Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 217 Paying wages

Ten days later, when Mike finished his training again and took time to come to the factory, the place had changed a lot.

Dozens of wizards were busy in the huge factory. They were divided into groups of five and stayed at different positions, responsible for different production steps of the Dolphin Magic Drink. Compared with the huge factory, this assembly line and the scattered workers were obviously very small, which also made the factory very empty.

This factory was completed 8 days ago. Speaking of this, Mike had to praise the wizard construction team. Their efficiency was simply unmatched.

On the second day after the factory was built, Mike asked the Weasley brothers to bring the employees they had recruited previously into the factory. After signing magic contracts one by one, they began the production of Dolphin Magic Drink.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the basic labor contract, the contract that Mike asked these employees to sign also included an additional confidentiality agreement, the content of which was that if the signatory leaked any information about the formula of the Dolphin Magic Drink, he would have to compensate the Los Santos Unlimited Magic Company with 10 gold galleons.

The huge compensation of 10 gold galleons scared off many people, but many more signed without hesitation, because the fundamental reason they came here was just to find a job.

Thanks to this confidentiality agreement, the operation of this factory is not as complicated as what Mike and his classmates did in school before. Instead, it is directly made into an open assembly line, which greatly improves efficiency.

In addition, after discussion, Mike and the Weasley brothers designed the factory into three shifts, that is, the remaining more than one hundred people were divided into three groups, corresponding to three different time periods so that the factory can maintain 24-hour non-stop working status.

Yes, you heard it right, we are divided into three groups and work in three shifts.

This means that these workers have to work seven days a week without any days off.

The workers had some complaints at first, but their complaints disappeared after they heard that the base salary was 30 gold galleons plus free food and accommodation.

Although thirty gold Galleons may not be a lot per month, and even these Muggle-born wizards can find such money outside, the system provides food and accommodation, which will undoubtedly save them a lot of living expenses.

This means that these people can have savings.

And saving is extremely tempting for someone who spends all his salary every month or even ends up spending more than he earns.

Mike walked in the factory, inspecting the hard work of the employees of Los Santos Irresponsible Unlimited Magic Company. Unlike what Mike expected, the employees did not react much to the arrival of the big boss. Most of them pretended not to see him and just focused on processing the raw materials. Even the few employees who were more experienced just nodded to Mike slightly, as a greeting.

Mike did not feel any dissatisfaction about this, but nodded with satisfaction, because this just proved that these employees were working hard.

In fact, these employees have to work hard because their wages are directly linked to the amount of work they complete, which is called piecework.

Piece-rate means that the more you do, the more you earn. It is because of this rule that these employees work as hard as if they were injected with chicken blood.

According to calculations by George, who was temporarily acting as the finance officer, the employee who worked the hardest and earned the most during the week earned a weekly salary of 12 gold galleons, of which 5 gold galleons were piecework bonuses.

If this hard-working employee could maintain this efficiency in the next few weeks, his monthly salary would reach around 50 gold galleons, which would be on par with low-level clerks in the Ministry of Magic.

This is something that ordinary wizards who are of Muggle origin, weak in ability and have no chance of getting a good job dare not even think about.

However, what they didn't know was that the salary standard set for them by Mike and the Weasley brothers from the beginning was actually 50 gold galleons per month.

This means that the so-called piece-rate bonus is actually just something that Mike and the Weasley brothers took out of the employees' original wages. The purpose is to make these employees become emotionless tools and work hard.

As for what to do if some employees have extremely high work efficiency and their piece-rate bonuses far exceed the 20 gold galleons level?
Are you kidding? The more they work, the more Mike earns as the boss! Mike wishes everyone in the factory could get a monthly salary far exceeding 50 gold galleons, so that he can earn more money!
Of course, Mike is not a devil and would not dare to do the bad things that happened in the black factory in his previous life.

For example, if your piecework bonus this month is outrageous, then I will lower your unit price next month. Mike will never do this. He also strictly forbids the Weasley brothers to do so, because it is an extremely immoral behavior.

Mike's purpose in opening this factory was not just to make money, but to gather people's hearts and unite those wizards who were of Muggle origin and had a hard life.

Even though these people may not be very strong individually, they are still a considerable force when united. At least they can be used as cannon fodder.

In the environment of a closed factory, Mike can easily brainwash these workers with just a little trickery, making them worship him as a personality and making them obey his orders.

Some people may find this difficult, but in fact the human brain is simpler and more easily deceived than you think.

Mike remembered that he had seen a movie called "The Wave" in his previous life. The movie was about a high school teacher who made his students become his fanatical followers through some simple arrangements in just three days.

Even when this teacher finally repented and decided to disband the Wave organization he had founded, there were still fanatical believers who came out to stop him and wanted him to continue leading the Wave organization.

This was just in the open campus. Mike was confident that with his own strength and means, coupled with the fully enclosed environment of the factory, he could do the same as the teacher.

Although Mike doesn't want to promote the "slanting swastika" spirit, a certain degree of personality cult is still necessary, because it will greatly improve the factory's work efficiency. Even in the future, when Mike needs these people to do other dangerous work, they will do it without hesitation.

At the same time, Mike had also arrived at the conference room in the factory.

The conference room of the Dolphin factory is magnificently decorated, with a huge conference table placed in the center of the conference room.

"Busy man, you're finally here!" George, who was sitting on a wooden conference chair with his legs crossed on the conference table, said as soon as Mike entered the conference room. "You're so cool. You just left the factory to us. Do you know how exhausted we are during this period?"

"Yeah, Mike, you're not being friendly!" George on the side also echoed, "We'll be sad if you don't give us some bonus!"

Facing these two funny guys, Mike could only smile and shake his head. He casually threw a bag of Traceless Stretching Spell on the conference table and said, "Sorry, my training has reached a critical point during this period, so I can only ask you to do it. As for the bonus you mentioned, I will give each of you 50 more gold galleons."

As soon as these words came out, George and Fred cheered and rushed to the bag of Traceless Stretching Charm on the conference table. After opening it, no one grabbed a handful. Mike didn't even look at how much money the Weasley brothers got. After sitting down at the top, he crossed his legs and said, "I just checked. The employees are working hard. So how much magic drink did we produce this week?"

Hearing Mike start to ask serious questions, George and Weasley also became serious. After putting away the gold galleons they received, they said, "During this period, the workers still don't trust our company very much, so many workers' enthusiasm for work has not been mobilized. This has led to our factory's average output. In a week, we only produced about 4000 bottles of Dolphin Magic Drink."

After listening to the two people's reports, Mike immediately lowered his head to do calculations.

If calculated based on the wholesale price of 2 gold coins per bottle, minus the % tax, workers' wages and material costs, he could earn about gold galleons a month.

In other words, he can basically recover the construction cost of this factory in just one month.

Mike nodded in satisfaction. To be honest, he was already very satisfied with what he had achieved. After all, the monthly income of more than 10,000 gold galleons was already very considerable. He had never considered the Dolphin Magic Drink as a highly profitable industry from the beginning.

So Mike stood up and said to the two of them, "Very good, for now I am already very satisfied with this output. Next, you go and notify all the workers to gather in the auditorium, including those night shift employees who are still sleeping. I will give them their first salary there!"

Upon hearing this, the Weasley brothers quickly stood up and ran outside to carry out the orders given by Mike.

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Half an hour later, the originally empty factory auditorium was already full of people.

The workers were chattering non-stop and looked extremely excited because they were about to receive their first weekly salary in the Dolphin factory.

After everyone was present, Mike slowly walked up to the podium from the backstage. Although the noisy sound in the auditorium did not completely disappear, it was much weaker.

Mike stood on the high podium and shook his head as he looked at the people who were still talking at the back of the crowd.

It’s simply self-deception.

They thought Mike wouldn't be able to see them if they were standing in the back row, but in fact Mike could see them very clearly.

But Mike didn't say anything and just started his prepared speech.

"Everyone, today is your seventh day at our Los Santos company. This is a critical day because you are about to receive your first weekly salary."

After Mike finished speaking, he untied the bag of the Traceless Stretching Spell and poured all the gold Galleons inside onto the podium, forming a small hill of gold Galleons.

The entire auditorium fell completely silent. Even the people in the last row who were chatting were staring at the pile of gold Galleons.

Immediately afterwards, a cheer louder than before came out from every employee's mouth. They squeezed forward one by one, dancing and gesticulating, with smiles called greed on their faces.

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, Mike snorted coldly, and with a flick of his wand, a wall of fire made entirely of blazing flames stood up, surrounding the employees.

Now all the employees were dumbfounded. Looking at the flames that were emitting incredible heat, the greedy smiles on everyone's faces instantly turned into endless fear. Everyone was retreating, and soon the originally loose formation was squeezed into an oval.

"I hope everyone here can figure out their own position! You have all signed employment contracts with our Los Santos company. Our company is a reputable one and we will never deduct what is yours." Mike paused here, raised the magic wand in his hand and said again, "But if you touch something you shouldn't touch, don't blame me!"

As Mike moved, the wall of fire surrounding the people in the audience suddenly expanded, and its color changed from red to purple, and the heat it emitted was even more astonishing.

The people trapped inside cried out in fear when they saw this and pushed harder to get inside.

Mike smiled when he saw this, and with a wave of his wand he removed the wall of fire. He looked at the people who were still in doubt and said, "Since everyone agrees with what I said, I will announce some good news. Since everyone has done well this week, everyone will receive a bonus of one gold galleon this week."

After Mike announced the good news, the people in the audience didn't react much. They hadn't recovered from the shock just now, and Mike didn't care. With rich life experience, he understood the thoughts of these people at the bottom of society very well.

The benefits you get are the real benefits. No matter how much you brag about the rest, it’s useless!
So he continued, "I won't say any more nonsense. The next person whose name is called, come up and collect your salary!"

George stood up, took out the salary list he had prepared long ago and started to call out the names. Shuke and Beta also appeared beside the pile of gold galleons and gave out gold coins according to the amount George quoted.

"Harrison Carter, 13 gold galleons!"

As Percy's loud voice echoed in the auditorium, there was still silence in the audience, and no one came up to collect their salary.

After a long time, a young man timidly walked up to the podium.

Shuke, who had been prepared for a long time, didn't waste any time. He snapped his fingers and 13 shining gold coins flew out of the pile of gold coins and into the hands of the young man.

The young man looked at the gold Galleons in his hand in disbelief, feeling the heavy weight. The expression on his face slowly began to change, from the initial fear to ecstasy. He bowed several times to Mike before quickly running down the podium.

However, at this moment, Mike's voice suddenly rang out.

"Wait! Come back here first! It's not over yet!" Mike frowned and said, "Also, have I seen you somewhere before?"

(End of this chapter)