Foxconn CEO "Workers Are Animals" Comments Explained?

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Fact: Comparing your employees to animals in a zoo is stupid. Fact: Being CEO of Foxconn only makes that statement worse. Fact: No animals have jumped off the roof of the zoo.

During a presentation involving Taipei Zoo director Chin Shi-chien, Gou made the following remark. "Hon Hai (Foxconn) has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache," said Gou, as reported English news-site Want China Times. After bad press, which Foxconn does not need after this month's suicide-protest, the company has responded, apologizing for the "out of context" comments, but conceding that the Foxconn CEO could still learn from the zoo director.
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He's just saying the plain truth... there is no difference between us and the animals, except animals get better treated.
 
Wow...what a fucking idiot....what does animals have to do with 1 million people that work for you? Out of context my ass...
 
fps4ever said:
Wow...what a fucking idiot....what does animals have to do with 1 million people that work for you? Out of context my ass...
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Just means he needs a Temple Grandin to talk to his people and figure out he can herd them without them turning into Lemmings.
 
Yes, please guys, this was completely taken out of context. What he meant to say was not that people are animals, but rather Foxconn treats people like they are animals in zoos. Except that the animals in zoos at least get shelter and food...and the Foxconn employees who want shelter and food, cannot get a raise to provide it.
 
By making such a comment, he reveals his attitude and personal belief on the subject and if it is true that this is what he believes it is no wonder that his employees are going off the way they are.

Treat people in a certain way and they will start acting that way.

This CEO is an idiot. He might be good with numbers or some other shit, but apparently he is a moron when it comes to HR.

Foxconn would be wise to find a new CEO.
 
Don't know why everyone is all upset. Corporations always view people as replaceable. Human labor is cheap. If you don't want the job, there's a line behind you of hundreds of others who do.

If life is so rare and special, why do you eat animals?



;)
 
human beings are also animals
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So where does the falsehood come in? Is anyone here going to suggest that human beings are NOT animals?
 
canna said:
So where does the falsehood come in? Is anyone here going to suggest that human beings are NOT animals?
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I'm not sure that is what is being discussed. I think the appropriateness of the comment is what is in question. A CEO should never label his workforce as animals. For one, animals lack the ability (that I know of) to kill themselves.

The definition can be argued all day, biological data can be argued all day, the fact remains that humans have evolved to do what we are doing now (having an intelligent conversation). That is what societies definition of "human" and "animal" has become - intelligence. Animals are considered inferior on many regards because of our intelligence.

Hence, why it was (if the translation is right) very inappropriate.
 
Being one of the people who read what the article quoted him saying, I can see how it can be easily misunderstood. It's unfortunate that he used that language, but I think it's being blown out of proportion.

That being said, what's going on at FOXCONN is a serious issue, and I sure hope it is dealt with properly. It takes a lot of work to run businesses and addressing serious changes like this take time to be done properly. I just hope that FOXCONN does address them properly.
 
VRMan said:
Don't know why everyone is all upset. Corporations always view people as replaceable. Human labor is cheap. If you don't want the job, there's a line behind you of hundreds of others who do.

If life is so rare and special, why do you eat animals?



;)
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And don't forget.. for each person in that lineup.. someone in that line is willing to do the job for less then you make.
 
Mungojerrie said:
Have fun not purchasing ANYTHING
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To truly affect change in society, one must be prepared to suffer in order to gain. You can post all you want and complain all you want, but if you are not ready to suffer for a cause, you won't get anything out of it.
 
that's what happens when you directly translate chinese into english, and take it out of context.

for most foxconn workers, the job is better than whatever they had before
 
VRMan said:
Don't know why everyone is all upset. Corporations always view people as replaceable. Human labor is cheap. If you don't want the job, there's a line behind you of hundreds of others who do.
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That's actually a very costly way of conducting business, however, it unfortunately happens frequently. There's a lot of costs associated with hiring and training.
 
canna said:
So where does the falsehood come in? Is anyone here going to suggest that human beings are NOT animals?
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There's a reason why he chose those words. Saying something like that is not exactly a random "slip-up". It's clear he did not mean it in the biological sense.
 
MavericK96 said:
There's a reason why he chose those words. Saying something like that is not exactly a random "slip-up". It's clear he did not mean it in the biological sense.
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Yup, you can clearly pickup the nuances of someone's spoken Chinese words translated into English :rolleyes:

IMO he meant it exactly in the biological sense.

Still it betrays a view that people are replaceable cogs in a machine.
 
I read the best term for inner-city street scum the other day ... "feral humans"!
 
Mungojerrie said:
Have fun not purchasing ANYTHING
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by ANYTHING you mean many things confined to the electronics genre. I agree it might be difficult but doubt it is impossible.

And I think the threat of a boycott would open the eyes of many. Companies like <s>Apple</s> perhaps Amazon would start to think twice when they are garnering this much negative attention. All it takes is for confidence to collapse to see its share price tumble. Look at what happened to Netflix with its CEO's idiotic announcements, and I'm sure calling employees "animals" is not good.

Well by animals, perhaps he means lemmings? They like to jump off high places huh?
 
Xeth said:
Yup, you can clearly pickup the nuances of someone's spoken Chinese words translated into English :rolleyes:

IMO he meant it exactly in the biological sense.

Still it betrays a view that people are replaceable cogs in a machine.
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Unless the word "animal" was mistranslated from something meaning "independent being" (which I doubt) then no, he meant what he said.

Why say something like that, even if you meant it in the biological sense? It's just dumb.
 
Who cares? He's a well-paid CEO which means he knows what he's doing and is good at it.
 
JesterOI said:
Foxconn would be wise to find a new CEO.
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Why, this comment wont change anything, good luck boycotting foxconn, they practically make everything your using to view this read or have some piece of tech in the hardware you got.
 
"Hey mister Foxconn CEO, what is that you are wearing on your head?" "Oh, that is my ass...why?"
 
I think it'd be appropriate to get offended by his comment if he weren't an animal himself. Because he is: nope. One shouldn't take any offense.

I am, of course, assuming he isn't a robot or some sort of bacteria, which seems reasonable enough.
 
Topweasel said:
Just means he needs a Temple Grandin to talk to his people and figure out he can herd them without them turning into Lemmings.
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Gotta hand it to ya, slipping in a Temple Granin comment isn't something you see every day!
Though she just may have more on the ball than this guy dose. At least she's able to use her disabilities constructively.
 
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