The man beside him suddenly thought of something else. “Oh, that’s right. The only exception is Boss Pei.
“Out of respect, nobody calls him by his
name.
“Of course, Boss Pei is quite an easygoing person. I don’t think he’ll get angry even if you refer to him by his name.
“It’s just that everyone respects him from the bottom of our hearts. That’s why we address him as ‘Boss Pei’. He’s the only one in the entire company.
“All in all, apart from Boss Pei, you can refer to anyone by their names without a problem.”
Wu Bin nodded in silence. It looked like he needed to learn about those internal practices from the old employees. Both of them engaged in casual conversation and introduced themselves.
Then, Wu Bin asked more about daily work matters, such as… whether the contents in the Employee’s Handbook were true or not.
The man pondered for a moment and replied, “Not entirely.”
Wu Bin nodded, understanding.
Indeed, most companies would hide their flaws and boast about their merits in their introductions. Of course, he could not say that was wrong. He could only say it was understandable.
The man beside him continued speaking. “Many things are not written in the handbook.
“There’s this best employee selection, which occurs twice a year? The winner gets a Dream Fund of a million yuan, and the second-best gets a month of paid leave.
“Then, the regular physical examinations and claimable medical expenses…
“In addition…”
The man began to explain all the other benefits of working in Tengda. Feeling like he had left some things out, he checked his resources and filled in the gaps. He had no choice; there were too many benefits to memorize.
Wu Bin was speechless.
He had thought that the man was going to reveal internal scoop left unwritten in the Employee’s Handbook, such as how much work they had to do in this company, how their salaries would be docked occasionally, and the like.
However, Wu Bin had completely misunderstood!
The Employee’s Handbook did not contain all the employee benefits available. There were still many more benefits that could not be written down because of the limited space.
Wu Bin was at a complete loss for words now. He began to wonder if he had been scammed and if this company was out to cheat him.
How could there be such good benefits?!
Yet, Tengda had a good reputation, and reality was staring him in the face. He had no other choice but to believe it!
After calming himself down, Wu Bin asked, “Brother, do you know what would be tested in the Tengda Spirit compatibility test?”
The man beside him finished the last of his chips and threw the empty bag into the trash can. Shaking his head, he said, “I’m not sure. Your batch of employees will be the first batch taking the test. I have never taken it before. The contents of the test have been a well-kept secret. I’ve only heard a bit of news about it.
“Boss Pei was the one who set all the questions. Apart from him, nobody has the authority to edit the test.
“Don’t worry. I don’t think it’ll be that difficult. I think it’ll be like the psychological tests that some schools organize-a mere formality. “As long as no huge problems are detected, it should be easy to pass it.”
At that point, Wu Bin heaved a sigh of relief. It was good that the test would be easy!
Alright, I’ll work with my heart filled with hope!
Wu Bin stood up, walked towards Li Yada, and asked for her to assign him some work.
Li Yada looked up and asked, “Work? Er… I can’t assign you work while you’re interning.
“What’s more, we have enough manpower for now. Your job would be to watch and learn. Try your best to pass the Tengda Spirit compatibility test on the first try so that you can be offered tenure soon.”
Beads of perspiration formed on his forehead as he returned to his seat.
This was the first time he had been given no work to do despite having taken the initiative to ask for some.
In the office…
“Boss Pei, the administrative department has come up with this plan for the company’s annual meeting. Please take a look.”
Pei Qian took the file from Assistant Xin and flipped through its contents. It was quite detailed. Right on top was a list of expenses for the annual meeting, as well as the proposed prizes.
A thousand gifts meant for everyone: a red packet containing a thousand yuan.
Three hundred 799-yuan earphones. Three hundred 899-yuan mechanical keyboards.
Two hundred random red packets containing five hundred to a thousand yuan.
Two hundred 1,299-yuan air purifiers.
Seventy 2,199-yuan sweeping robots. Eighty 3,599-yuan game machines.
Eighty 4,599-yuan tablet computers.
Forty each of Pineapple and Shenhua’s flagship cell phones, costing 5,699 yuan.
Seventy 5,999-yuan television sets.
Twenty 11,999-yuan digital cameras.
Ten 18,888-yuan cash gifts.
Three pairs of tickets to any city in the world (inclusive of the airplane tickets, accommodation in five-star hotels, and a spending allowance of thirty thousand yuan). All of those prizes added up to about four million yuan.
This was the most that the System would allow.
There were close to a thousand employees attending the annual meeting. Of course, most of these were Upwind Logistics’ delivery men.
Although those delivery men were manual laborers, Pei Qian did not look down upon them. That was because all of them were still considered Tengda’s employees. They did their jobs well by delivering parcels each day. Of course, they had to be invited to a special occasion like the company’s annual meeting.
At first, Pei Qian wanted to distribute more generous gifts to everyone, such as a flagship cell phone or something. However, considering the budget for all the gifts to be distributed at the annual meeting, that would mean the other gifts would have to be of less value.
That would make the lucky draw less exciting.
Thus, he could only distribute red packets containing a thousand yuan to everyone.
Still, there were about two to three hundred pieces of most gifts. The red packets aside, there were a total of 1,483 gifts to be distributed
Furthermore, a limit had been placed on the event’s lucky draw. Each person would not be allowed to win the same price twice, and they could only win a total of two different prizes at most.
Those who did not win any prizes in the beginning would have greater chances of winning later on.
In other words, even the unluckiest people would stand a chance to win something. People would neither return with a sudden windfall nor empty-handed.
Pei Qian was quite satisfied with these prizes. He continued reading further.
Next was the annual meeting’s program sheet, which included the live performances, food, and the like.
Chefs from Ming Yun Private Kitchen and Fish-Catching Take-Out would be invited to the hotel where the meeting would be held. They would cook for everyone. Ingredients would be prepared beforehand, and Lin Canrong would plan the menu.
All in all, there was no need to worry about the food.
Pei Qian cared most about the programs. Most annual meetings held by other companies could only be described using one word: awkward!
Some forced their male employees to put on leotards and dance to Swan Lake, some forced employees to awkwardly dance to online hits, and some forced their employees to play degrading games that continually pushed the bottom line.
All in all, it had already become quite common for employees to perform on stage. However, it was still extremely awkward. Pei Qian could not be sure if this was the warping of humanity or the downfall of morality.
The programs that Assistant Xin had planned contained no such mistake. They looked pretty good on the whole. Ther
e were no ridiculous requests for all the department heads to dress up as ladies and perform on stage either.
Pei Qian was very happy with this. As the saying went, letting others off was letting oneself off. He did not want to dress up in strange costumes and act like a monkey on stage.
This plan for the annual meeting involved inviting professionals to perform on stage by singing, dancing, doing acrobatics, and the like. Apart from that, fun-looking games had also been planned.
Of course, an additional budget had been set aside for inviting professionals to perform and inviting employees to play games. After all, employees had to be rewarded for being a good sport, no matter how minor the game was.
After some time, Pei Qian still could not find anything interesting. Singing, dancing, and performing were not bad; however, they were not that interesting either.
Even if these performances took place at a dinner and not an annual meeting, how many people would really enjoy them?
Inviting employees to play mini-games on stage would be much better than making them play degrading games, but it would still be quite awkward.
After all, nobody was there to play games. They were there to win prizes.
Since employees were there to win as much as possible and Boss Pei wanted to distribute as much as possible, shouldn’t they do away with all the awkward programs?
After some thought, Pei Qian said, “We can get rid of all the programs and games. Bring capsule machines and claw machines into the event location. Set up some stations for ring toss, boomerangs, or toy guns as well.
“Then, the entire place will be filled with recreational facilities, capsules, plush toys, and various figures.
“Each person will be given some tokens, which they can use to play the games.
“That’s right-adjust the tricky games, like the claw machines, to maximize people’s chances of winning something. “There will only be two things for people to do at the annual meeting: eat and play!
“We will have lucky draws all the way. Once everyone has eaten their fill, they can take their tokens to the capsule machines and claw machines. When all the prizes have been won, everyone has eaten their fill, and all the tokens have been spent; the annual meeting would officially come to an end.
“Tengda would not engage in formalism or motivation. We also would not force anyone to make a fool out of themselves on stage.
“Eat, drink, and be merry—that will be our annual meeting’s theme!”
Chapter 360 - There are… Problems with the Test Questions!
December 20th, Monday… Last week, Tengda’s administrative department worked hard to prepare for the annual meeting while the other subsidiaries and departments continued researching and developing their respective products.
Thus, Pei Qian did nothing but slack and wait for time to pass.
The company was meant to have a gathering at Ming Yun Private Kitchen on the 20th of every month, but today was special.
That was because the annual meeting was also set for today. Pei Qian gathered all of Ming Yun Private Kitchen and Fish-Catching Take-Out’s chefs to the location of the annual meeting.
Tengda’s annual meeting was going to be different from other companies’.
Most other companies would set their annual meetings in the evening. That meant everyone would only leave the office in the afternoon and remain at the venue until 7 or 8 PM, or perhaps even later. That would severely cut into their rest time.
Of course, this was unacceptable to Pei Qian.
Thus, the plan for Tengda’s annual meeting was this: everyone would work as per usual in the morning, attend the annual meeting in the afternoon, and aim to end before their usual knock-off time. Pei Qian could not allow his employees’ rest to be affected.
At that moment, Wu Bin was seated at his own work desk with nothing to do. He wondered how he should spend his time!
He looked around…
Why was everyone working so seriously?
If he was at Hengtu Games and everyone knew that the annual meeting was going to begin shortly, they would be idling and slacking on the job, just waiting for time to pass.
After all, it would be extremely difficult to focus on work under such circumstances. Yet, things were completely different at Tengda. Everyone continued working on whatever they were supposed to work on and actually looked even more serious than before!
Wu Bin was puzzled.
We’re supposed to have the annual meeting today. Shouldn’t you be excited for tonight? Shouldn’t you have trouble focusing on work?
Why are you all tapping away at your keyboards and being so preoccupied with work?
Were they acting?
That couldn’t be. Wu Bin stole a glance at the man beside him and realized that he was indeed working. He was neither chatting with others nor surfing random webpages. Wu Bin whispered, “The annual meeting is going to begin. Why does everyone look so much busier?”
The man sipped his coffee and answered, “Isn’t that normal?
“The annual meeting is taking up our afternoon. We have no choice but to be more productive in the morning so that we can finish up our work for the day.
“There’s only so much work to do anyway. The sooner we can finish it, the sooner we can rest. If we keep delaying it, it’s difficult to obtain permission to work overtime!”
Wu Bin was speechless.
What the hell did he mean by ‘it’s difficult to obtain permission to work overtime’?!
This was the first time Wu Bin was hearing that employees did not have the freedom to work overtime. In fact, there was an imposed limit. It was no wonder that everyone was working as hard as they were. They had fixed tasks.
Other companies enjoyed making their employees work overtime. If they gave their employees ten hours to finish a task and their employees finished earlier, they would only give the latter more work to do.
Naturally, those employees took their own sweet time and found it best to submit their work at the last possible minute.
Tengda was extraordinary. There was also a lot of work to be done, but the company reduced its employees’ working duration as far as possible.
Employees were to adhere strictly to the eight-hour work limit. Even if they wanted to work an extra hour, whether they would be allowed to or not was dependent on Boss Pei’s mood.
Furthermore, the tasks were fixed. Even if they finished earlier, they would not be given new tasks.
Thus, many people had become used to working efficiently.
On one hand, finishing their work sooner would mean being able to rest and play sooner. On the other hand if they left their work undone and they were not allowed to work overtime later, they would not be able to finish their work before the deadline.
Today, everybody’s afternoons would be taken up by the annual meeting. Thus, they had to finish as much work as possible in the morning
Of course, they were extremely productive!
Wu Bin could not help but feel moved. Tengda was really freaky. Why was it doing the complete opposite of every other company out there? The company must have had a special technique that could ignite the passion in its employees.
Since that was the case…
Wu Bin needed to be as efficient and passionate at work as possible in order to fit into the company better!
He quickly made a mental note of all these things.
That was because he was due to take his first Tengda Spirit compatibility test that morning.
This was his first time. If he passed, he would obtain tenure and become one of Tengda’s employees.
If he failed, he would have three more chances.
Wu Bin knew this very well: the more special and unique a company was, the harder it would be to grasp its spirit.
Thus, Wu Bin had no idea what kind of questions would be tested. Soon, it was time.
At 11 AM, Wu Bin walked into the conference room. There were many laptops in the room. Tengda Spirit compatib
ility test’s program was opened on every single one of them.
One would not be able to change windows or exit the program. They would only be allowed to submit the test once they had answered all the questions.
Furthermore, people from the administrative department were there to invigilate the test. They would not be allowed to communicate or use their cell phones.
Wu Bin looked around and found that more than twenty people were going to sit for the test this time.
Obviously, those were not all the people who had been selected to join Tengda in the previous round. A few of them were still in the midst of leaving their previous jobs and thus had not joined the company yet.
The twenty-odd employees in the room were just like Wu Bin. They had left their previous jobs almost immediately after being selected. That was why they had made it in time to join this batch.
Wu Bin realized that the atmosphere in the conference room was still quite relaxed. Although people were not laughing and chatting, nobody was sulking or behaving like they were going to war.
Obviously, everyone thought that this test would be similar to physical examinations for government officials or psychological tests that some universities organized; very few people would fail.
Most of them thought that they would be able to pass as long as they answered the questions instinctively. This was a mere formality to them.
Soon, everyone took their seats and started the test.
Wu Bin sucked in a deep breath, grabbed the mouse, and read the first question.
‘It’s time to get off work. You have an incomplete assignment on your hands. You should:’
Wu Bin scanned the options and frowned at once.
“That simple? Of course, I have to work overtime if the work’s not done. Nobody would select ‘wait until tomorrow’, right?
“Holy sh*t, there’s an option to argue with one’s superior? Whoever selects this option would probably be fired immediately, right?
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