After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 86 Consensus among all parties

"Salary is confidential..."

Meng Xuemin is well aware of this.

When chatting privately with Zhou Haoran in the office, there is no need to worry about those rules and regulations.

"Salary confidentiality is a new reform policy. It didn't exist in previous years."

“What is the logic of the New Deal?”

Zhou Haoran asked.

Meng Xuemin said: "These are all issues left over from history."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "If it's convenient, just tell me!"

Meng Xuemin hesitated for a moment, but then slowly said, "You know, the employees at the station are now divided into five categories. There are even humiliating categories like 'gray industry' and 'five black categories.' These didn't exist before. There was only a distinction between regular and part-time employees."

Zhou Haoran expressed his understanding, saying, "Formal employees have a regular staffing structure."

"Yes." Meng Xuemin spoke with mixed emotions. "The TV station was quite poor before, and couldn't produce any good programs. But it did have one advantage: equality. As long as you officially joined, you had a position. There was no distinction between high and low."

Zhou Haoran echoed his words, "Now that market-oriented reforms have taken place, TV stations have more money and can upgrade their equipment, bring in talent, and produce high-quality television programs. But fairness has been destroyed, and there's even a five-tier classification of employees, creating a distinction between high and low."

Meng Xuemin said, "Yes, that's what I mean. It's hard to say whether it's good or bad. The five-tier classification system was introduced by the reformists. The conservatives are pursuing equality in a popular sense, which naturally garners widespread support. So you understand why the conservatives are so powerful, right?"

“Equality does not mean fairness.”

As a person who has experienced this, Zhou Haoran is very familiar with such arguments.

Meng Xuemin was a little amused. "You have another opinion?"

Zhou Haoran bluntly stated, "Equality may seem good, but it has a fatal flaw. It comforts the incompetent and suppresses the capable. Equality is a shared pot. Those who contribute more suffer, while those who contribute less gain. It may seem equal, but it discourages the capable and encourages the lazy. It suppresses and opposes human nature. After decades of bloody lessons, I don't understand why they haven't learned yet."

Meng Xuemin said in a deep voice: "That's indeed the case."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "We can't always play Tian Ji's horse race, comparing the shortcomings of reform to the advantages of conservatism. This is a shady trick. We should compare advantages with advantages and disadvantages with disadvantages. How can we clearly see which is better?"

"How can you have such knowledge at such a young age?"

Meng Xuemin felt more and more that the boy in front of him was unreal.

"These are all very basic sociological common sense." Zhou Haoran didn't think this was a brilliant idea. "Why don't you talk about salary confidentiality?"

Meng Xuemin said, "The station needs to reform, produce high-quality programs, and pay increasing taxes and profits each year. These market-oriented requirements require the station to recruit a large number of outstanding talents."

"It's a pity that these people are not on the payroll."

Zhou Haoran sighed.

He had been to the "Family Gossip" program several times, which was currently ranked in the top three in ratings on the Life Channel. But he had never seen a single editor on the program.

Meng Xuemin said, "That's the problem! Do you know what the biggest part of the station's income is? It's not the basic salary for level 21."

Zhou Haoran thought of Sister Sui Qing's pay slip and asked, "Is it a column subsidy?"

"Yes, subsidies." Meng Xuemin lowered his voice, "Do you know how much our director earns a month?"

Zhou Haoran was startled.

Meng Xuemin laughed out loud, "I'm telling you it's okay. If he has any objections, I'll fight him back!"

Zhou Haoran tried to ask, "Does the director's income mostly come from subsidies?" Meng Xuemin replied, "Yes, he reviews about 50 programs a month. Each program receives a 50 yuan subsidy, which comes out to 2500 yuan, much more than his base salary!"

Zhou Haoran now understood what the program funding was all about.

For a column like "Family Gossip", the budget for each issue reaches 2000 yuan.

The employees are their own, the venue is their own, the equipment is their own, the copyright is their own, and the guests they invite are only given a small amount of travel expenses.

Where did the money go?
This film review fee may be a significant expense.

After the program is produced, the director reviews it and gets 50 yuan in review fees; the editor-in-chief reviews it and gets 50 yuan in review fees; the director reviews it again and gets another 50 yuan in review fees.

The so-called salary secrecy...

If everything were like it was decades ago, when everyone was dirt poor and everyone was equally destitute, then there would be no need to keep it secret.

You are poor and I am rich.

There is contrast.

This is what needs to be kept confidential.

Zhou Haoran felt like he was getting to the heart of the matter. He said, "Under market-based operations, there's a huge inequality in wealth distribution. Employees have such good benefits, so the leaders should have even better."

Meng Xuemin said calmly, "It has to be kept secret for two reasons. First, many of the former staff members are no longer capable and have been relegated to the sidelines. The main programs on each channel are all being run by newcomers. These newcomers don't have a regular salary and are generally in the third tier. However, because they work on the programs, they receive generous performance bonuses and program subsidies, and their income is actually higher than those of the old staff members."

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "If the reasons are divided into two levels, this should be the lower level."

"What's the upper level?"

Meng Xuemin wanted to test him.

"Power," Zhou Haoran blurted out without hesitation. "Whoever can distribute the wealth gets to own the biggest piece of the pie. Whether you're a reformist or a conservative, there shouldn't be any factional disputes over salary confidentiality."

Meng Xuemin took a deep breath. "That's true. Keeping salaries confidential is a consensus among all parties. It's also something we all fear. Anyone who dares to challenge this principle will be dealt with severely."

"Okay, I understand!"

Zhou Haoran waved his hand, stood up and was about to leave.

Meng Xuemin said with a smile: "What do you know?"

Zhou Haoran concluded: "Confidentiality isn't about limiting the poor from knowing each other's poverty. The purpose of confidentiality is to prevent those at the bottom from knowing the true situation at the top. That's enough, and it's crucial. Only by understanding the pain points can we address them directly."

"Where are you going?"

Meng Xuemin frowned when he saw him turn around and leave.

Zhou Haoran turned around and looked at him strangely, "Didn't you say that the quota issue needs to be dealt with quickly?"

"Can you do it?"

Meng Xuemin found it hard to believe, but judging from the boy's performance in the past period of time, it seemed that there was really reason to believe him unconditionally.

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "I can't let you fire an innocent person so easily, can I? The probation period is three months, and it's not even a month yet."

Meng Xuemin asked: "Where do you get your confidence from?"

Zhou Haoran also felt that this was a bit too much. After a pause, he said, "Let's see what the situation is. If I really can't do anything about it, you can go find someone else to fire. There might be something interesting to watch at the summary meeting this afternoon!"

(End of this chapter)