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墨書 Inktalez
The Young Matron called me: “Jiang Qiuying, President Xu wants you to come to the factory at eight tomorrow morning.”
Who do you think you are? Besides owing me a month's salary, what relationship do we have? Just because you tell me to go, I should go? I’m no longer your laborer; how dare you act so high and mighty in front of me?
After hanging up on the Young Matron, I pushed the matter aside.
The next day, my husband accompanied me for a prenatal check-up when my phone rang. He answered it for me, and Xu Huairen's booming voice came through: “Jiang Qiuying, I don’t care where you are or what you’re doing right now; you have half an hour to run to the factory!”
My husband, a dedicated teacher, cursed under his breath: “Are you out of your mind?”
Before we even got home from the hospital, my phone rang again; it was Former Boss’s number.
I answered, and Former Boss spoke in a soft tone but with an undercurrent of complaint: “Xiao Jiang, it’s been less than three months since you left, and the tea has gone cold? Can’t we get you to help with something at the factory?”
This guy was skilled at using soft tactics; I had no intention of engaging with him: “President Xu, I’m at the hospital. If you have something to say, make it quick!”
“Here’s the thing: you left without handing over your work, which has led to repeated quality issues with our products. You’ve worked at the factory for five years; can’t you be more responsible?”
It was your illegitimate child who fired me!
I felt my temper rising and gritted my teeth as I laid everything out for the old man, leaving him speechless.
After a moment of silence, he slowly said, “I just returned from Mo City and am not fully aware of everything. How about this: can you come by sometime? There are some matters at the factory that need your assistance. Your unpaid salary is not a big deal…”
The next morning, my husband rode me to the factory on his electric scooter. Honestly, seeing every familiar tree and blade of grass made my heart ache a little.
Xiao Xia met me and took me to the workshop.
The former production head had moved to logistics, and the new production head was a high-end talent from a prestigious university, earning more than double what the previous one made but completely clueless about the specific low-level work in the workshop.
In the first month, when quality issues arose, they didn’t assign blame or seek reasons; instead, they indiscriminately punished all team leaders involved in various processes. It’s worth noting that while there are plenty of college graduates these days, skilled technical workers are extremely rare.
Once these people started calculating their losses, they began to slack off. From printing onward, work that could be completed in a week dragged on for half a month without completion; if the first process got stuck, all subsequent steps were delayed as well.
Calls from the Tobacco Factory demanding deliveries came one after another. Xiao Xu scolded suppliers and then production teams; after that, he turned his ire on quality control. But everyone had one thing in common: it was all about ensuring quality.
With clients pressing hard and to avoid breaching contracts, the lofty management proposed yet another slogan: "Efficiency First."
The Quality Control Inspector was initially nothing more than a mediocre figure, but now he had completely lost control of himself. As a result, two truckloads of goods were sent out, and to everyone's shock, entire boxes of defective products were discovered. This not only led to losses amounting to hundreds of thousands of yuan but also provoked extreme dissatisfaction from the Tobacco Factory: if another serious quality incident occurred, they would terminate the partnership!
The management, filled with highly educated individuals, attempted to shift the blame onto the production and quality inspection departments. However, the machine operators from all other processes protested simultaneously, declaring that the responsibility did not lie with them and questioning why their wages should be deducted.
Having thought he had subdued Lao Cao and dismissed me, Xu Huairen was furious, his anger reaching a boiling point. Since taking over, he had faced continuous accidents, which was quite embarrassing for someone with an MBA!
He vowed to show these "lower-tier" workers what real authority looked like. Taking advantage of the Tobacco Factory's demand for a production halt and rectification, he suspended all the machine operators from several processes without pay for reflection.
As for me, my role was to liaise with the current Quality Control Manager to resolve the ongoing product quality issues. The current Quality Control Manager was a beautiful young woman, her hair elegantly styled up high, wearing high heels paired with black stockings—an extreme contrast to the chaotic environment of the workshop.
Upon entering the workshop, familiar workers greeted me and began to vent their frustrations: “Why should we be penalized for issues from Die Cutting? Everyone struts around like they know everything when in reality they don’t understand anything and just act pretentious.”
I refrained from joining in but understood their sentiments; their crude words held some truth. Xiao Xia informed me that the problematic products all came from the night shift. I asked the elegant Quality Control Manager who was in charge of the night shift in the Quality Inspection Department.
“Night shift? Who would want to spend all night in a place like this with those rough men at the machines?” Her words shocked me and changed the expressions on the workers' faces: just because you went to university doesn’t make you superior! They earned their living through skill and hard work; how could she look down on them?
Why hadn’t our previous quality inspections encountered problems? The Quality Inspection Department had personnel on duty 24 hours a day inspecting each process. If any issues were found, defective products would be promptly removed and communicated with the corresponding process for resolution.
Without a night shift team in place, it was no wonder that products produced at night would have problems. “Don’t bring up night shift issues with me; take it up with President Xu! Who wants to spend 12 hours on a night shift? For over ten thousand yuan a month? You expect me to waste my youth here? Dream on!” With that, she sashayed away.
Since that was the case, I didn’t need to scratch my head over this anymore; they could handle things however they liked. As I left the workshop, I ran into Xu Huairen accompanied by his Administrative Assistant and several other beautiful HR assistants approaching me.
"Beauty Jiang, have you been managing well at home after months of not working?" Xu Huairen's eyes glinted with mockery and derision.
"Don't worry, President Xu. Even if I have to beg, I won't be doing it in front of your door," I shot back, neither soft nor hard.
"It seems you still haven't been beaten enough by the harsh realities of life!" Xu Huairen feigned a look of pity, "I have a proposal for you. You can come back to the factory and work the night shift as a quality inspector for a salary of 4,000. What do you think?"
"Thank you, President Xu, but one must know their own worth. My education and cultural level can no longer keep up with Your Factory's pace of development. The people you've hired are exceptional; someone like me from the lower ranks shouldn't intrude."
"Hmph, refusing a toast only to drink a punishment wine!" The Administrative Assistant behind Xu Huairen looked down her nose at me.
"Let me give President Xu a piece of advice: production and quality issues can be managed, but if the morale of the team falls apart, it will be hard to lead them."
"You should focus on your own life. I heard your husband is teaching at No. 1 Middle School; be careful walking alone at night."
I cursed under my breath; it was unnecessary for me to engage in this conversation. Moreover, neither Old Xu nor Xiao Xu had mentioned the wages they owed me.
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