Road to Revival

Friday is the routine cleaning day. Each department in the office building has its own designated cleaning area, with the factory office's being the closest, located in an open space behind Building 3.

Chen Yan was surprised to see General Manager Tao appear in the office cleaning area carrying a broom. Presumably because of General Manager Tao's appearance, Secretary Zhao, Chairman Guo, Deputy Secretary Chang, and several vice presidents including Han, Luo, Ma, Liu, and Qiu also appeared in the cleaning area. However, Jiang Shangyun, Li Luo, and Zhou Bing were not seen.

This is quite a rare occurrence. In the past, or rather, since Chen Yan came to the factory office, she had never seen the company leaders clean the sanitation area.

"Xiao Chen, why don't you reconsider?" Liu Xiuyun stopped what she was doing and took out a tissue to wipe her sweat.

"What are you considering?" Chen Yan was quite familiar with Vice President Liu. However, Chen Yan didn't understand Liu Xiuyun's words at first.

"Xiao Mao... he's actually really good..." Liu Xiuyun tossed away the tissue and lowered her voice, "He's good in every way, really. I think they're a good match."

Liu Xiuyun was asked to introduce a boyfriend to her secretary, but Chen Yan refused after only two meetings. Meanwhile, the young man fell for Chen Yan and couldn't let her go.

"Thank you, Mr. Liu." Chen Yan glanced at Mr. Tao, who was squatting down weeding, "I've made up my mind. We're not a good match."

"Hey, you little Chen, would I ever harm you?"

"President Liu, President Tao is calling you," Chen Yan reminded Liu Xiuyun.

"Oh, is Mr. Tao calling me?" Liu Xiuyun hurriedly dropped the broom and ran over.

This was the first time Tao Tang had seen the company's only female leader so closely. He had to admit that, if he didn't mind Liu Xiuyun's plump figure, she was a beauty with fair skin, delicate features, and looked to be no more than thirty-five or thirty-six years old.

Tao Tang lifted the collar of his work uniform to wipe his glasses, then put them on. "General Manager Liu, regarding the unpaid wages, how many units are involved? What are the reasons? What kind of strong reactions are there? Will it affect production?"

"Well... there are about seven or eight branch factories, and several administrative centers, such as the quality inspection center and the physical and chemical metrology center, all of which have varying degrees of back pay. The longest back pay in one workshop has been three months. Of course, there are some complaints. But there's nothing we can do; that's just how the performance evaluation results are. Actually, there were some back pay issues before, but I don't think it will affect the overall situation."

"Hmm, the assessment results..."

"Yes, General Manager Luo is in charge of this. The Human Resources Department is calculating the wages due for each unit according to the performance evaluation notice from the Development and Planning Department. Due to funding issues, the entire factory is generally one month behind on wages..."

Tao Tang nodded. "Okay, I understand. There's one more thing, regarding college graduates working in factories, I've received some feedback..."

"I'm sorry, it's our fault for not doing our job properly... The factory office has already reported it to me," Liu Xiuyun said apologetically. "President Tao, the company strictly enforces personnel regulations. Zhang Rong and that guy surnamed Wu are just being unreasonable! I explained it to them personally, but they just wouldn't listen. They're two troublemakers. It's a state-owned enterprise, you know, there's always something we can't do with these people, as if the company owes them something..."

"You can't say that. Employment for children is a major issue; no one would take it lightly. I promised to answer those two troublemakers you mentioned within a week. So, talk to HR and have them prepare the company's regulations regarding the recruitment of college graduates, as well as materials on actual recruitment over the past three years, and give them to me on Monday. Okay?"

"Okay, I'll do as you instruct." Liu Xiuyun said somewhat reluctantly.

Back in his office, Tao Tang washed his face and asked Li Zhibin to call in Chief Economist Luo Chong and the personnel in charge of internal performance evaluation from the Development Planning Department.

A short while later, Luo Chong, short and stout, wearing thick glasses, led Lü Qi into Tao Tang's office. "President Tao, would you like to hear a report on the performance appraisal?"

"Please have a seat," Tao Tang said, emerging from behind his executive desk and sitting down on the single sofa. Luo Chong sat down on the three-seater sofa next to Tao Tang, while Lü Qi stood there, holding a black leather notebook and a blue plastic folder in her hands.

"Because yesterday, General Manager Han brought up the issue of unpaid wages, and I wanted to find out more about the situation. Please sit down, Director Lü, why are you standing?" Tao Tang joked.

Lü Qi sat down at the other end of the sofa. This was her first time entering Tao Tang's office. She had been to this office before, when it was occupied by Song Yue. But today she was a little nervous; Tao Tang's jokes hadn't put her at ease.

"What are the main indicators for internal accountability assessment?" Tao Tang asked the first question.

"Looks like an expert." Seeing Luo Chong looking at her, Lü Qi replied, "The performance evaluation system works like this: wages are determined by the percentage of income per 10,000 yuan, and then adjusted using an indicator system."

Which indicator has the highest weight in the auxiliary indicator system?

"profit."

"Of the current back wages, how many are theoretically owed?"

Lu Qi completely relaxed, reporting to the experts with ease, "The underpayments are all actual underpayments. Theoretical underpayments are not considered underpayments."

"So that means all 9830 million should have been distributed?"

"That's right."

How are salaries determined for government employees?

"Use the average value from the branch factory."

Are government agencies categorized?

"no."

"Was the internal accountability system approved by the employee representative assembly?"

"Yes. It was approved before the Spring Festival."

"So, if we take into account the back wages, how does the wage level compare year-on-year?"

"It increased by 12%," Lü Qi blurted out.

"Hmm, what about the income targets?"

"A year-on-year decrease of 19%. As of the end of April, the company expects sales revenue to reach 19.4 billion yuan, only 16.2% of the annual target, but wages have reached 27% of the control line..."

"What's going on? Does this make sense?"

"Because the wage base was adjusted in the second half of last year, the average salary increase was 350 yuan per person. Secondly, several branch factories had a severe shortage of orders, but in order to ensure stability, we had to break the performance evaluation results... I don't think there will be overpayment, because the actual salary payments in subsequent months should decrease..."

"Not necessarily. Didn't the plan already fail in the first four months?"

"That can't be helped..." Lü Qi realized she had misspoke. Tao Tang was right; if the situation didn't improve, the outcome he feared was inevitable.

"President Luo," Tao Tang turned his gaze to Luo Chong, who had remained silent, "do you think the performance evaluation system needs adjustment?"

"I don't think that's necessary..."

"If production continues to be this sluggish, is there no need for it? May Day is just around the corner; what's the projected completion rate for the first half of the year?"

"We should be confident of achieving 32 billion in revenue, and if things go well, we could reach 35 billion. May and June are traditionally peak production months... but we'll likely lose around 6000 million in profit."

"The annual revenue target is 120 billion, and the profit target is 2 million... Boss Feng's order to me is to keep the targets unchanged. Boss Luo, putting profit aside for now, can you achieve 85 billion in the second half of the year?"

"No. Based on the performance of the first four months, I'm afraid even 70 billion for the whole year will be difficult to guarantee. Mr. Tao, you must submit a report to headquarters..."

"Did Song Yue sign this pledge without consulting her team? Why is there such a huge disparity in their opinions?"

"At the beginning of the year, Li Luo estimated the market size at 75 billion yuan. But Song Yue disagreed because headquarters required a 10% increase. I voted against it at the time, and there are meeting minutes to prove it. In recent years, our market share in major markets has been shrinking."

"We've gone off-topic... Mr. Luo, Director Lü, what do you think should be done about the unpaid wages?"

This is a difficult topic to address. Logically, it should be issued, but the general manager's stance may not be aligned with that of the employees. Moreover, this is a legacy issue from the previous administration, and Tao Tang may not be willing to immediately address it.

"My opinion may not be correct..." Seeing Luo Chong remain silent, Lü Qi couldn't help but say, "We can't not issue it, but we shouldn't issue it all either."

"Oh? Could you be more specific?"

"It depends on the situation. For branch factories that are currently undertaking the main production tasks, the payments should be made retroactively. For the rest, we'll leave them on hold for now."

"Production first, then living?"

That's exactly what I mean.

Tao Tang didn't comment on Lü Qi's suggestion, but said to Luo Chong, "President Luo, it's Friday today. Anyway, we can't possibly pay out this week. Why don't you organize a meeting? Invite the main leaders of each unit, especially those units with insufficient orders, and listen to their opinions. The heads of the employee representative groups should also attend. Let's see if anyone has any good suggestions. Also, Director Lü, your department should study the rationality of the responsibility-based performance evaluation system. If we continue like this, I dare say that by the end of the year, we'll be far short of our targets, but our salaries will be far over budget. And don't even mention profits."

"President Tao, the average wage in our factory has fallen behind that of the local area..." Luo Chong said.

"I know. But we're a business, not a government agency; we don't receive government funding. Every penny has to be earned from the market! Do you think I'm planning to cut everyone's income to ensure we meet our performance targets?"

"No, that's not what I meant..."

"Alright, thank you both. That's all for now."

"So, will you attend the meeting? I'll get ready, let's have it this afternoon."

"You guys drive. I need to go check out the branch factory." Tao Tang glanced at his watch. "Oh, it's already past nine."

Lu Qi returned to her office and retrieved a copy of the internal performance evaluation document from her file box, beginning to read. Since she had overseen its creation, she was familiar with most of it, except for a few highly technical attachments; she could recall the content even without looking at the document. She believed she had accurately understood Tao Tang's meaning: he was overpaying salaries because he was worried about failing to meet targets. From the current perspective, the seeds of this problem had already been sown, but apart from him, no one in the leadership cared about it. They were terrified by Yang Wenhuan and Song Yue and couldn't afford to concern themselves with this. More seriously, if the evaluation continued in its current form, it would create a severe internal deficit. As Tao Tang said, "We are a company; all our money must be earned from the market. The government won't provide a single penny in funding."

If the assessment method is strictly followed, wages will not be overpaid. But you can't just stop paying wages to units that don't meet their targets, can you? What will happen to the employees' livelihoods? Do we still need stability? What Tao Tang wants is definitely not to strictly follow the responsibility system assessment. Otherwise, why would he ask if there are any problems after the responsibility system has been running for a few months? Obviously, he wants to revise the responsibility system, find another way, and find a solution that satisfies both sides.

Lü Qi's head began to ache. She felt she had to report to Liu Xinjun first. Even if he ignored her and passed the buck back to her, she couldn't say she was disrespecting him.

Lu Qi got up to make tea. The electric kettle was on the windowsill. As she was pouring the water, she saw Tao Tang ride his bicycle toward the factory area. He was alone and didn't even bring his secretary.

Tao Tang's actions after the meeting yesterday made her famous in the office building. Han Ruilin called to inquire about it, and it's unclear how he got the news so quickly. Yan Shuzhen, the women's union minister who works in Building 2, simply came over and demanded that she explain her relationship with Tao Tang.

"Are you really just classmates?"

"So what kind of relationship do you mean?"

"Regardless of your past relationship, you'll have to protect me from now on."

If only there were a relationship beyond classmates… Lu Qi thought, but there wasn’t. Just like before, apart from the initial joke, it was all serious business inquiries, completely the attitude of a superior to a subordinate.

Of course, he is very knowledgeable, at least about the internal assessment system.

I really want to tell him that Luo Chong's opinion is actually correct. This year's targets have nothing to do with you; next year is the key. Since that's the case, it's better to let the hidden losses surface and shed the burden to move forward lightly. Yes, I should find an opportunity to talk to him about it. Yes, isn't there a class reunion tomorrow night? That should be a good opportunity.