As An Wuyang and Li Wenya talked, An Huchun looked at An Wuyang with some guilt.
An Wuyang took the initiative to speak. "Dad, I'm telling you these things because I want you to know that I've grown up and can make money on my own now. You don't need to feel too much pressure."
Li Wenya praised him from the side. "I told you before that our son would definitely make this decision. Do you believe me now?"
"Huh?" An Wuyang deliberately put on an exaggerated expression. "Dad actually didn't believe in me?"
An Huchun hurriedly gave an awkward laugh.
"Old An, tell our son about the layoff compensation plan." Li Wenya changed the subject and reminded An Huchun.
"The layoff compensation plan is already done?" An Wuyang asked.
An Huchun answered firmly, "The preliminary compensation plan is finished. I've decided to give all departing employees compensation of 2N+2, with N based on their average take-home pay over the past twelve months, rather than the minimum wage standard."
"Also, management will receive compensation equal to twice their annual salary," An Huchun added.
An Wuyang stared at An Huchun in surprise. With compensation standards like these, they were absolutely the ceiling among ceilings!
Under normal circumstances, an ordinary company offering N+1 severance pay was already being extremely generous.
When a certain foreign-funded company withdrew from the country, it offered N+3 severance pay, and some companies even called it malicious severance compensation.
Now An Huchun actually wanted to offer 2N+2 severance pay, calculated according to the average take-home pay over the past twelve months. If that wasn't the ceiling among ceilings, what was?
Seeing An Wuyang's surprise, An Huchun assumed that An Wuyang was unwilling. He quickly said, "Wuyang, many people in our group have been with us their entire lives. Those uncles and aunties watched you grow up. Many of them even held you when you were little. You..."
An Huchun stopped, apparently hesitant to continue.
An Wuyang took the initiative to speak. "Dad, what are you thinking? I didn't mean that I disagree."
"It's good that you agree." An Huchun breathed a sigh of relief.
"This time, the An Family is in their debt. Many of them are already in their forties. After leaving us, they'll probably have trouble finding work in the future, so I wanted to give them a little more compensation and free them from all worries about the future," An Huchun explained.
"Your father is just softhearted!" Li Wenya said from the side, seemingly complaining but actually showing her support.
"How much severance pay will be needed?" An Wuyang asked.
"The entire new plant will be dissolved. There are 106 employees there. Headquarters will need to be streamlined too, with an estimated 38 layoffs," An Huchun explained in detail.
"The sales team will also be mostly dissolved, with at most ten percent retained. That means 50 layoffs," An Huchun added.
"At present, the person receiving the highest severance pay is Li Ping, a technical engineer at the new plant. He's worked for our group for 32 years. His current annual salary is 360,000, but with various bonuses and benefits, he makes 480,000 a year. That averages out to 40,000 a month," An Huchun listed the figures.
"Under the 2N+2 severance standard, Old Li can receive 2.64 million in compensation," An Huchun explained, referring to the person receiving the highest severance pay.
An Wuyang was utterly stunned!
The severance pay was actually over two million?
This...
Even though An Wuyang had already expected that some people's severance pay would be extremely high when he heard about the 2N+2 plan, compensation exceeding two million still left him shocked.
Seeing the stunned look on An Wuyang's face, An Huchun added an explanation. "Old Li's situation is an exception. The others won't receive anything that high!"
"Dad, is there a list of the severance payments?" An Wuyang asked.
"I'll send it to you." An Huchun took out his phone and sent An Wuyang the list of severance payments.
An Wuyang first pulled the list all the way to the bottom to check the total.
This round of layoffs involved 194 people. Wugengtian Pharmaceutical Group had only 272 employees in total, meaning that more than 71 percent of the workforce would be laid off!
The total severance pay for these laid-off employees amounted to 136 million Xia Guo Yuan, with the average severance payment exceeding 700,000 Xia Guo Yuan.
This was severance pay?
What was this, a charitable foundation?
An Wuyang admitted that he was wavering a little. Even though he had previously felt that he should support An Huchun, when 136 million Xia Guo Yuan in severance pay was placed before him, he had to admit that he was wavering!
"How much money is left in the group's accounts?" An Wuyang asked.
"Less than 20 million," Li Wenya answered.
"Besides the severance pay, the group has another 120 million in loans coming due soon. The banks have also clearly stated that they won't extend our loans or provide Wugengtian with any further maturity extensions," Li Wenya added.
"Also, the group has approximately 80 million in commercial acceptance bills due, as well as nearly 60 million owed to suppliers that needs to be dealt with," Li Wenya continued.
"Our group is in such terrible shape?" An Wuyang was numb!
His family business had clearly still been earning 50 million a year before. Yet after only a few years, it had somehow fallen into a whirlpool of debt.
Did that make any sense?
If his father had been conducting research into innovative drugs, then it made perfect sense!
Innovative drug research had always been a high-risk, high-investment endeavor. Even though artificial intelligence-assisted research had been introduced in recent years, the cost and time required for innovative drug research remained extremely high.
According to the latest report from 2021, the success rate for innovative drug research was only about 7.9 percent. Roughly twelve innovative drugs were needed for one to successfully reach the market.
Furthermore, the average research cost of each innovative drug reached as high as two billion dollars, while the average development cycle was 6.9 years.
This combination of high risk and high investment had dragged Wugengtian Pharmaceutical Group down. That didn't seem particularly unreasonable, did it?
After all, Wugengtian Pharmaceutical Group had only earned 50 million Xia Guo Yuan the previous year!
If the average research cost of two billion dollars for an innovative drug was spread across the average development period of 6.9 years, and the exchange rate between U.S. dollars and Xia Guo Yuan was set at one to seven, the average annual research expense for an innovative drug would be as high as two billion Xia Guo Yuan.
Wugengtian Pharmaceutical Group had only earned a "mere" 50 million Xia Guo Yuan a year. It really couldn't withstand the strain of innovative drug research.
'Ding!' 'Random Choice: Capitalist or Philanthropist!' 'A kindhearted rich second-generation heir fails at entrepreneurship, then offers sky-high severance pay out of old affection, completely maxing out his profligate trait!' 'Host's Choice: Please decide freely whether to support the sky-high severance pay.' 'Choice Reward: Different rewards will be granted based on the host's different choices.'
The Happy Life System displayed a brand-new notification in An Wuyang's mind, indicating that An Wuyang had triggered a new random choice.
Honestly, faced with severance pay as high as 136 million Xia Guo Yuan, there had been a moment when An Wuyang truly hadn't wanted to pay it.
What capitalist could withstand severance compensation this outrageously high?
But An Wuyang thought about it more deeply.
PS: Was An Huchun really too stupid? Or was there something wrong with the way some people thought?
Before you continue