Ordinary People

After adjusting his schedule, he arrived at the company headquarters in the afternoon.

As soon as he entered the office, Lin Baijie stood up, beaming: "General Manager Huang, that money has arrived."

"Good. By the way, how are things going with the sanitation company?"

Speaking of business, Lin Baijie hurriedly replied: "General Manager Huang, you wouldn't believe it, we've been had."

"Is the number of sanitation workers wrong? Are there temporary workers?" Huang Xiuyuan was not surprised at all.

Lin Baijie was stunned, asking with some confusion: "General Manager Huang, you knew about this?"

He smiled: "This is a normal situation. I estimate the number of temporary workers in Shanmei doesn't exceed the number of permanent ones by more than double. If this were a first or second-tier city, the temporary workers might outnumber the permanent ones by four or five times."

"You were spot on, General Manager Huang. After I sent people to receive the relevant materials, I found there were only 206 permanent workers, while 214 were temporary, and many of them are old men and women." Lin Baijie was left speechless.

Huang Xiuyuan walked over to his desk, took a map out of the drawer, and spread it out on the table. It was a map of the Shanmei urban area.

"Currently, city trash is dumped near several villages on the urban-rural fringe. Until we finish building the recycling plant, we have no choice but to continue the previous dumping practices." On the map, he circled over a dozen open-air landfills in the streets and townships with a red pen.

"That is indeed the only way for now." Lin Baijie nodded helplessly.

Huang Xiuyuan continued: "The priority right now is to stabilize morale and ensure all sanitation workers continue their normal duties. Their wages shouldn't exceed one thousand yuan, right?"

"Permanent workers take home 1,100 yuan, and temporary workers get 800. Neither has social insurance or housing funds." Lin Baijie found it hard to imagine; such wages were completely mismatched with the intensity of a sanitation worker's labor.

Huang Xiuyuan was not surprised: "Conduct a screening for everyone. Anyone under 45 years old should be signed to a formal labor contract."

"What about those over 45? Should we fire them all?"

"Fire them? What would they live on?" Huang Xiuyuan shook his head: "Keep them on as temporary workers, but pay for their New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme or urban medical insurance every year. Additionally, set up a major illness relief fund within the company. After insurance reimbursements, the company will cover 90% of the remainder. Also, arrange a full-body checkup for them once a year!"

Lin Baijie took out his notebook and wrote it down: "Does this policy apply to other employees as well?"

"The major illness relief fund and the annual full-body checkup apply to the entire company."

"I understand."

Huang Xiuyuan wasn't finished: "Regarding wages, raise the basic salary of the sanitation workers to 1,500 yuan, and make sure the overtime pay, high-temperature subsidies, and holiday bonuses are properly handled."

"General Manager Huang, won't the company's operating costs be too high this way?"

"If you want the horse to run, you have to feed it. Cutting costs is possible, but a person must have a bit of conscience." Huang Xiuyuan gave Lin Baijie a meaningful look.

It was truly the first time Lin Baijie had seen a boss who proactively provided such benefits to his workers.

"Also, arrange dormitories and a cafeteria for the sanitation workers. They are not allowed to take trash home; all waste must be collected uniformly by the company."

Huang Xiuyuan listed a whole host of benefits, including the establishment of a special internal pension fund specifically for older employees who hadn't purchased pension insurance.

After all, for those over 45, even if they started paying into a pension, they wouldn't meet the 15-year requirement by retirement age. For many sanitation workers in their fifties or sixties, buying pension insurance was pointless.

Since that was the case, it was better to set up an internal system.

According to Huang Xiuyuan's design, this special pension was aimed at specific employees. It would be calculated based on the number of years the employee worked for the company, at 6,000 yuan per year of service. Employees could choose when to retire, and upon reaching that date, the pension would be calculated and paid out in a lump sum.

If an accident occurred and they passed away before retirement, this special pension could be inherited by their relatives.

March 17th.

JPMorgan acquired Bear Stearns at a price of 4.81 USD per share.

Over these two days, Huang Xiuyuan's 100 million USD in capital had risen to 133.72 million USD.

Because he hadn't put much effort into trading and operated without leverage, the profits weren't as high as they could have been. If he had used leverage, the profits could have at least doubled.

Of course, operating without leverage had its own advantages. Knowing the general environment for this year, as long as he shorted the market, he could basically make a steady profit without risk.

After dealing with Bear Stearns, he diversified his funds, focusing mainly on indices and three or four individual stocks to reduce Wall Street's attention.

Over a week passed.

After adjusting his schedule, he was accompanied by Lin Baijie to Houjing Village in the urban area.

Lin Zifeng, appointed by Suiren Company to serve as the general manager of Blue Era Environmental Management Company, jogged out from a factory.

The deep-pocketed Suiren Company had directly purchased a factory near the urban-rural fringe of Houjing Village to serve as the headquarters for its subsidiary, Blue Era.

Blue Era was the subsidiary responsible for sanitation work.

When he arrived, it was high noon with the sun blazing; the March weather still carried a hint of a cool breeze.

The Blue Era headquarters had previously been a state-owned hardware and machinery factory that had been abandoned for nearly a decade. The old equipment inside had either turned into scrap metal or been sold off.

Covering an area of 24 mu, it contained two machinery workshops, one warehouse, and a four-story office building.

Stepping into the factory, the cement paths were full of cracks and potholes. There were weeds on the side, and two sanitation workers were weeding under the scorching sun.

"Zifeng, can the machinery workshops be renovated into employee dormitories?"

Lin Zifeng hurriedly replied: "General Manager Huang, the building structure of the workshops is no longer sound; many steel bars are exposed and rusted. The office building, however, doesn't have many issues."

"Then tear them down and rebuild. Use a steel structure with a concrete frame. Build four employee dormitories and have all the sanitation workers move here. Oh, and don't forget the cafeteria."

"I understand." Lin Zifeng hurriedly noted it down in his notebook.

After an hour of inspection, the sanitation workers from various parts of the city began returning to the company headquarters.

In the small square on the side of the factory, over four hundred sanitation workers were gathered together, their faces filled with unease as they whispered and discussed among themselves.

The sudden change in management made these sanitation workers feel involuntarily anxious about their future.

A stout, dark-skinned woman subconsciously kneaded the hem of her shirt with hands covered in calluses and scars: "Old Liu, what is the situation now?"

"How would I know?" The gaunt old man with a face full of wrinkles sat on a plastic chair, his cloudy eyes filled with a mixture of confusion and worry.

"Did the district office say anything?"

"They just told us to follow instructions; they didn't say anything else."

"They aren't going to fire us, are they?"

"Don't overthink it. Fire us? With wages this low, who else would they find?"

Just as they were feeling lost and uneasy, Lin Zifeng walked over from the office building with Huang Xiuyuan and Lin Baijie.

Holding a megaphone, Lin Zifeng clapped his hands: "Everyone, quiet down. The chairman has come to see you all."

The four hundred-plus sanitation workers stared intently at Lin Zifeng, as well as Huang Xiuyuan and Lin Baijie behind him.

Huang Xiuyuan took the megaphone and cleared his throat: "Hello everyone, I am Huang Xiuyuan, the chairman of Blue Era. I came here today mainly to..."