CEO’s office.
Yang Hao sat in the comfortable executive chair and spun around.
This identity of a CEO was still quite novel to him, after all, he had only seen so-called domineering CEOs on TV before.
He never thought that one day he would get to experience what it’s like to be a CEO himself.
Knock, knock, knock…
Someone was knocking on the door of the CEO’s office at this moment.
Yang Hao immediately adjusted his posture and said, “Come in.”
“Mr. Yang.”
“There is work I need to communicate with you about.”
The person who came in was a middle-aged man who looked to be around forty, dressed in a sharp coffee-colored suit, his hair meticulously combed.
Yang Hao remembered this man; his name was Wei Zhengyi, one of the four vice-presidents of the group in charge of the Human Resources Center, which had three departments underneath it: the Organization & Personnel Department, the Compensation & Performance Department, and the Employee Relations Department.
“Mr. Wei, please take a seat.”
Yang Hao stood up and went to the reception area, sitting down on the sofa with Wei Zhengyi.
“Mr. Yang, here’s the thing,”
“Mr. Fang practically took everyone away with him from the CEO’s office, so we need to recruit new staff for the CEO’s office. I wonder whether I should transfer people from other departments or recruit new staff.”
“Or, do you have any suitable candidates in mind?”
Wei Zhengyi did not beat around the bush, stating his intention directly.
“Let’s recruit new ones,”
Yang Hao thought for a moment before giving his answer.
Being a parachuted CEO, if the CEO’s office was filled with people pulled in by Wei Zhengyi, then he would be sidelined outright.
Although Yang Hao had never been a CEO, he could still see through this much.
“All right, I’ll arrange it immediately.”
Wei Zhengyi nodded, then asked, “Do you have any specific requirements for the secretary, Mr. Yang?”
“Secretary?”
Yang Hao thought for a moment and said, “As long as they’re capable, that’s fine.”
The workload of a secretary is quite heavy, so they must indeed be capable.
“Uh, okay!”
Wei Zhengyi nodded once more, feeling that this seemingly aloof CEO didn’t appear to be very serious.
In a large group like the Jiangcheng Newspaper Group, the threshold for being a CEO’s secretary is rather high and usually includes three rigid indicators:
1. Good appearance and temperament.
2. Graduated from a 985 university.
3. At least proficient in one foreign language.
But these are just the thresholds. Each criterion can be further detailed into many requirements. For example, the first point about good appearance and temperament is actually very broad; it means the candidate must be at least 165cm tall, younger than 26 years old, unmarried with no short-term plans for childbirth, or married with children.
However, in normal situations, those who are married with children get passed over during the CEO interview round, unless the CEO is a fan of Prime Minister Cao.
Yet, Yang Hao did not mention any of these detailed requirements; he only provided a four-word guideline: As long as they’re capable!
Mr. Yang probably feels that these basic qualifications don’t need to be stated.
This “as long as they’re capable” must be an additional requirement.
Wei Zhengyi silently speculated about the thoughts of this new CEO in his mind.
“Mr. Yang, I’ll go take care of the establishment of the CEO’s office first.”
“Oh, and there’s still one executive assistant left in the CEO’s office. Would you like to have them transferred out or remain in their position?”
Wei Zhengyi asked again.
“Do we have a male assistant or a female assistant?” Yang Hao inquired.
“A female assistant, who just joined a week ago,” Wei Zhengyi answered.
“Call her over. I’d like to have a chat with her,”
Such a new employee, who had just joined, could still be of use to Yang Hao. Still, he wanted to see what her situation was like.
“Sure thing!”
Wei Zhengyi replied and then left the CEO’s office.
A moment later, the female assistant who had been kept on by Fang Zhongwei came to report to Yang Hao.
The girl looked to be around twenty-four or twenty-five, with a neat short hairstyle, and both her image and temperament were quite good; at a glance, she could rank on par with Wang Xueru based purely on external conditions.
“Mr. Yang, my name is Xu Yali, and I previously served as the second assistant to Mr. Fang,”
The girl took the initiative to introduce herself, “the second assistant” meaning she was the second-ranking assistant.
“Hmm, take a seat.”
“I hear you’ve just started working here for a week?”
Yang Hao asked casually.
“Yes, I was working in the Capital City before, and I came back after receiving the offer,”
Xu Yali honestly introduced her situation. In fact, starting from yesterday, she was completely baffled. She, who did not want to drift in the Capital City, had finally gotten a decent offer relatively close to her hometown in Jiangcheng.
But while she was still in her training period, everyone in her department left, leaving her all alone.
Xu Yali felt like crying without tears. From yesterday until now, she had been constantly worried about her future. If the new CEO were to form his own executive office, she would surely be transferred, and her future would be uncertain.
…
At the Jiangcheng Evening News reporter department.
Li Manni complained about her experience to her best friend Xu Wenqian on Weixun. Although she was emotionally stable, naturally, she needed an outlet for such frustrating events.
Meanwhile, Xu Wenqian, who was slacking off, immediately started ranting upon learning about her best friend’s ordeals.
Wenqian: What a piece of crap, Director Chang, he’s just scum!
Wenqian: Manni, we don’t have to take this. If it comes to it, we’ll just change jobs.
Wenqian: And he even had the delusion you would go out drinking with them. Utterly wishful thinking!
Wenqian: Such a shameless old man deserves to be exposed!!
“Manni, I heard that the list for this period’s regular staff appointments has come out.”
Just as Li Manni was reading the messages that Xu Wenqian had sent, Guo Wei, an intern reporter from the neighboring “Entertainment & Sports” group, approached Li Manni’s desk with her thermos cup in hand.
Both were interns who joined the newspaper at the same time.
However, Li Manni was superior to her both in terms of appearance and professional competence.
As a result, Guo Wei, also an intern, had always been overshadowed by Li Manni, but now, the slot for becoming a full-time employee had fallen into her lap.
Eager to show off her newfound victory, Guo Wei couldn’t wait to flaunt it.
“Um, congratulations to you.”
Li Manni roughly knew what the other party was thinking and perfunctorily replied.
“Nowadays, our traditional print media is not doing well; they cut the number of full-time slots by half this year, so the competition was really fierce. I was just lucky.”
“But Manni, don’t be discouraged. I’m sure your turn will come next.”
After showing off, Guo Wei did not forget to console Li Manni in an overly insincere manner.
However, as soon as she finished speaking, Tang Lijie, who was standing by, chimed in: “Weiwei, you’re being too modest; there’s no such thing as too much luck!”
“It’s all about silently working hard behind the scenes!”
Since Tang Lijie knew Li Manni well and was aware of her non-confrontational nature, she sarcastically retorted on Li Manni’s behalf.
In her mind, however, she was silently criticizing: How can she not have a clue about how she really got her promotion, and still have the face to boast about it!
As expected, after hearing Tang Lijie’s words, Guo Wei’s face changed. She could understand the underlying meaning of the words and, feeling guilty, she immediately skulked away.
“A petty person getting ahead!”
Tang Lijie spat disdainfully, then said to Li Manni, “Manni, how about I take over that news about the low-rent housing? You could take a break and adjust your mindset.”
“No need, Tang.”
“I’m fine.”
Li Manni shook her head. Despite her delicate appearance, she was quite resilient at heart; this little setback wasn’t enough to break her.
…
CEO’s office.
After getting to know Xu Yali’s situation, Yang Hao let the person leave.
Staff in the CEO’s office must all be the CEO’s confidants, so Yang Hao was particularly cautious in his hiring decisions.
Although he didn’t regard Jiangcheng Newspaper Group as being of paramount importance, much helped by the “System,” he still saw this as an opportunity to practice, and he wanted to do his best.
He couldn’t fail in his first role as CEO!
Fang Zhongwei had left behind quite a few business management books in the bookshelf, and now, Yang Hao was using a Study Card he had obtained previously from completing a task, earnestly poring over the books.
With the Study Card enhancing his learning, he could not only memorize everything at a glance but also speed read at an incredible pace.
If he could maintain such a state of learning, Yang Hao felt that with a little review of his high school studies, he could easily top the exams.
While he was fully absorbed in his studies, suddenly his Weixun account started buzzing with a message.
It was from Xu Wenqian: Brother Yang, our Manni is being bullied!
Being bullied??
Seeing this message, Yang Hao exploded with rage and immediately made a phone call.
It took a while for Xu Wenqian to answer, speaking in a very low voice, and occasional flushing sounds could be heard through the receiver. Clearly, this hardworking person had ducked into the bathroom to take the call.
But after hearing Xu Wenqian’s story, Yang Hao was somewhat speechless. This woman, true to her role as a new media editor, was a real clickbait expert.
Yang Hao thought that being bullied was something serious, but it turned out to involve workplace issues.
If it had been before, Yang Hao would have asked Li Manni to quit her job since he couldn’t meddle with internal affairs of the newspaper.
But now the situation was different. He was the fricking CEO of Jiangcheng Newspaper Group!
Jiangcheng Evening News was just one subsidiary of the Group.
MD, even a mid-level executive from a subsidiary dares to bully my sister-in-law!
Is he looking for a job change or what!
After ending the call with Xu Wenqian, Yang Hao immediately called Wei Zhengyi and briefly stated his demands.
“Rest assured, Mr. Yang. Within two hours, I will give you a satisfactory response,” Wei Zhengyi promised right away.
This was the new CEO’s first order since assuming office; it had to be executed perfectly.
Vice President’s office.
Wei Zhengyi immediately called in Wang Zhen, the manager of the Organization and Personnel Department.
“Whose connection is Chang Ruihua, the head of the reporters’ department of Jiangcheng Evening News?”
The internal relations at Jiangcheng Newspaper Group were convoluted, and even though chang ruihua was doomed, Wei Zhengyi still wanted to understand his background.
“He’s connected to Vice President Liu.”
As the manager of the Group’s Personnel Department, Wang Zhen had an encyclopedic knowledge of both the Group’s internal management and the leadership of its several subsidiaries.
“So it’s Liu Sen’s person, serves him right!”
Liu Sen, one of the Group’s four vice presidents in charge of marketing, had always had a poor relationship with Wei Zhengyi.
So when he heard that someone connected to Liu Sen had offended the new CEO, Wei Zhengyi was quite pleased.
“Mr. Wei, shall we ‘optimize’ this Chang Ruihua?”
Wang Zhen, sensing the direction of the wind, asked.
“Optimization” here actually meant dismissal, but to save costs, the target would typically be transferred away from their original post to a position they couldn’t handle, prompting them to resign voluntarily. This would save a severance payout.
“Chang Ruihua must be optimized, and get rid of an intern named Guo Wei immediately!” Wei Zhengyi issued the order straight away.
“Oh yes, aren’t the three subsidiary newspapers establishing a new media operations center?”
“Transfer Li Manni over as the head of the New Media Operations Center!” Wei Zhengyi added another sentence.
“Mr. Wei, who is Li Manni?”
The names of the higher-ups at Jiangcheng Newspaper Group were virtually etched in Wang Zhen’s mind, but Li Manni was an unfamiliar name to him.
“An intern at Jiangcheng Evening News.”
“Right, send me her resume later.”
“Huh?”
“An intern??”
“Directly transferred to be the head of the New Media Operations Center??” Wang Zhen was utterly bewildered.
Wei Zhengyi, growing impatient, waved his hand dismissively: “Just go do it! You have one hour!”