Older Workers From U.S. Take Jobs in China
Four years ago, when 61-year-old Gene Allison was casting around Greenville, S.C., for a way to cap off a long manufacturing career, he struck upon an unusual idea: move to China. Encouraged by what he calls his wife's "childhood fascination with everything Asian," and despite his own trepidation, Mr. Allison jumped on plans by his company, Rockwell Automation Inc., to build a plant in Shanghai. He helped set up the facility in 2000, and these days keeps tabs on machinists at factories run by local suppliers in China.
"I think I'll be here the rest of my career -- which might only be one or two more years," he says.
When it comes to trailblazing expatriate employees in China, a surprising number of the first-movers have been older folks. China is attracting people who would be thinking about retirement if they were back home in the U.S. or Europe, but who are in hot demand in a nation long on laborers but short on foremen.
China doesn't publish much data on foreign residents. The most recent figures from the Ministry of Public Security show that it granted 119,900 work visas in 2001, although the number likely undercounts the total. Patricia Matisz Smith, an assistant professor at North Carolina Wesleyan College, who studies U.S. workers overseas sees some evidence China is attracting a disproportionate number of expats over 50. "They understand and appreciate the local culture and are open to new foods, ideas and challenges," she says.
Foreign companies have poured $270 billion into China in the past seven years, much of it representing factories gearing up to make cars, computers and a wide variety of other export-quality products. Yet, assembly lines are as much about implementing the correct process, as they are plunking down the right equipment and hiring cheaper labor. "After you install the machine, you have to know how to run it efficiently," says 63-year-old James Lee, who in the 1990s established Chinese paper mills for what is now Kimberly-Clark Corp. He says seasoned production-line managers are simply less risky, noting the central asset of his current employer, Elite Paper (Shanghai) Co., is a sophisticated 236-foot-long machine that blows air through wood fiber to make super-absorbent paper. Young people "can get confused so easily," Mr. Lee says.
Unlike old-timers, younger workers in U.S. plants often haven't been exposed to the lower-tech manufacturing methods that still power much Chinese industry. Machine tooling of motor frames, for instance, would these days in the U.S. be done with laser-guided drills that can cost $1 million apiece. In China, the same export-quality parts are made on machines costing only a few thousand dollars, and where similarly intricate specifications have to be set manually.
Mr. Allison's duties are split between double-checking the production of Rockwell Automation's local manufacturing suppliers in China and ensuring that repairs are done right on the coal-mining equipment the company sells in the country. "It's blue-collar. You really have to get your hands dirty. You can't just sit in the office," he says.
The post is a departure from his background in economics and marketing, almost all of it spent in the U.S. He says he is comfortable grooming a team of Chinese quality-control experts to take his place when he finally retires, probably to Washington, Ga.
The willingness of some older workers to move to China fits into today's budget-cutting corporate culture. In an environment where companies have less money for country-club memberships and other traditional expatriate perks, older workers are an attractive option because their relative mobility, immersion in corporate culture and experience can make them the cheapest option to get an operation up and running. For instance, sending an older worker overseas usually means avoiding international-school tuition, which in China can cost as much as $20,000 per child.
The Shanghai American School employs a number of retired teachers taking up their first overseas posts, according to the school's superintendent, Tony Horton, 62. "It's a great resource," he says, noting that few fresh graduates -- a more traditional teacher pool -- stack up well against the mature competition.
Ford Motor Co., too, has over the years dipped into its pool of retired U.S., German, British and Australian auto workers when it needed something done right on the "operations" side of the China business, says a spokesman, Kenneth Hsu.
Many expatriate posts for older workers are designed to be temporary. John Luey, 64, was sent from Massachusetts as the deputy manager of what is now U.S. valve maker Metso Corp.'s Shanghai joint venture. But plant management was restructured two years ago. "Now, the Chinese general manager does everything," he says.
Like many expats, Mr. Luey formed a company of his own in China. "My wife and I are going to stay as long as we can," he says. "I just enjoy the excitement of what's going on here." What's more, he says, "I decided at my age, I'd have a better time getting a job here."
Still, China remains the other side of the world for many. Greg Whitney crisscrossed the U.S. for his company, living in Indiana, South Carolina and Washington. But, he concedes, moving to China was "something I had to think about for a while ... probably the biggest part was suggesting it to my wife."
The 55-year-old came to Shanghai last July to handle the nuts-and-bolts of operating the Rockwell Automation plant, where he is one of three foreigners along with Mr. Allison. To fit in, Mr. Whitney studies Chinese and his wife teaches.
"I miss the United States in general," he says, though he notes he has a car and driver and a high-rise apartment in Shanghai that he wouldn't have been able to afford in the U.S. A travel allotment gives him a chance to see two grown sons who live in Seattle.
Sometimes the trend actually brings the family closer together. Particularly with ethnic Chinese families, the older worker is sometimes drawing out a younger one. Papermaker Mr. Lee's 33-year-old daughter, Deborah Yi-wen Lee, figures she would have been working in the fashion industry back in New York if her father's job in Shanghai hadn't prompted her to try living in China for the first time. The daughter helps run a trendy retail center called Three on the Bund and lives in her father's spacious high-rise apartment.
A former PepsiCo Inc. engineer, 68-year-old Hank Lau followed his 31-year-old son Scott to Shanghai last year. He pitched in to get an in-taxi advertising business, Captivated Advertising TV, off the ground, quality checking engineers and buying hardware. It was a "surreal" four-month return to a country he had left at age 13, he says from New Jersey. "Fifty some years of communism really changed things."
Health is a potential pitfall for older workers. Mr. Allison's first wife, Mary, who originally convinced him to push for the China job, was diagnosed with terminal cancer within months of the couple's arrival in Shanghai in mid-2001. Mr. Allison says he was impressed with the care she got at hospitals in China and Hong Kong and the couple had extra opportunities to do things like visit New Zealand.
Mr. Allison has since remarried. His new spouse, Bonnie, moved to Shanghai earlier this year from Los Angeles.
外国老员工在中国焕发新青春
四年前，在61岁的吉恩?阿里森(Gene Allison)在南卡罗来纳州的格林维尔正想著如何结束在制造行业漫长的职业生涯时，他突发奇想：到中国去。而他的妻子“自孩提时代就对亚洲的一切都感到著迷“，在这一因素的鼓动下，尽管阿里森自己有些忐忑不安，他还是参加了他所在公司Rockwell Automation Inc.在上海建厂的计划。他于2000年在上海协助建立了工厂，现在负责监督工厂机械工的工作，这个工厂由中国当地的供应商运营。
他说，“我想我会在这里走完我剩余的职业生涯－－可能还只有一或两年的时间。”
令人感到意外的是，在首次到海外工作的外国员工中，有相当一部分是老年人。中国吸引了那些如果留在美国或欧洲或许已经考虑退休的人，在工人充足但工长缺乏的中国，这些外国员工炙手可热。
有关在华居住外国人数量的官方数据不多。中国公安部最新公布的数字显示，2001年它颁发了119,900个工作签证，但这一数字可能低于实际数字。北卡罗来纳州Wesleyan College研究海外美国工人的助教帕特丽夏?马蒂兹?史密斯(Patricia Matisz Smith)说，有证据显示中国吸引了大量50岁以上的外国员工。“他们喜欢当地的文化和饮食，并乐于接受新的观念和挑战。”
外国公司在过去7年中向中国注入了2,700亿美元，其中大部分资金用于建设汽车、电脑以及各种出口产品的制造工厂。但是生产线不是设备落地和雇佣廉价劳动力那么简单，正确的生产操作同样重要。63岁的 姆士?李(James Lee)说，“在你安装完设备之后，你必须知道如何正确地操作。” 姆士?李九十年代时为现在的金佰利(Kimberly-Clark Corp.)安装了造纸厂。他说，经验丰富的生产线经理能降低风险，他现在的雇主Elite Paper (Shanghai) Co.的核心资产是一个复杂的72米长的机器，这个机器将空气吹入木质纤维中，以制造具有超强吸水能力的纸张。他说，“年轻人很容易弄混。”
与老一辈不同，美国工厂的年轻工人通常不需要掌握这些低科技含量的制造方法，而这些制造方法却在中国的制造业中很常见。比如，目前美国对发动机框架的加工是通过高科技激光导引的钻床来完成的，这个钻床的造价是每台100万美元。在中国，同样的出口部件是在造价仅为几千美元的机器上完成的，一些复杂精密的规格必须手动设定。
阿里森的职责分成两部分：检查Rockwell Automation在中国当地制造供应商的生产；确保该公司在中国销售的煤炭开采设备得到正确的维修。他说，“这是个蓝领工作。你的双手肯定会被弄脏。你不能只坐在办公室里。”
这份工作与他的经济学和营销学背景相差甚远，除了90年代中期他被派往德国工作以外，他一直在美国从事与上述背景相关的工作。
一些年长的工人愿意到中国来工作正好满足了企业想削减预算的愿望。目前，公司向外派员工发放乡村俱乐部会员资格以及其他外派津贴的空间缩小，年长工人成为了这些公司一个具有吸引力的选择：他们灵活性强、熟谙企业文化，工作经验丰富。他们使公司可以用最低的成本满足维持业务运转的需要。
比如，将一个年长的工人派往国外，意味著不用为他们的孩子支付海外教育费用，在中国这笔费用高达每个孩子20,000美元。上海美国学校的督导、现年62岁的托尼?豪顿(Tony Horton)称，他的学校雇佣了许多首次到海外工作的退休教师，他说，“这是一个很好的资源。”他还指出，刚毕业的研究生－－更传统的教师来源－－很少能与他们相抗衡。
福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)的发言人Kenneth Hsu称，过去数年当中国的业务在“操作”中需要有人指导的时候，他们也使用美国、德国、英国和澳大利亚的退休工人。
许多面向年长工人的海外职位是暂时性的。64岁的John Luey被美国阀门制造商Metso Corp.从马萨诸塞州派往上海的合资工厂担任副经理一职。但是工厂的管理层在两年前进行了重组。象许多外派人员一样，Luey在中国成立了一家自己的公司。他说，“我的妻子和我打算一直呆下去，我享受这里的变化所带给我的激动人心的感觉。”
但是，中国对许多人来说仍然是世界的另一端。格雷革?惠特尼(Greg Whitney)在美国时，为了他的公司一度奔波于印第安纳州、南卡罗来纳州和华盛顿州之间。但是，他承认，迁往中国是他“当时需要仔细考虑的事...最主要的是怎么向我的妻子开口。”
现年55岁的他去年7月来到上海负责运营Rockwell Automation工厂的具体事务，他是这个工厂包括阿里森在内的三个外国人之一。为了融入当地，惠特尼学习中文，他的妻子则教书。
他说，“我还是想念美国。”尽管他在上海有一部车和专职司机，还能拥有一套他在美国住不起的高层公寓－－惠特尼在美国的住所位于郊区。
这种趋势有些时候还能令家庭关系更为紧密。特别是在华裔家庭，年长工人有时会带一个子女一同过来。造纸商 姆士?李33岁的女儿Deborah Yi-wen Lee称，若不是他父亲在上海工作让她首次尝试在中国的生活，她现在将会在纽约时装界工作。她帮助经营外滩一家名为Three的时尚零售店，住在她父亲宽敞的高层公寓里面。
百事可乐(PepsiCo Inc.)一位前工程师、68岁的Hank Lau 去年跟著他31岁的儿子斯科特(Scott)来到上海。他参与了将出租车内广告业务Captivated Advertising TV投入运营的前期工作，主要职责是监督工程师的工作以及购买硬件。目前身在新泽西州的他说，那是他从13岁离开中国后第一次回去，在那里度过的四个月简直让他不敢相信自己真的回到了中国。“50多年的共产主义让中国改变了很多。”
年长工人的一个潜在风险是健康问题。最初说服阿里森前往中国工作的是他的第一任妻子玛利(Mary)。可在2001年年中，他们刚抵达上海才几个月的时候，玛利就被诊断出是癌症晚期。阿里森说，他的妻子在中国和香港的医院得到的照顾给他留下了深刻的印象，他们因此有特别的机会做一些事情，比如到新西兰旅游。
阿里森此后又结了一次婚，他的新伴侣邦妮(Bonnie)今年年初也从洛杉矶来到了上海。
