I watched The Company Men and American Factory recently. The first is fictional the second is a documentary. The theme of job-loss runs through both. The high-flying sales execs that get laid off in The Company Men have at first blush very little in common with the GM factory workers in American Factory who find a second lease of life in Fuyao Glass.
Yet the pain of job loss and the toll it takes on person's sense of self-worth is universal. The ability to withstand the financial impact would vary but the emotional toll may be more on par. In both stories, we see people who have given up years of their lives for the good of the company and factory, hoping their loyalty and allegiance to the cause mattered. In the end, everyone learns that they are dispensable; that there should not be an expectation of reward beyond paychecks and incentives.
In The Company Men, one of the VPs gets fired and he quickly finds himself unable to afford his lifestyle or pay for his daughter's college tuition. He decides to commit suicide as he does not see a path to re-establishing his career at sixty. A factory worker in American Factory talks about how her pay was slashed in half going from GM to Fuyao and she can't readily buy gym shoes for her kids anymore. Both are accounts of a people having to cope with a loss of ability to provide for family, just the degree of resilience to adversity varies by how far that drop is (or perceived to be in the case of the VP).
Those that are fortunate enough to live well below their means and choose not to do so, up with a lot of self-inflicted pain. It is harder to feel empathy. The factory worker with a few kids and a wage that barely makes ends meet cannot cut any corners. Something is fundamentally flawed with a system that is unable to provide a person who is willing to work hard and long, a decent life. American Factory is a movie about many things - just not the plight of displaced factory workers trying to make it work with the lifeline they were given. Definitely a worthwhile watch.
Yet the pain of job loss and the toll it takes on person's sense of self-worth is universal. The ability to withstand the financial impact would vary but the emotional toll may be more on par. In both stories, we see people who have given up years of their lives for the good of the company and factory, hoping their loyalty and allegiance to the cause mattered. In the end, everyone learns that they are dispensable; that there should not be an expectation of reward beyond paychecks and incentives.
In The Company Men, one of the VPs gets fired and he quickly finds himself unable to afford his lifestyle or pay for his daughter's college tuition. He decides to commit suicide as he does not see a path to re-establishing his career at sixty. A factory worker in American Factory talks about how her pay was slashed in half going from GM to Fuyao and she can't readily buy gym shoes for her kids anymore. Both are accounts of a people having to cope with a loss of ability to provide for family, just the degree of resilience to adversity varies by how far that drop is (or perceived to be in the case of the VP).
Those that are fortunate enough to live well below their means and choose not to do so, up with a lot of self-inflicted pain. It is harder to feel empathy. The factory worker with a few kids and a wage that barely makes ends meet cannot cut any corners. Something is fundamentally flawed with a system that is unable to provide a person who is willing to work hard and long, a decent life. American Factory is a movie about many things - just not the plight of displaced factory workers trying to make it work with the lifeline they were given. Definitely a worthwhile watch.
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