Courtyard House: My Wife is Xu Huizhen

Page 403

Director Li became interested and said, "Tell me about it!"

He Yuzhu said, "Since vocational school graduates are unwilling to come to the machinery factory, then we will train them ourselves."

“Establish a vocational school, and all graduates will enter the machinery factory. After several years of training, plus some short-term training for internal employees, the machinery factory will have a large number of qualified secondary vocational school graduates in just a few years.”

Taking steel rolling mills as an example, although they have their own schools, they only have primary, junior high and senior high schools, and no vocational secondary schools.

Ordinary apprentices will learn from their masters after entering the workforce, but many masters are unwilling to teach their apprentices, or teach them very little.

This kind of learning is very inefficient, and many people have technical shortcomings without systematic learning.

He Yuzhu wanted to combine long-term and short-term training to quickly train a large number of qualified workers.

Previously, training was mainly short-term, with a maximum duration of three months.

The plan is to extend the training period to two years, so that graduates will be vocational school graduates and can serve as technical backbones upon entering the workforce.

Of course, in the next two years, it won't just be theoretical learning. Having your own factory will allow you to combine theory with practical operation. In this way, even the worst graduates will have a professional level of two or three.

He Yuzhu shared all his thoughts, and Director Li was very pleased to hear them.

He praised He Yuzhu for his forward-thinking ideas, saying that he always came up with ideas before He Yuzhu.

“Your suggestion is excellent. It’s still summer, which is the perfect time to start recruitment. We can select some high-achieving students from junior high and high school to enter this vocational school.”

Primary school is now 6 years long, and junior high and high school are each 2 years long. Students usually start school at age 7.

Even after graduating from high school, they are only sixteen or seventeen years old.

Thanks to the literacy campaigns of the past few years, almost everyone in society has reached the level of a primary school graduate, which has made it difficult for junior high school and high school graduates to find jobs.

They undergo two years of training, and when they are eighteen or nineteen years old, they are ready to enter the factory.

He Yuzhu said, "I came here today just for this matter. I'll head back now so as not to delay your work."

"Don't rush off, let me introduce you to a comrade."

"Director, I think it's unnecessary."

Hei Zhu had a bad feeling; it must be the secretary Xu Xiaomei mentioned.

Director Li said, "We already had a meeting yesterday to discuss this, and a group of comrades will be going to the machinery factory to assist you in your work."

He Yuzhu felt bitter inside; it was pretty much as he had guessed.

"I don't need a secretary, how about we reassign him to another position?"

Director Li said, "Lu Xiaomi studied secretarial work, which is the most suitable position for her. Your previous clerk was also put in a difficult position and got many document formats wrong."

When it comes to this, He Yuzhu has nothing to say. Xu Xiaomei was indeed somewhat unqualified at the beginning.

I later did a crash course on the most basic documents, and the formatting was fine, but my business skills were still somewhat lacking.

After Director Li gave an introduction, He Yuzhu realized that Xu Xiaomei's information was wrong, and that Lü Xiaomi was not Secretary Lü's daughter.

Then she went out and greeted a pretty girl who came in.

While waiting outside, He Yuzhu noticed a new girl in the large office.

I thought she was a new clerk, but I never expected that she was the person who was going to be my secretary.

Because it was summer, the girl was wearing a pink plaid dress.

She was wearing mid-heeled sandals, and you could see she was wearing nylon socks.

Ordinary people usually wear cloth socks or wool socks that have no elasticity. There is a cloth strap on the top of the socks that can be tied around the calf so that the socks will not fall down.

However, a small number of nylon socks are sold in the department store, priced as high as 1.3 yuan a pair.

You should know that the most expensive pork is only 84 cents a pound now, so this pair of socks can be exchanged for a pound and a half of pork.

Ordinary people simply cannot afford nylon socks.

She had an oval face, long eyebrows, fair skin, and eyes like clear water, with an air of scholarly refinement about her.

Below her small nose was a small mouth with thin lips and slightly upturned corners, carrying a hint of a smile.

Her entire face was delicate and beautiful, so otherworldly, without a trace of worldly dust, like a lotus bud emerging from the water, pure and untouched by the world.

He Yuzhu was very surprised that such a young and beautiful girl was being placed next to him. He originally wanted to refuse, but after seeing the girl's face, He Yuzhu made up his mind that he must keep this secretary.

Lü Xiaomi said gracefully, "Hello, Director He, my name is Lü Xiaomi."

"Hello, welcome to work at our machinery factory."

Director Li smiled and said, "Alright, take them back now. We'll cooperate with each other in the future."

He Yuzhu then took his leave, followed by Lü Xiaomi.

He didn't have any personal belongings, just a briefcase, which he carried as he left the street office compound with He Yuzhu.

The two rode their bicycles to the machinery factory. He Yuzhu handed the person over to Xu Xiaomei and then didn't stay long. Today he was going to the big boss's house to cook for him.

There were no guests today, so He Yuzhu arrived a bit early and first played a game of Go with the senior leader.

He Yuzhu had long since mastered everyday activities like chess, Go, poker, and bridge to a very high level, and was already quite adept at playing chess with high-ranking leaders.

Of course, I wouldn't be foolish enough to win against him. I'd just lose a few times each time to keep the big boss happy.

After the game was finished, the senior leader beamed with joy and praised He Yuzhu for his improved skills.

Then he casually asked about the machinery factory managed by He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu explained his plans.

"What? You want to develop your factory into a large factory with 3000 employees?"

He Yuzhu said, "This is the first phase. The second phase will be built to accommodate about 6000 people. The plan has been completed, and the street office has now been sent to the district."

"Let alone 6000 people, even a scale of 3000 people would be considered large in our area."

The steel rolling mill doesn't have 1 employees yet; it won't reach that number until 65.

The senior leader thought for a moment and said, "Your scale is too large; it should become one of our department's factories."

The top leader was from the Ministry of Machinery, a department that was later abolished.

However, at present, the main responsibility is the construction of machinery.

He Yuzhu said, "That can't be, we belong to the neighborhood collective."

“You were too small before, but now you can become a large factory with 3000 people.”

He Yuzhu said, "But all of these belong to the streets. You're not going to just copy them off, are you?"

I hadn't thought about the ownership issue before, since the construction company is the street administration.

Not to mention ministries, even the city and district governments haven't invested in it. He Yuzhu hadn't really considered the issue of ownership before.

The senior leader thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to say; we'll have to discuss it at the meeting."

"No way, you haven't invested anything."

“There has never been such a case before. Without investment from higher authorities, you have set up a large factory and you still need to hold meetings to study it.”

He Yuzhu was dumbfounded and said, "We only have five or six hundred people now. If you want to transfer the unit away, then we will not expand."

"Your attitude is unacceptable."

The senior leader criticized He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu had long been familiar with the senior leader and knew his temperament. He did not treat him as a superior, but as an equal old friend, a close friend despite the age difference.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. We build it, and then you take all the ownership.”

"You're talking about etiquette, but this matter needs to be viewed dialectically. Can you manage a large factory with 3000 or even 6000 people?"

He Yuzhu said, "Why can't we manage it well? Besides, you can't guarantee that if someone else takes over as leader and changes ownership, they will manage it better than us."

What you said makes sense.

He Yuzhu said, "Besides, we also produce lathes that we can sell to the ministry. If you have any ideas, you can build a new machine factory from scratch. You can't just turn our street's factory into your ministry's factory."

“That makes sense. I’ll bring an inspection team to your factory tomorrow for an on-site inspection.”

Chapter 293 The New Secretary

Now that the machinery factory belongs to the street administration, with Director Li in charge, I can focus on development without too many problems from higher-level leaders.

If the supervisory unit is changed to the ministry leaders, I probably won't be able to keep my job as factory director.

A high-ranking leader is not necessarily the top leader, and many things are beyond their control.

He Yuzhu certainly didn't want the current situation to change; he believed that only when he was in charge could he live a comfortable life.

After talking with the top leader for a while, I convinced him to accept my idea: to leave the machinery factory to the local government as much as possible. If the ministry wanted to build a new machinery factory, I could provide assistance in various aspects.

That is, we will sell a batch of the lathes we are currently producing to them later.

Let them produce it themselves; why take the factory away?

I prepared four dishes and a soup for dinner, and then I left the big boss's house.

He Yuzhu arrived at the courtyard house and took a look. He saw that the entire courtyard was still cooking together, with each household taking turns to contribute, which saved some firewood and coal.

However, the taste is not to my liking; it's either too much or too little salt or too much chili.