Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

Upon entering the office of the Vocational and Technical Affairs Section, most of the department's staff had already arrived.

Actually, this department doesn't have many people. Besides Zhuang Zhongchen, there are two other cadres: Huang Ya and Gu Qiming, who is also a deputy section chief. In addition, there are eight workers with official worker status. They are either working in lieu of cadre positions or are simply workers; they don't have cadre status.

In those days, not all government employees were cadres. Unlike later times, when almost all of them were civil servants.

There are only three professions where all employees are cadres: one is the police.

Don't underestimate some people just because they are local police officers; they are actually cadres.

While it's true that during that period, people preferred working in the factory security department to being a lowly patrol officer, this applied to those in leadership positions. Becoming a security officer meant becoming a manager, not a worker. Otherwise, one would be out of their mind.

Another group consists of medical staff. Doctors are definitely included, but we're mainly referring to nurses. Indeed, all nurses are also government officials.

So later, some nurses with connections obtained master's degrees by repeatedly publishing papers and then transferred to leadership positions in the health bureau. They were exploiting loopholes in the rules.

Because nurses are essentially government officials. They might not have the ability to become doctors, but becoming government officials is no problem, right?

The last type is teachers. And yes, Uncle Yan Fugui was actually a government official.

And it often happens that many teachers are directly transferred to government agencies, starting their political careers as secretaries and then rising through the ranks. This is because teachers have cadre status.

Just to clarify: This excludes the later rural substitute teachers, who also needed to pass the civil service exam.

However, in the eyes of ordinary people, a junior police officer, a junior nurse, or a junior teacher seems no different from anyone else. They have no idea that these are officials and are easily overlooked.

Therefore, Yan Fugui was overlooked. In the courtyard house, he could only be treated as a third-ranking elder.

In the courtyard house, Zhuang Zhongchen was also overlooked.

On the one hand, the name of the workers' and peasants' training class is very misleading and cannot be associated with college students at all.

Okay! Zhuang Zhongchen isn't exactly a five-year undergraduate (currently, undergraduate programs are five years, and associate's programs are three. There's almost no master's or doctoral education in China. Therefore, a bachelor's degree is the highest level of education). But the people in the institute don't know that he also has "equivalent academic qualifications."

On the other hand, Zhuang Zhongchen was too young. People assumed he was just an ordinary worker in the Labor Bureau with very little experience, and didn't consider him a cadre at all.

Otherwise, a combination of a college student and a cadre could at least... borrow an extra 1000 yuan!

Once everyone had arrived, Zhuang Zhongchen began to chair the meeting. Every Monday morning, the work of the previous week needed to be summarized, and the work for the coming week needed to be planned.

Actually, after the exams ended last week, summer vacation had already begun, and all vocational school students had graduated. Therefore, there weren't many jobs available for vocational school graduates.

Then, throughout the second half of the year, until the Spring Festival next year, there should be vocational skills level examinations for on-the-job employees, namely factory workers.

However, the national vocational qualification system has only been established for a few years. For employed workers, years of service are considered. They need to have worked in their current position for three, five, or eight years before they are eligible to take the exam.

Therefore, even the required years of service are not enough, and very few current employees will take the exam.

On a side note: Why are technical school students and vocational school students allowed to take the exam?

It's a very simple principle: they studied at a vocational school for three years, so they've already worked as apprentices for three years. A chef's program might be four years, making them four-year apprentices. Therefore, they've already met the minimum required years of experience.

"...Xiao Zhuang, there aren't many exams in the second half of the year, so you can leave them all to us! You don't need to go through all that trouble; just stay in the bureau and focus on your work..."

The speaker was Gu Qiming, the deputy section chief. He was 27 or 8 years old, also a young cadre. The only difference between him and Zhuang Zhongchen was that Zhuang lacked the title of "acting section chief." The main reason was that Zhuang, being a college graduate and engineer, held a significant advantage over Gu Qiming.

However, according to rumors within the organization, Gu Qiming likely has some connections, which is why he was parachuted into the Vocational Skills Section, aiming for the future section chief position. Therefore, he has been openly and covertly trying to win people over, preparing to completely sideline Zhuang Zhongchen.

As for calling himself "Little Zhuang"? That's a minor matter. And then there's calling himself "Engineer Zhuang." Some genuinely don't know, but others are subtly mocking him, ridiculing his incompetence as a mediocre engineer.

The only person who referred to himself as a "manipulated stock" was Huang Ya.

Okay! The original owner also has some issues here. Did he borrow money from every single colleague in the vocational skills department? No wonder they're becoming disloyal.

"Xiao Gu, we'll discuss this later. The department's morning meeting is almost over. Meeting adjourned!"

"Xiao Zhuang...?"

"hehe."

Zhuang Zhongchen chuckled inwardly. Why is there palace intrigue everywhere? It really is true that small temples have many demons, and shallow waters have many turtles.

Since the problem can't be solved, it's better not to try. To be honest, Zhuang Zhongchen still needs to familiarize himself with the situation at work. Before that, it's best not to make any major changes.

However, when Zhuang Zhongchen left, everyone was stunned. This kid had always been timid and subservient, a mere pretty face with no substance. On the contrary, Section Chief Gu had been relentlessly pressuring him, causing the good-for-nothing to utterly lose his composure.

Why has his personality changed so drastically today? This kid has suddenly learned to practice Tai Chi!

The content of the Monday morning meeting in the General Affairs Department is actually quite similar, and the participants are the leaders of various departments within the department.

You know what, in the workplace, the original owner was a fresh-faced newbie, and once targeted, she would often end up in a sorry state.

However, in ordinary interpersonal interactions, he's universally liked. Not only is he top-notch in appearance, but he also speaks exceptionally well. Therefore, barring any conflicts of interest, he's generally well-liked by other leaders. As for his abilities...?

The meeting was chaired by Director Jin of the General Affairs Department: "I will first convey several instructions from the bureau leadership..."

To be honest, Zhuang Zhongchen had little to do at this kind of meeting. The main topics of discussion were the two major areas of work related to safety supervision. There was nothing that could be done about it; the vocational and technical section was just an adjunct. It was essentially the same as other fieldwork, but ultimately it was merged into the general affairs department.

Interestingly, while reviewing the documents, Zhuang Zhongchen also came across Jia Dongxu's safety accident report. However, unexpectedly, more than a month has passed, and the matter still hasn't reached a final conclusion.

In other words, the determination of responsibility for the safety accident is still ongoing. Perhaps the various departments are still arguing about it.

Before they knew it, the meeting was coming to an end. Finally, it was the turn of the Vocational and Technical Section Chief Jin's turn. He casually asked, "Xiao Zhuang, is there anything I can help you with?"