Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Zhang Peng looked at the Apple 4 in his hand, a prize he had won two years ago from a ”Bargain Down to 0 Yuan” event on FoxTao.

Although the phone could still last another two years, when faced with a new model boasting a large screen, more memory, and an AI voice interaction engine, he silently added a 32GB Orange C3 to his cart and, swallowing his heartache, completed the purchase.

He used a 5-yuan coupon, bringing the final price to 3,194 yuan!

His computer science degree from Hu City Science and Technology University had landed him a job with a monthly salary of 12,000 yuan after graduation. But as the saying goes, ’it’s not easy to make a living in Hu City.’ After deducting social security and housing fund contributions, he was left with 9,840 yuan. Then, after rent, food, transportation, and other expenses, he couldn’t even save 4,000 yuan a month.

Therefore, spending these 3,194 yuan was especially painful. If the product’s performance didn’t meet his expectations, if it wasn’t as amazing as Wang Teng had hyped it up to be at the launch event, he would definitely go from fan to anti-fan and curse out Chen Yansen on Weibo every day.

”Xiaozhang, the fund team has a small request for a web browser plugin. I’m assigning it to you to follow up on. Do a good job, and I’ll put you in for a raise at the end of the year.”

Just as Zhang Peng was slacking off, his supervisor slowly walked over, assigning him work while also making empty promises.

”Okay, Sister Ling.”

Zhang Peng nodded in agreement, discreetly putting his phone away.

Ping’an’s salary level wasn’t high compared to the major internet companies; they relied entirely on their year-end bonuses to have a prosperous New Year.

And the size of that year-end bonus was in the hands of Sister Ling, the woman standing right in front of him.

Zhang Peng understood the situation very clearly: the boss’s assignments came first, slacking off came second, and keeping the boss happy was far more important than actually doing a good job.

In the great dye vat of Hu City, Zhang Peng had long ago learned the workplace skill of ”managing up.” Doing a lot was not as good as talking a lot, and talking a lot was not as good as talking well.

”Go on, the colleagues from the product and business departments are in meeting room B05,” Chen Fengling said with a wave of her hand and a smile.

In her eyes, Zhang Peng was young, tall, and handsome. He was smart, a smooth talker, and had a high, straight nose. It was a pity Ping’an didn’t allow office romances.