钱只剩下不到100澳元了。拿到第一笔工资的我百感交集：我知道，自己硬生生闯入澳洲社会的初次尝试成功了。（摘自《成都商报》2018年10月6日）