2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 284 Bringing the Child to Work (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
May 2nd, the first working day after the May Day holiday.

At the FlashTech factory, employees have returned to their normal routines after a two-day break. The next long holiday is not until National Day, which is five months away. Just thinking about it makes one feel hopeless.

The salary and benefits are good, but there are too few holidays during the week. That's probably the only advantage. Even during the two-day May Day holiday, some factory lines encouraged employees to work overtime to try and get triple pay.

Xu Xinglei, one of the first "veteran employees" to join the factory, will have 24 months of service by the end of June. Employees with more than 24 months of service can be evaluated based on their performance and be considered for promotion.

For the first batch of employees like Xu Xinglei, those who haven't left yet, as long as their performance isn't too bad, promotion is almost a certainty.

After the promotion, in addition to the increase in salary and benefits, there will be an internal training. If you pass the training, you will be assigned to a new industrial base at the end of the year as a team leader, which is a basic management position.

Even if you fail the training or are not suitable for a management position, it's okay. Your salary and benefits will still increase. In other words, if you actually work for two years, you will have at least one opportunity for a raise.

After becoming a team leader, those who perform well may have the opportunity to be promoted to line leader or transferred to other grassroots leadership positions to do some easier work.

Xu Xinglei did not voluntarily work overtime during the May Day holiday. Firstly, his income was higher than that of the newly hired employees, and he had already saved some money last year, so he was not short of money this year. Secondly, he also wanted to use the two-day holiday to read books and reflect on himself.

His current goal is to be selected as a team leader. Even the lowest-level employees at FlashTech have their own paths to promotion. Although it is almost impossible to advance to the middle or senior management level, a grassroots leader is still a leader. Having a goal is better than just keeping working on screws.

At noon at the FlashTech company cafeteria, Xu Xinglei ran into his good friend Zhao Xinbin. The two were no longer on the same production line, and due to the day and night shift system, they hadn't seen each other during work hours for a while.

"You changed shifts?" Xu Xinglei asked happily.

"Yeah, are you on the day shift too? Why didn't you work overtime during the May Day holiday? You get triple pay." Zhao Xinbin greeted him happily.

"I'm too tired. I need to rest for two days. I haven't even spent all of last year's bonus yet." Xu Xinglei dared not admit that he had secretly gone to Xinhua Bookstore to read.

There's nothing shameful about reading and studying, but young men, including some college students, often feel a sense of shame about it.

Sigh, I'll have to study secretly, I can't let you guys know.

If you don't fail a course, you can act nonchalant and pretend you just took it casually; if you fail, you can say you didn't study.

“Oh, right; by the way, look over there, the boss is eating there, do you dare to go up and say hello?” Zhao Xinbin didn’t care and pointed to a corner in the cafeteria.

There was a significantly higher foot traffic there than elsewhere, and people would occasionally pass by carrying metal lunchboxes.

"Why is there a little girl? Is she the boss's daughter?" Xu Xinglei asked, somewhat puzzled.

"No, she's the boss's sister. The boss is not even 21 years old and is not married yet. Where would he get a 2-year-old daughter?"

"How do you know so much? Did you ask them before?"

"Don't you go online? They've practically dug up the boss's entire family history online. I used to think the boss was a rich kid, but I never imagined he started from scratch. That's amazing!" Zhao Xinbin exclaimed with admiration.

That's insane! In just three years since graduating high school, he's made a billion dollars from scratch!
Earning 10 billion in three years? What kind of inhuman behavior is that? That's just too amazing!
These days, resentment towards the rich isn't as severe, and the conflict between ordinary employees and bosses isn't too bad. Besides, Flashpoint Technology's employee benefits are quite good, so employees naturally have a good impression of the boss.

After the news broke online, I discovered that my boss was actually the same kind of person as me, with an average family background and his father also coming from a rural area. I even started to imagine that this was the reason why he received such good benefits.

Zhao Xinbin greatly admires Tan Jincheng. He has earned so much money through his own abilities. A boss like that is truly impressive!
"Let's go up and say hello." Xu Xinglei was also tempted; since everyone else was going, it wouldn't seem out of place.

"Great!" Zhao Xinbin was also eager to show his face; the boss rarely appeared in the cafeteria, so this was a rare opportunity.

The two mustered their courage and followed the group to the corner where Tan Jincheng was sitting. They saw the owner taking care of his younger sister's meal. The owner used a spoon to cut the braised pork into small pieces and then placed them in front of the little girl.

"Hi boss!"

"Hello, boss!" Xu Xinglei and Zhao Xinbin greeted each other at the same time.

"Hello, thank you for your hard work!" Tan Jinyue said with a serious expression as she waited for her brother to prepare her meal.

Tan Jincheng had already said this many times, and the little girl remembered it. Seeing that her brother hadn't said it yet, she couldn't wait and spoke first.

Xu Xinglei and Zhao Xinbin looked surprised. Tan Jincheng smiled when he heard this, glanced at Xiao Jinyue, and then turned his gaze back to the two of them.

"Hello, oh? You look familiar. Your surname is Xu, right?" Tan Jincheng looked Xu Xinglei up and down.

With several hundred employees in the company, it's impossible for him to know everyone. So when people come to greet him, Tan Jincheng can only respond mechanically. If someone looks familiar, he'll praise them by saying "Work hard."

"Yes, boss, I was transferred from the old factory. You and Manager Chen interviewed our group of people back then." Xu Xinglei was a little excited, not expecting the boss to remember him. Employees of FlashTech usually refer to the factory in the Xiapu Industrial Zone as the old factory and the factory in the export processing zone as the new factory.

I wonder what they'll call the industrial park in Daqi once it's built.

"Oh, I remember now. You'll almost have two years of experience. Keep up the good work and try to become a team leader, and eventually a line leader," Tan Jincheng encouraged with a smile.

Tan Jincheng generally doesn't participate in the recruitment of employees at the grassroots level. There was indeed a group of employees for whom Tan Jincheng participated in the recruitment along with Chen Jinwen, but he couldn't remember why. Maybe he was just bored.

"Okay, thank you boss."

"No need to thank me. You've worked hard, and this is what you deserve. If anyone should be thanking someone, it's me who should thank you."

Then Tan Jincheng said to Zhao Xinbin, "You too, work hard, improve together with Xiao Xu, and try to buy a house in Beicang to bring your parents over."

"Okay, I'll definitely try my best. By the way, boss, we're also from Anhui Province." Zhao Xinbin was much more astute than Xu Xinglei. The boss didn't recognize him, but what did it matter? It would be good to say a few more words and become familiar with him.

“You’re from Yingzhou, right? I can recognize your accent, and I can understand some of your dialect, but you can’t understand our Yicheng dialect.”

“Yes, yes, we are from Yingzhou,” Zhao Xinbin nodded repeatedly.

"Well, there should be quite a few of our company employees in Yingzhou. You guys work hard and set a good example. It's tough working out here, but making money is hard work, right?"

Zhao Xinbin wanted to say something, but Xu Xinglei tugged at him and pointed to Tan Jinyue standing to the side.

Zhao Xinbin then realized what was happening: "Okay, we definitely will. We won't disturb your meal any longer, boss."

The young girl seemed a little unhappy, probably because the boss was talking to the two of them and didn't notice her displeasure.

"Okay, go ahead." Tan Jincheng nodded.

Yingzhou is a major source of migrant workers; it's estimated that several million Yingzhou natives work in the Yangtze River Delta region. Once the Beicang base officially goes into production, along with the lithium battery factory and the Zhongtai automobile factory, the demand for labor will increase dramatically.

We can cooperate with the Yingzhou government and sign a labor export agreement, which will make recruitment much easier.

Yes, we could also sign a similar cooperation agreement with Wangjiang.

While such employment agreements are not as attractive as direct investment attraction, they have been quite popular in recent years. With the population growing, some relatively poor prefecture-level cities or even provinces do not care about population outflow.

It's already good enough if I can solve my work problem.

The news that the big boss brought his sister to work spread throughout the company after lunch. Zhang Qingliang, who worked in the paint shop, smiled to himself as he listened to his colleagues talking about his nephew.

This kind of discussion actually started at the end of last month, and I'm almost tired of hearing it.

A net worth of 10 billion? It doesn't seem like it at all. He is indeed very busy. The last time I saw my eldest nephew was when my sister came. Today, my eldest nephew and niece did not come to the paint shop, but Zhang Qingliang did not care about that.

It would be a lie to say that Zhang Qingliang was completely unmoved by the discussions about his nephew's wealth. He would even talk about it with his wife at night before falling asleep. But the more he talked about it, the more low-key he became at the company.

He was actually quite happy that his eldest nephew didn't bring his niece today. If she had come, and she had called him "uncle," it would have felt a bit awkward working with him in the workshop.

He is quite satisfied with his current life. Neither he nor his wife has much education, but they now earn a considerable income each year, and they don't have to work in the sun or wind. His nephew has also helped with their son's schooling.

If this kid ever becomes even slightly decent, he can be guaranteed a life of comfort through his connections. But if he jumps out to ask for something because his nephew is rich, wouldn't that ruin the whole family?
Therefore, the real way to live is to be a low-key ordinary worker in the company and earn money honestly.

Save up for two years, then buy a house so that my good-for-nothing son can become a city dweller and grow up to live with his cousin.

Meanwhile, back in his office, Tan Jincheng took care of Tan Jinyue during her lunch break. In the afternoon, he asked Zhao Xinyi to notify all the finance staff to come to a meeting.

Thank you everyone for your monthly votes!
Some readers have commented that the previous chapter was too long. Let me explain: a book needs some everyday moments and some cool scenes, right? If you keep pushing the plot forward, it's easy to write a rambling, monotonous account.

Stealing Shinri's spot as an Olympic sponsor is a great way to show off, so I wrote a few more chapters.

Furthermore, the plot is also progressing; Flash Technology is about to enter a group-based operation model.

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(End of this chapter)