Sail across the sea

Chapter 437 Taking charge of gardening at the company

Hearing his girlfriend's accusation, Wang Hui stammered in defense, "Gao Fan isn't an outsider. What can't I say in front of him?"

"You're so shameless!" Peng Yueyue muttered, feigning dissatisfaction, but her eyes were fixed on Gao Fan, waiting for his reaction.

Gao Fan then realized that the couple were putting on a show for him. They must have discussed this topic before coming to him and reached a consensus.

Thinking deeper, it's impossible that these two made this decision without consulting their parents beforehand. And their parents must have gone through a considerable internal struggle before agreeing to let them give up their assigned jobs and work for their private company.

One of the factors that made them decide to do so was probably that they felt Gao Fan was a son of the factory workers and a childhood friend of Wang Hui and Peng Yueyue, so they couldn't possibly mistreat them.

Gao Fan didn't find anything objectionable about their ideas.

As the old saying goes, "Even chickens and dogs can rise to heaven," and everyone has a few good friends.

An old saying goes that those who have the ability to not involve relatives and friends are ruthless.

When Canghua Science and Trade integrated the Yanxiu and Wuyuan fertilizer plants, it took in more than 1000 employees, including some who were just filling positions without real skills. Wang Hui and Peng Yueyue were both college graduates, which was considered highly educated in those days, so Gao Fan had no reason not to accept them.

From another perspective, in this era, not many college graduates are willing to give up their public service jobs to join private enterprises. If it weren't for their classmate relationship with Gao Fan, Wang Hui and Peng Yueyue probably wouldn't have been willing to work at Canghai Chemical.

In any case, his subordinates were no longer a bunch of unemployed youths with only junior high or high school educations, but now included two college graduates, which could be considered highly educated talents.

"I'd be more than happy if you were willing to come to Canghai Chemical," Gao Fan said with a smile. "The company is currently facing a severe shortage of talent, and we've finally managed to get two college graduates. How could I possibly turn them away? By the way, Wang Hui, you studied chemistry, I know that. Yueyue, what's your major?"

“Gardening.” Peng Yueyue’s voice was a little weak.

Canghai Chemical Group Co., Ltd., as the name suggests, is a chemical company.

Wang Hui majored in chemistry at the teachers' college. He chose this major intentionally, thinking that if he couldn't find a good job in the future, he could at least go back to the fertilizer plant as a technician. Now that he's determined to join Canghai Chemical, he feels that with his expertise, he will definitely gain Gao Fan's approval.

Peng Yueyue's situation was different. She disliked math and science when she was in middle school and had considered studying humanities, but her parents stopped her. The popular saying in society was, "If you master math and science, you can go anywhere in the world without fear," and studying humanities has always been considered an option for poor students.

When applying for college, she looked around at the majors offered by the agricultural college and finally chose horticulture, thinking that growing flowers and plants was a relatively easy and interesting thing.

But now that she thinks about working at Canghai Chemical, she realizes that her major is really not something she can talk about. She can't exactly say that she would just go to the company to take care of growing flowers, can she?

Sure enough, upon hearing about the horticulture major, Gao Fan frowned slightly, pondering which department would be more suitable for Peng Yueyue.

Wang Hui said, "Gao Fan, Yueyue said she doesn't like doing technical work. She wants to do something like Xu Dan, like administrative work. Do you know of any suitable positions?" "Administration? That's too easy. The company is currently short of an administrative supervisor," Gao Fan blurted out.

Gao Fan already knew that Peng Yueyue wasn't someone who enjoyed delving into things. Her willingness to switch from technical work to administration solved a problem for Gao Fan.

Currently, Canghai Chemical's organizational structure is a typical example of strong branches and weak trunk. The chemical cleaning company and the biochemical company are two mature production entities with relatively complete management systems. However, the parent company headquarters is essentially a shell, with only a dozen or so people, meaning almost every department has only one person.

Gao Fan said he was going to appoint Peng Yueyue as the administrative supervisor, which sounded like he was entrusting her with an important task. In fact, she only had one subordinate, a family member of a worker at the fertilizer plant. Her daily duties included cleaning several offices at the company headquarters and doing some gardening work, which meant watering the plants in the office every day.

"Really? Then... how much salary do I get per month?" Peng Yueyue couldn't help but ask.

"Let's start with 150 yuan a month, and we'll increase it a bit after you become a full-time employee," Gao Fan said.

"What?! 150 yuan even before becoming a full-time employee!" Peng Yueyue exclaimed with surprise and delight. "I heard that the workers at the cleaning company only earn 120 yuan a month?"

"Didn't you ask them how much they actually get paid each month?" Gao Fan asked back with a smile.

Peng Yueyue shook her head, indicating that she did not know.

The chemical cleaning company was originally the labor service company of the fertilizer plant. The vast majority of its employees were unemployed youths from the original plant. Therefore, the fertilizer plant employees were aware of the benefits and other information about the chemical cleaning company. However, the level of detail known by families with unemployed youths differed from that of families without unemployed youths.

In 1985, the average annual salary of employees in state-owned enterprises in Maolin Province was 1052 yuan, which averaged out to 88 yuan per month. Cangtang was a third-tier county town with even lower wages. The monthly salary of regular employees in various enterprises, such as unemployed youth, was only 5 or 60 yuan.

After Canghai Fertilizer Plant completed the conversion from ammonium to urine, its production efficiency was good, and the wages of its employees were generally high, with the average monthly wage reaching about 120 yuan. Not only were employees of other enterprises envious, but even some cadres in the office lamented that they were not doing as well as ordinary workers in the fertilizer plant.

The chemical cleaning company was previously a large collective enterprise, giving it greater autonomy in wage calculation. Its chemical cleaning agents were sold in both domestic and international markets, generating substantial profits. Gao Fan had considered setting the company's wage standards higher than those of the fertilizer plant, but Gao Yiping stopped him, saying it wouldn't be good to incite too much resentment.

After all, the cleaning company's employees are all children of fertilizer plant workers. If their children earn more than their parents, the fertilizer plant workers will feel resentful.

And so, the cleaning company finally settled on a monthly wage standard of 120 yuan per person, which is the figure Peng Yueyue just mentioned.

What Peng Yueyue didn't know was that in the cleaning company, in addition to the standard salary of 120 yuan, employees could also receive various bonuses and allowances, such as overtime pay, semi-annual bonus, savings bonus, outstanding team award, business trip allowance, high temperature allowance, low temperature allowance, etc. The actual amount they received each month was rarely less than 200 yuan.

This amount is actually an open secret in fertilizer plants, but people generally don't mention it. Everyone understands the principle of making money quietly.

(End of this chapter)