Sail across the sea

Chapter 554 is related to everyone.
Wei Longshun really didn't know how to answer the question raised by Jiang Zhiwei.

The institute did say that those who undertake projects for Haike Company will receive some incentives in the future, including but not limited to bonus points when applying for promotion and performance-based bonuses.

As a veteran of the design institute, Wei Longshun understands this policy all too well. The institute talks a big game, but when it comes to implementation, it's probably a completely different story.

There are written regulations in the design institute regarding promotion and bonus distribution, which are dozens of pages long and include algorithms for various situations.

According to the elderly, the regulations were initially very simple, but many problems were exposed during their implementation. The main issue was that some people exploited loopholes in the system, leading to numerous conflicts.

The institute leadership spent considerable effort to quell the conflict and subsequently patched the existing system to prevent similar situations from recurring. However, the patched system failed to solve the problem. Engineers with strong research skills quickly discovered other loopholes, which were then exploited, leading to new conflicts.

In the back-and-forth between exploiting loopholes and patching up problems, the system became increasingly complex, to the point that newly hired engineers couldn't understand the design institute's scoring rules at all. They had to run into obstacles several times before they could grasp the deeper meaning behind those seemingly inexplicable clauses in the system.

However, if you don't delve into the details but instead try to understand the system from a macro perspective, you'll find that it boils down to two principles: equal distribution of benefits and seniority-based promotion.

The so-called "equal distribution of rain and dew" means, to put it bluntly, that everyone works from the same pot. The difference between working more or less, and working well or poorly, is only slight, and no one is allowed to take more than their share.

The so-called seniority system means that the more senior you are, the more advantages you have. Your length of service and years of service in the hospital will have a higher weight in the scoring.

Some of the senior members of the design institute have been there for over 30 years, and many of the middle-aged engineers were their students or apprentices. Regardless of whether they truly respected these senior members, no one dared to show any dissatisfaction on the surface. The institute's distribution policies favored these senior members, and no one dared to utter a word of objection.

Jiang Zhiwei has only been at the design institute for five years, making him a typical newcomer. When the institute assigns work, he always takes on the most tasks. However, when it comes to promotions or bonuses, his performance evaluation is lower than most people's.

This time, Haike Company brought in a potassium nitrate cold crystallization project, which required the institute to assign more than a dozen engineers to undertake. The institute leaders issued a call for volunteers, encouraging engineers from various research labs to sign up enthusiastically, but only a mere four people volunteered.

The collaboration with Haike Company was publicized and everyone knew about it. Most people held a cautiously optimistic attitude towards this collaboration, believing that it might bring some opportunities to the institute. Even if it didn't earn much, they thought it could earn 30,000 to 50,000 yuan a year, which would amount to a hundred or so yuan per person.
But when it comes to actually undertaking research tasks for Haike Company, everyone just laughs.

The institute said that Haike Company is a private enterprise. Aren't private enterprises just capitalists' enterprises? Everyone knows that capitalists are all profit-driven. Don't expect to work there as easily as you would at a design institute.

Working at a design institute, you can work if you want, or just find an excuse to procrastinate if you don't. Every day when you arrive at the office, you first make a cup of tea, read the day's newspaper, and then take out some blueprints to sketch a few lines. While you're sketching, you can chat with your colleagues and exchange views on things like the Gulf War.

Design institutes certainly have work assignments, but the institute leaders, being technically minded themselves, know that technical work requires inspiration and a positive mindset to produce top-notch designs. Therefore, when assigning tasks, the institute doesn't haggle over details, and it's perfectly normal for a project to drag on for a year or two.

It's different in private companies. Do capitalists tolerate you chatting at work? Do they allow you to spend half an hour just going to the toilet?
It's true that capitalists can help design institutes make profits, but what business is it of ours? Why would we go to a private company to suffer when we're doing just fine at the design institute?
Left with no other option, the institute had to start selecting participants. Taking into account factors such as project content, individual strengths, teamwork, and resistance, they finalized a list of over a dozen people, which was then handed over to the heads of various departments for mobilization. To support this mobilization, the institute promised to give participants some rewards, but when discussing the reward criteria, the institute leaders' concern about "equal distribution of benefits" resurfaced, fearing that excessive rewards would cause dissatisfaction among others.

Jiang Zhiwei had been at the design institute for five years. If he still had some naive ideas a few years ago, he had completely seen through it all by now. He knew that working at Haike Company was a tough job that no one wanted to do, and he also knew that the rewards promised by the institute would be so meager as to be almost humiliating.

"Xiao Jiang, this project is a revenue-generating project that the institute commissioned Haike Company to find. It has to be completed no matter what. If you don't go, no one else will go, and then no one will do this project. Don't you think so?"

Wei Longshun began to work on Jiang Zhiwei.

"Then why should I go, and not someone else?"

"First of all, it was Haike Company that requested you to participate in this project. Your major is the best match for this project, and you should admit that, right?"

"and then?"

"Then, as I said, someone has to do it. The rise and fall of the design institute is related to everyone."

"Director Wei, I can participate in this project, but we need to make this clear beforehand: if I go this time, I can't go next time. Since the rise and fall of the design institute is related to everyone, then naturally everyone should contribute their share, don't you think?"

"No problem, I can agree to that. If you go this time, the office will definitely arrange for other comrades to go next time there is a similar task."

"If that's the case, then I'll go."

Jiang Zhiwei knew in his heart that someone had to do this job. Who would go and who wouldn't depended on each person's ability to fight back, and of course, whether there were people who would speak up for them.

After assessing the situation, Jiang Zhiwei felt that the probability of him turning down the job was not high, unless he didn't want to continue working at the design institute.

He understood this, but bargaining was necessary. Jiang Zhiwei's victory was securing Wei Longshun's promise not to send him again next time.

If he resolutely refuses to go this time, he will be in the wrong. But if he goes this time, and is sent again next time, he will have a reason to refuse. This is the rule that the design institute has always followed: when something bad happens, everyone takes turns, and you can't keep picking on one person.

(End of this chapter)