Dawn of Life

Sheng Xing leaned back in his office chair, head drooping, and slowly began to speak: "The results of this event were far from ideal. Headquarters is planning to have its own people directly manage the finance, human resources, administration, and legal departments. The human resources and administration departments will be merged, and a new person, Qu Liang, will be in charge. You will report directly to him. After all, he's from headquarters, so try to get along with him. He has more years of experience than you."

She quickly thought for a moment and said, "President Sheng, don't worry. I definitely won't make things difficult for you." Lin Yue knew that she needed to show her magnanimity and ability to adapt to different situations, but she couldn't appear too happy. She wanted to tell Sheng Xing that she would wholeheartedly support her new boss, but mainly because she didn't want to put him in a difficult position.

Sure enough, Sheng Xing nodded at her with satisfaction and said, "I've always trusted you to do things. Although you report to President Qu, his reporting relationship is still with me." Sheng Xing's words made it very clear that Lin Yue needed to give Qu Liang face, but Sheng Xing still held the power of life and death over her.

Lin Yue didn't care. She had figured it out. Apart from Qin Lan, the other bosses were all pretty much the same to her. Anyway, as long as she didn't lose her job or get a pay cut, she could treat everything else as workplace experience.

However, Qu Liang only oversees the administration and human resources departments, which means his rank isn't much higher than hers. This isn't a good thing. If a VP were parachuted in and took over all the functional departments, creating a gap between them, they wouldn't be competing on the same level anymore.

Lin Yue could only pray that this person was magnanimous and easy to get along with. Or, after he arrived, she could try to prove her loyalty to him first; it would be troublesome if he made her a competitor.

Lin Yue's concerns were not unfounded. She was now the HR Director, so what was Qu Liang's title? HR and Administration Director? If Lin Yue wasn't demoted, then it would be unacceptable for two directors to coexist in one department. Shengxing gave Qu Liang a new title: Minister of HR and Administration.

HR is extremely busy towards the end of the year. Although salary adjustments and performance reviews have been completed, year-end summaries, annual evaluations, and the annual meeting are still major events. Lin Yue was leading her team in a meeting to discuss plans and finalize implementation strategies. On this particular day, as they were discussing the annual performance evaluation plan, the meeting room door was pushed open. Sheng Xing entered with a man around 50 years old, short-legged and with a large belly, perfectly embodying the greasy and unappealing nature of middle-aged men.

Sheng Xing stood in front of the conference table, scanned the room, and said loudly, "Let me introduce you all. This is our new Minister of Human Resources and Administration, Qu Liang, Mr. Qu." Everyone applauded and looked at each other.

After Sheng Xing finished his introduction, he turned to Qu Liang and said, "President Qu, you all continue with your meeting. I'll go and get back to work."

Qu Liang looked at Sheng Xing with a fawning expression and nodded frantically, saying, "President Sheng, please go ahead and do your work."

After watching Shengxing leave, he turned around and immediately adopted a superior attitude, speaking seriously to the people present: "Hello everyone, I'm from Wenxing headquarters. I've worked at Wenxing for 20 years. From now on, I will be managing you all. Starting today, all supervisors and above will report to me. I'm a very easy person to get along with. Compared to work ability, I value work attitude more. All you need to do is listen and follow instructions."

Wenxing Group is a leader in the cultural industry, with businesses spanning real estate, finance, culture, and many other sectors. It's a large and powerful company, half of which is state-owned, and it's also rife with family and cronyism, making its internal structure incredibly complex. Qu Liang's ability to survive in such a company for 20 years isn't due to his exceptional abilities, but rather his remarkable skill in managing upwards, his ability to read the political winds, and especially his mastery of flattery.

Qu Liang's survival strategy was to flatter those above him and bully those below him; after 20 years, he had only managed to become a junior manager in a business unit. However, this year, his competitors from the same year were promoted, and he was reassigned to a branch office in another city, not to return for two years. Later, he heard that Dasheng, which Wenxing had just acquired, needed a loyal person to come. To avoid going to another province, he pulled strings and gave gifts, ultimately securing the opportunity to come to Dasheng.

For Qu Liang, improving Dasheng's performance wasn't important; what mattered was satisfying headquarters and using the opportunity to make some extra money at Dasheng. Moreover, he had already discussed it with the leaders of Wenxing before coming here, and planned to return to Wenxing headquarters in two years.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: 10 ...

Because the branch office director's salary is equivalent to that of the headquarters manager, there is no increase in salary. However, Dasheng's benefits are not as good as Wenxing's. Moreover, although Dasheng was acquired by Wenxing, the two companies are still independently accounted for, so his retirement seniority cannot be accumulated.

After hearing Qu Liang's self-introduction, Lin Yue's heart sank. Her intuition told her that this would be the most difficult person she had ever dealt with in her career. She sensed a deep-seated bureaucracy in Qu Liang's utterly idiotic and tactless self-introduction. Moreover, with supervisors and above reporting directly to him, what did that make her? Wasn't this the opening line Shengxing used when he first ousted Qin Lan at a department meeting?

Qu Liang scanned the room and asked, "Which of you is Lin Yue?"

"Yes, that's me." Lin Yue met his gaze, her attitude gentle yet neither humble nor arrogant.

Qu Liang's gaze lingered on Lin Yue's face before he said, "You continue leading the meeting."

Lin Yue nodded and said, "Minister Qu, we were just discussing the year-end performance evaluation plan. This time, we plan to set up eight awards, including an Innovation Award, Outstanding Manager, Outstanding Employee, and Best Newcomer. The awards will be nominated by department heads and approved by the General Manager's Office..."

Qu Liang frowned and interrupted Lin Yue, saying, "Your plan is clearly unreasonable. Performance evaluations should be done by a vote of all employees, how can it be decided by management?"

Lin Yue thought to herself that Qu Liang hadn't even seen the complete plan yet, and he was already raising questions so quickly. She looked up and felt the gazes from her teammates.

This was the culmination of her and her team's hard work, and not wanting to disappoint them, she began, "Minister Qu, since the awards are primarily set by the company to promote behaviors that align with its values, the company will definitely decide. Department heads are the ones who best understand their subordinates' behavior, so the company will provide them with nomination templates in advance, requiring them to list specific examples. Finally, the General Manager's Office will discuss and determine the nominations based on the reasons given."

Seeing Qu Liang's increasingly grim expression, Lin Yue added, "Of course, we could also set up a 'Most Popular Award' for everyone to vote on. However, this might lead to a situation where the department with the most people gets more votes. Since there are over a thousand people in the company, many of them haven't worked together before, and they can only vote for people they know well."

Qu Liang felt that everyone's eyes were on him. He moved his lips, but couldn't find a more reasonable objection.

With a dark expression, he said, "That's all for today's discussion. Lin Yue, come to my office." Qu Liang's voice was like a gust of wind piercing through the cold winter.

It was obvious that Qu Liang was trying to intimidate Lin Yue. Everyone knew this, and some people couldn't help but feel worried for her, while others began to consider their own interests and how to choose sides.