Shadow Empire

Chapter 925 Apology and Advanced Work System
Andy looked at Albert, his lips trembling slightly, "I..."

He opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say next.

He can't go back.

Coming here was the result of him and his father "burning out", just like Sidney, who burned himself out for his secretary, who was also his real blood-related son.

He used up all the favors he could to get Owen a relatively good start as a member of the State House of Representatives.

With such a starting point, it would not be difficult for him to continue serving as a member of the House of Representatives or run for mayor of a certain area.

Andy's father is also an old politician, but his rank is not very high. However, he also has friends who are high-ranking officials.

He exhausted all his connections to arrange for Andy to work in this unofficial international human rights investigation organization and also went on a diplomatic mission to Rapa.

The effort he put in behind this was definitely not a little bit, but the accumulation of a lifetime.

So Andy can't leave here, which is one of the reasons why he always emphasizes complying with the decisions of Congress. He wants to perform well.

But it was precisely the ideas he was trying to express that were matched by an inappropriate attitude that made everything a mess.

Albert is a typical politician. He stared at Andy for a while and said, "Actually, to Lance, you are just a small character."

He obviously knew better. "Now what you need to do is to gain Lance's forgiveness and let him know that you have realized your mistake."

Andy nodded, and the huge panic feeling disappeared from his chest. He looked at Albert with gratitude, "I will go and apologize to him later."

Albert nodded. He just reminded that if Andy continued to do stupid things, he would not save his face at all.

"Do what Lance asks you to do as soon as possible. You have to show your attitude."

"I'm not sure why you would want to come to Lapa. It's not an easy job and requires a lot of flexibility."

"You are very lacking in this aspect, so the best thing for you to do now is to treat yourself as a tool. Don't think, don't question, just execute, and don't do anything else that you shouldn't do."

At this point, Albert stood up and said, “Okay, that’s it.”

"I have to get back to work, too."

Soon Lance saw Andy again. After Andy came, his attitude became much better. He lowered his head and apologized for his recklessness.

Lance knew that this must be what Albert meant, but of course he had no intention of pursuing it further.

After all, all he wants is a tool, and the matter of supporting the Lapa civilian anti-government forces will never fall into his hands.

On the one hand, Congress needs to have complete and precise control over this matter. Otherwise, there is no need for them to arrange a visiting delegation to do this specifically. They can just let Lance do it directly.

Assigning a dedicated person to do this means that they have to keep files and ensure that the specific content of a transaction can be traced back anytime and anywhere, even the content of the conversation must be available.

There was no way Lance could be so meticulous.

Secondly, Lance was actually not very willing to get involved in such matters. Funding certain organizations to subvert their country's regime would be despised in any country.

Even in the Federation, if this matter came to light, people would despise those responsible for formulating the plan and those who carried it out.

He doesn't want to be the "mastermind" or the "executioner". He is now an invisible man. His influence is at work in almost all links, but his shadow is nowhere to be seen, which is good.

So Lance forgave him, and Andy left soon after.

It takes three days to transfer these things from the federation, and it may take a week for them to be delivered to Pedro.

A little later, Roger came to find Lance.

During this period, Roger was busy building the factory. For 70% of his life, he was the one who was exploited and oppressed.

Now that I have become a rich man, I naturally become someone who exploits and oppresses others.

Although he has rich experience of being exploited and oppressed, it may take some time for him to successfully transform his experience into exploiting and oppressing others.

"There's a little trouble at the factory."

Lance gave him a cigarette, "What's the trouble?"

"Is it someone who is causing trouble for you, or is it the officials who are causing trouble for you?"

In Lance's opinion, these are the only two types of troubles the factory encounters.

Some people are jealous of their factory, so some locals gather together to cause trouble for the factory. This situation exists not only in Lapa, but also in the federation.

They will say that they, their families, and their dogs are suffocating because of the toxic air emitted by the factory, and they need compensation.

They would say this even if the factory was just a manual factory that did not emit pollution.

All they want is compensation or extra job opportunities.

Another situation is that the officials are just trying to get their hands on the money. The industries that Lance and the Imperial Chamber of Commerce invested in were made with real money.

These cheap labor forces generate considerable value and may be targeted by some officials, who may then cause trouble for them and try to acquire shares in them.

This is also quite common.

The federation can also find prototypes, which is one of the reasons why capital and politics are so deeply intertwined.

On the one hand, investing in politics can bring higher returns to capital, while also increasing one's ability to resist political risks.

Roger and his team have not yet formally contacted the local management and ruling group, so it is possible that someone is forcing him to allow those people to invest.

However, his guess was wrong because none of these posed any trouble.

It is the ordinary workers who are causing the trouble!

"Some workers... they have a bad work attitude and are always looking for ways to be lazy."

"It started with a small number of people, but soon more and more people started doing it, and the behavior became 'contagious' to others."

"I would have thought these workers were offered a high-paying job and would work very hard."

"But after a short period of freshness, their work efficiency obviously dropped a lot."

"I asked them to speed up the work, but they deliberately damaged some of the raw materials, forcing me to slow down production."

"I'm a little unsure now what to do, or should I fire them?"

"Locals account for too large a proportion of the workforce in the factory. I'm a little worried that they might cause trouble, so I haven't done so yet. I want to hear your thoughts and opinions."

He said he wanted to hear Lance's thoughts and opinions, but in fact, he was just asking for help.

“Is it just one factory, or is it a general phenomenon?”

Roger replied, "Currently the situation is more serious in the cigar factory, and other factories are beginning to show signs of this as well. It is difficult for management to handle it."

"We can't keep an eye on one of them. As long as we don't focus on them, they will immediately slack off."

Lance built a cigar factory here. Because of the special climate of the Asian continent, this place has become a natural paradise for plants!
There are many producing areas of the world's top plants here, and they are widely distributed over a large area.

Lapa has a large area that is very suitable for growing tobacco, and tobacco is now grown there.

Lance bought large tracts of land and then removed the ordinary tobacco leaves on them. He bought some top-notch tobacco from other places and transplanted it.

The first harvest will have to wait until July.

But a brand cannot only have top-quality tobacco. Not everyone can afford cigars that cost a few dollars, more than ten dollars, or more.

So Lance also purchases some tobacco from local tobacco farmers to make cigars.

Tobacco and alcohol will never be separated, and the profit margin of tobacco is also very high. The cost of a cigar may be only a few cents.

But as long as it is packaged well, tells a good story, and is placed in an exquisite box that costs much more than it actually is, and displayed in the most conspicuous position on the counter, its price will increase hundreds or thousands of times!
It is not difficult for a cigar that costs about 20 or 30 cents to produce to sell for more than 10 yuan after being labeled as "top quality". Even if it sells for more than 100 yuan, it is probably not impossible.

There is always a shortage of top wealthy people in the world who are willing to spend their incredible wealth in the eyes of ordinary people to improve their personal enjoyment.

This is a state of mind, a state that ordinary people cannot reach in their lifetime.

It’s not that ordinary people are not ideologically aware enough, it’s just that they simply don’t have money.

The Federation also has top tobacco producing areas, which are not small in size, but these areas are firmly controlled by the Federation's tobacco groups, and outsiders cannot get in.

Lapa just happens to have excellent soil and environment, as well as all the necessary conditions for growing top-quality tobacco, so Lance came up with this idea.

The cost of trial and error is low.

First produce some low-end cigars to increase the workers' proficiency and test the market situation.

Lance has strong confidence in the sales of cigars because the sales of Gold Label whiskey are very good. They can be bundled together for sale, and then with some operational means, it is only a matter of time to open up the market.

The plan was good, but the workers did not seem to cooperate very much, at least because the workers' slowdown affecting production was not among the many "possibilities" he had considered before.

This is an unforgivable problem. It’s not that he has any dissatisfaction with the workers, but they should do their job well after receiving the money!
He poked his finger on the table, "Then let's change the 'transaction' method to piecework-based compensation."

"With our current production schedule, how many cigars do they need to make per day?"

Roger said almost immediately, "Our plan is for each person to produce 100, but in reality they can only produce 30 or 40."

"Then make it a rule that if you produce a hundred guns a day, you will be paid 40 federal soles."

"If the production quantity does not meet the requirement of 100, the production quantity will be accumulated to the next day."

"If a total of 100 are produced in two days, 40 points will be given. If that is less than that, the amount will continue to accumulate."

"If production doesn't meet targets or a certain number each month, we'll get them out."

Listening to Lance's changes, Roger asked softly, "If they cause trouble..."

Lance glanced at him and said, "The whips given to the supervisors are not for them to look good. Let the supervisors swing the whips. I will also let the factory security cooperate with you."

Roger nodded and agreed.

The piece-rate wage system does exist in the federal government, but it is not widely used because of the existence of trade unions in the federal government.

Some trade unions believe that the piece-rate wage system is a more cruel form of exploitation of labor, so most regular employees in factories do not participate in the piece-rate wage system, only some temporary workers participate.

For example, common orchard pickers need to pick ripe fruits in a short period of time and process them together.

An orchard may only have one opportunity to pick fruits in a year, and they usually don’t need so many pickers, so these workers are temporary.

The orchard will pay them piece-rate wages based on the different varieties of fruit. For example, if the fruits are smaller and more difficult to pick, they may get a little more.

For example, two cents a pound.

For example, if some fruits are larger and easier to pick, you may only be paid one cent for two or three pounds or more. Sometimes the price is calculated based on the number of fruits.

Such calculation method is rarely used among formal employees.

In Lans' factory, the workers on the assembly line seem to move very slowly, and one process takes a long time to complete.

Several workers winked at each other from time to time, with smiles on their faces.

This is indeed a good job, the salary is high enough, and they have indeed worked hard.

But after working hard for a few days, I couldn't work hard anymore.

Mainly, highly repetitive work will make people easily tired, not physically, but mainly mentally.

This makes them unable to help but do something else after making a few cigars, or stop and daydream for a while before continuing to work.

If they sat there and daydreamed or did anything else, the supervisor would keep an eye on them.

In order to avoid trouble and not repeat these simple movements over and over again, some people began to actively slow down their movements.

At the beginning, one person could produce eight to ten cigars an hour, but now they can only produce three or four cigars per hour. The output has obviously been reduced by half or even more!

The supervisor also talked to them and they said they were more focused on making a good cigar rather than just doing it to get by, and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with that.

Roger came twice, and when he came, people started working hard again, but as soon as he left, the workers slowed down again. There was nothing they could do.

As it was almost time to get off work in the evening, the workers in the workshop made cigars even slower.

They were working when the supervisor looked over, and they started chatting as soon as the supervisor looked away.

Not many people think they will lose their jobs due to laziness. Of course, this is also related to the unity among them.

"I heard that the situation outside Zhuolan is very bad now, and people are starving to death in many places."

A worker was chatting with everyone while repeating the rolling action in his hands.

His words attracted the attention and discussion of other workers, "Why don't people go to the jungle to find food?"

"I've always heard that there are abundant resources in the jungle and there are a lot of wild animals. I don't believe that people can catch all those wild animals."

"And there are fish in the sea and in the water, why don't they eat fish?"

These questions have also become the focus of people's discussion. It seems that people who can eat enough will always have such confusion -

Those who were hungry and died of starvation really died because they had no food to eat.

Or is it because they are so lazy that they would rather starve to death than move.

People soon started discussing again, as if chatting had become part of their work.

When the bell for the end of get off work rang, the workers stood up with satisfied smiles on their faces. Some of them made strange noises and stretched themselves.

Some people were yawning and wiping the water from the corners of their eyes.

Everything about this job is good: high pay, not too hard, and no exposure to the wind and rain. There is only one bad thing about it - I feel sleepy too easily!

The workers began to clean up the things on their desks, sorting the different tobacco leaves into different categories, putting them into special bags and tying them up before leaving.

As for the cigars that have already been made, someone will come and take them away from the cigar rack later.

The workers left in groups, and when they arrived at the factory gate, they found a lot of people gathered in front of the bulletin board.

Watching the fun has always been a hobby in people's bones. More and more people gathered around, and soon with the publicity of some busybodies, more and more people knew what was happening.

The factory is about to change the way companies calculate.

Their wages from before to now will be settled according to the monthly salary system.

Starting tomorrow, the factory will adopt a piece-rate wage system. After the number of 100 sticks per day was read out, the faces of many workers changed!
Nowadays, it takes most workers about seven or eight minutes to make a cigar. Some workers with quick brains and coordinated hands can make one in six minutes or even five minutes.

But even so, I can only make seven or eight in an hour at most. After ten hours of uninterrupted work, I can only make seventy or eighty.

To make one hundred, it would take at least twelve hours, and that’s working non-stop!

Just thinking about it makes people feel unbearable!
Some workers immediately shouted "This is unreasonable" and hoped that the factory could give them an explanation.

The local manager stood in front of the notice board and told them loudly that this was the company's decision!
A minimum of 2,500 cigars must be produced each month. If you produce less than this number, you will be fired.

People became even more dissatisfied. They thought they had found a job that would provide them with retirement benefits, but suddenly it became a job of "hell difficulty". How could they possibly accept this?

(End of this chapter)