2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 706 The Ruthless Boss Tan
Deep city.

In contrast to Ningbo, where the streets are almost deserted by 12 p.m. in winter, the streets of Shenzhen are still bustling with people at midnight.

Street food stalls are doing booming business.

"Earn money in Shenzhen and spend it in Shenzhen, don't even think about taking a penny home; damn it, most of the people eating late-night snacks are just off work, and after one late-night snack, they might not have much left of the money they earned today."

Three young people wearing BYD uniforms strolled slowly down the street. The young man in the lead wore black-rimmed glasses, had messy hair, and dark circles under his eyes.

"Haha, Zheng Ke, the first half of what you said came from Tan Jincheng of Weilai Automobile."

"Hey, I don't know, but when you think about it, there's nothing wrong with what you're saying. Isn't that exactly how it is?"

Walking into a familiar barbecue restaurant, the owner's eyes lit up when he saw the three of them: "Xiao Zheng, Xiao Huang, Xiao Chen, you're getting off work so late again? What would you like to eat?"

"Same as always, 30 lamb skewers, 30 beef skewers, 30 chive skewers, 6 bottles of beer, a plate of peanuts, and Liu, just bring whatever else you think is appropriate, but don't bring too much."

The way they're ordering food shows they're regulars.

"Alright, coming right away. You guys have a seat first. I'll get you the beer and peanuts. Would you like them iced or at room temperature?"

"Room temperature, I guess. It's gotten a bit chilly these past few days, so I won't drink anything iced."

Beer and peanuts were served quickly. The three of them skillfully cracked some on the table, clinked them together, and then gulped down a few mouthfuls.

"Awesome! Now I understand why my dad always has a beer after working in the fields in the summer. It feels so good."

"Yes, after a long day, a couple of bites of this is really refreshing."

"Hehe, beer and barbecue skewers, this is really a good life."

The restaurant was quite fast; before the three of us had even finished a bottle of beer, 30 skewers of lamb were served.

"Let's eat while we can, the rest will be coming soon."

As the owner put down the lamb skewers, he also took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered one to each of the three men. The owner was not very old, about 30 years old, and had not been running the late-night snack shop on this street for very long.

However, thanks to his excellent barbecue skills and his ability to get along well with customers, his business is doing quite well, and his shop is almost full at this moment.

However, he was able to take good care of every table of customers. For example, the three people he called Xiao Zheng were already regular customers of the restaurant. They would come to the restaurant for a casual meal almost every day after get off work.

"Thank you, Brother Liu. You can go ahead and do your thing. Don't worry about us."

"Don't mention it, just call me if you need anything."

Mr. Liu smiled, exchanged a few jokes, and then busied himself attending to the next table.

"Hey, Zheng Ke, we have something to tell you, but don't tell anyone."

After Boss Liu left, the young man among the three, known as Xiao Huang, deliberately acted sneakily and whispered to the young man surnamed Zheng.

"What's wrong? Why are you being so secretive? Is there something you're hiding?"

The young man surnamed Zheng, with his messy hair, couldn't help but find his affected manner amusing. Although there were quite a few people wearing BYD uniforms in the barbecue restaurant, how many people could recognize them?
"Hehe, Zheng Ke, want to guess what it is?"

Xiao Huang wasn't in a hurry. He picked up a skewer of lamb and started eating it slowly.

The young man surnamed Zheng chuckled: "Hey kid, just say what you want to say, don't be so mysterious. What's up, are you in love?"

"What kind of relationship are we talking about? With our workload, having a girlfriend would be like cheating on us. No, that's not it. Guess again."

"Speak up, stop talking nonsense."

"Hehe, Xiao Chen and I both received a call at noon today from a headhunting company."

The young man surnamed Zheng's eyelids twitched. Good heavens, had they raided his house?
The reason was simple: he had also received a call from a headhunting firm; all three of them were employees of BYD's second business division.

The young man surnamed Zheng, referred to as Zheng Ke, is named Zheng Weixin. He is 28 years old, graduated from Hunan University, and currently serves as the head of the Structural Design Department, responsible for the structural design of the battery pack.

The other two are Huang Qin and Chen Gang, and the three belong to the same project team.

Currently, Dizi has launched a large number of projects, which has led to a severe shortage of R&D personnel. It is common for a project team to consist of three to five people, which inevitably results in a lot of overtime work.

He originally studied materials forming and control engineering, which has nothing to do with power batteries. However, due to a shortage of manpower, his supervisor asked him to work on power batteries in the second half of last year.

He even said that they could just use it as a phone battery or a laptop battery, so he had no choice but to take on the task and work with two colleagues.

The three of them belonged to the same project team and lived in the same dormitory. Even after work, most of their discussions were about work-related topics. Although they were in a superior-subordinate relationship, they were more like brothers.

Huang Qin's statement that he was afraid of being cheated on when looking for a girlfriend was not an exaggeration. Since the project team was established, Zheng Weixin has not been able to remember the last time he left work normally.

"What's wrong? Are you planning to pack up and run away? What kind of treatment are you getting?"

"What, Zheng Ke, aren't you surprised at all?"

"Are you stupid? We both received calls from headhunting firms. Do you think Zheng Ke didn't receive one? What's so surprising about that?"

Chen Gang took a bite of his skewer and looked at Huang Qin with disdain. He thought that Huang Qin must have short-circuited from working overtime to ask such a question.

"That's right."

Huang Qin patted his head and laughed, then asked, "Zheng Ke, do you know which company it is? By the way, what kind of compensation were they offering you?"

Zheng Weixin, of course, wouldn't reveal details about his treatment or benefits.

"It is a subsidiary of Dexian Electronics, but their boss also said that the company that actually recruited us should be Weilai Automobile Luzhou New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd."

"So we're in the same company now. Boss Tan's company offers much better benefits than ours. Zheng Ke, would you like to consider it?"

None of the three of them had been with the company for long. Zheng Weixin had been with the company for less than five years, while the other two had worked at BYD for three years. Judging from their work experience, they had barely finished their rookie phase and could not be said to have a strong sense of belonging to Dizi.

This is different from the employees at Flashpoint. Although Flashpoint is relatively new, most of its employees have watched the company grow and develop from the ground up, enjoying good benefits along the way. Unconsciously, they identify themselves as long-time employees, a sense of belonging that many established companies seeking transformation lack.

"Tell me, what are the conditions for you, Wei Lai? Starting salary of 10 per year?"

Zheng Weixin had a headache. His two colleagues were clearly tempted. To be honest, he was also tempted. The conditions Wei Lai offered him were quite generous.

For a long time, the salaries and benefits of designers in the Flash Group, including Flash Technology, Jinshidai, and Weilai Auto, have been the envy of many in the R&D community.

After Flashpoint Technology went public, many employees in the R&D department received substantial stock awards.

Leaving aside this special case, let's take Weilai Auto as an example. Their R&D team actually has an independent logistics service team, which includes drivers, chefs, housekeeping staff, and so on.

These service personnel are only responsible for the logistics and living arrangements of the R&D team, from transportation to cleaning and tidying up rooms, everything is taken care of.

If children want to attend school in Beicang or even Ningbo, Flash Group will coordinate the process. If they want to stay in their hometown, someone will help them find connections to make their lives more comfortable.

It can be said that apart from their research and development work, the R&D team at Weilai Auto does not need to worry about any life matters, as the Shanchi Group, which has family members, will take care of solving their employment problems.

Rumor has it that single guys like them sometimes get their feet massaged at clubs every month.

Damn it, which domestic independent brand car company has put on such a big show?

Dizi has long been criticized for its treatment of its grassroots employees. This is understandable, given that the company started in the low-profit OEM industry.

Mr. Wang is an entrepreneur who adheres to the strategy of overcoming technical difficulties with low-cost manpower and takes the "handmade" approach.

From a societal perspective, this is indeed impressive, but from an individual's perspective, it's not necessarily so great; it's simply a matter of drastically reducing wage expenditures.

Apart from the employees on the assembly line, the R&D staff at Dizi were treated the same for a long time, slightly better than the frontline employees, but not by much.

Take Zheng Weixin and the other two as an example. They have worked in Dizi for several years, but their income is not high and they have not saved much money at all.

Aside from working overtime, all they do is make empty promises, and these college graduates who just graduated also have much longer internships than others.

Zheng Weixin didn't know how much Wei Lai offered Huang Qin and Chen Gang, but the offer he received made his heart skip a beat.

The starting annual salary is 20 yuan. If he can bring his project team members or other colleagues over, he will receive an additional 2 yuan bonus for each additional person. In addition, there is a separate dormitory.

Furthermore, Qin Junchao, the general manager of Dexian Electronics, personally conveyed Boss Tan's promise to him: there would be overtime, but it would not be like what they are doing now, disregarding their physical and mental health and exploiting their labor results by exhausting their bodies.

This touched Zheng Weixin, who was not good with words. It was common for the group of them to get off work after midnight, and they were always working overtime on a voluntary basis.

To be honest, after a while, my body really couldn't take it anymore.

No one is born a beast of burden, and no one is born liking to work overtime.

"To be honest, it would be a lie to say I wasn't tempted, but Weilai Auto's requirements were a bit odd."

"It is indeed a bit strange, and I don't know why there would be such a requirement."

Weilai Auto required them to stay in Shenzhen temporarily if they agreed to join the company, with their personnel records registered under the name of a subsidiary of Shenzhen Dexian Electronics, and then transferred to Luzhou to work after six months.

As for whether it was a scam, Huang Qin didn't think too much about it. After all, the headhunting company said that if he agreed but was afraid of being scammed, they could pay him six months' salary in advance.

No scammer would give you money upfront.

"I do know a little about that. I've heard that not only our project team, but also many colleagues in our second business unit and other business units have received invitations from headhunting firms."

Zheng Weixin has a wider range of sources. As far as he knows, Weilai Auto's poaching is targeting their Second Business Division, Eleventh Business Division, Twenty-first Business Division, and Automotive Engineering Research Institute.

It can be said that the R&D team covers BYD's entire battery and new energy vehicle system.

Tan Jincheng's headhunting firm devised a very ruthless talent poaching plan.

That is for mid-level and below technical talents under the age of 35, with no more than five years of service, and it would be even better if they are single.

Having worked there for three to five years, I've passed the rookie stage of my career and haven't been eliminated in BYD's environment. Besides being technically skilled, I'm also relatively honest.

They are young and energetic, and have been nurtured by BYD. They don't have a strong sense of belonging to BYD, and more importantly, they don't have much money in their pockets, making them easier to poach.

As for higher-level talent, it's not that they don't want them, but the key is that Tan Jincheng doesn't want to make things too big.

If BYD's crisis escalates after a while and more senior talents want to leave, Weilai Auto might be willing to take them in.

When the headhunting firms heard Tan Jincheng's plan, they couldn't help but think how ruthless he was. Good heavens, he was going to poach all the reserve talents that BYD had cultivated.

For any technology company, top talent is hard to come by, but the middle management structure is the most crucial.

It's uncertain how many of the mid-level managers that Dizi painstakingly cultivated will ultimately remain after being poached by Boss Tan.

In just a few days, several headhunting firms made significant gains. In fact, as long as the offer was attractive and they communicated with the project manager, the chances of the deal going through were quite high.

Someone like Zheng Weixin, in his late twenties, has the vigor of youth, but after a few years of working and being toughened up by society, he also has some of the anxieties of middle age. It's hard not to be tempted by someone who is fully respected and receives decent treatment.

After being persuaded by the headhunting company and Qin Junchao himself, Zheng Weixin and the other two have agreed to join Weilai Automotive New Energy Company, but this will have to wait until after the New Year.

Those of them who have projects in hand need a handover process, and they can't leave so suddenly.

"That's a must. We definitely need to deal with the follow-up troubles. There's no rush. We'll stay in Shenzhen for now and go over there once things are arranged in Luzhou."

On this day, Qin Junchao personally met with Zheng Weixin and the other two. After several years of working in a high-ranking position and managing a factory with thousands of employees, Qin Junchao had already developed some of the qualities of a leader.

However, Qin Junchao put down his work and personally participated in the tasks assigned by his boss.

Zheng Weixin and the other two, however, were a little uncomfortable with Qin Junchao's warm and welcoming demeanor.

(End of this chapter)