Chapter 1 The New Employees

In the conference room, all the newly hired employees were answering the questions seriously. After selecting each option, they would type a few words on the keyboard to input explanations, with varying lengths of answers.

Wu Bin was proctoring the exam and couldn't conveniently look at the specific questions and answers. In principle, the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test was absolutely confidential, and openly looking at the test questions in the exam room wouldn't be appropriate.

Therefore, Wu Bin could only wait until the end of the exam to inquire about the changes in the test questions privately, and then use his imagination to figure out the deep meaning behind President Pei's modifications.

Soon, the test ended.

Because the number of questions had been deliberately adjusted, the overall test time remained unchanged. The new employees submitted their answers and checked the test results.

Some employees' screens showed "Pass," while others showed "Try Again."

Wu Bin glanced over the computer screens he could see. Although he couldn't see the small print of the questions, he could still roughly see the final results.

Only a small number of new employees didn't pass the test. After all, this was only the first test, and there were three more chances. As long as they passed any one of them, they could successfully join the company.

The passing rate was not much different from the previous batches of new employees.

Wu Bin couldn't help but frown slightly, analyzing a few clues.

"The results are still given immediately after the test, which means that the scoring is still done automatically by the system based on the objective question answers, and the content written in the explanations is not included in the scoring."

"Then... what is President Pei's intention in making this change?"

"Could it be that he wants to see if these new employees have any deviations in their understanding of the Tenda Spirit?"

"Or does he have some longer-term plans that I can't figure out?"

...

At the same time, Pei Qian was in his office, reviewing the results of this test.

He pulled up the results of all the employees, whether they passed the test or not, and examined them carefully.

Each test result included not only the options chosen but also the employee's own explanation of the option.

Pei Qian selected two of the most representative questions to examine.

The first question was: "It's already off-work hours, but you still have a task at hand that is not completed. What should you do at this time?"

Selecting "Argue with the leader based on reason" would add 5 points, while selecting "Talk about it tomorrow" would add 4 points.

Pei Qian's original intention in creating this question was to instill in employees the concept of "never working overtime." The stronger this concept was in an employee, the more they met President Pei's requirements.

Among these new employees who passed the test, there were indeed quite a few who chose these two options.

But when he looked at their explanations of these options, Pei Qian couldn't help but frown.

"The Tenda Spirit is not to work overtime, so no overtime."

"The leader can't possibly ask us to work overtime, so the 'argue based on reason' option is not valid. The department will automatically lock the doors after work, so we can only wait until tomorrow."

"There are no overtime slots; we can't work overtime even if we want to."

"Rest is for better work. If working overtime today affects rest, then work efficiency will decrease tomorrow, and we will fall into a vicious cycle. If we rest well today, we can complete all work efficiently tomorrow."

"An excellent Tenda employee shouldn't encounter a situation where they need to work overtime to complete work. If this situation occurs, they should first consider whether their efficiency is too low and should strive to improve efficiency, rather than using tactical diligence to cover up strategic laziness."

"The Tenda Spirit says that we should combine work and rest and have long-term goals. Since it's not a burning task, there's no need to rush. As long as it doesn't delay major deadlines, there's no need to work overtime as a formality, especially since Tenda doesn't support this kind of formality."

After reading these explanations, Pei Qian had many question marks floating above his head.

???

There were indeed some explanations here that seemed to understand the Tenda Spirit, but upon closer inspection, they didn't have the right flavor at all!

Although there was a "everyone doesn't work overtime, so I don't work overtime either" bandwagon mentality, indicating that "not working overtime" had become a trend within Tenda, digging a little deeper into the foundation of this trend revealed that it was completely contrary to Pei Qian's original intentions!

The majority of people chose not to work overtime simply because they felt that compared to working overtime, what they should do more is improve efficiency and rest so they could complete work more efficiently.

In this way, regardless of whether they worked overtime or not, these people's work abilities were being fully utilized!

Many companies require employees to work 996 overtime without pay, but whether employees are actively slacking off or passively experiencing decreased work efficiency due to fatigue, in general, the vast majority of employees' work efficiency in a 996 state will be greatly reduced, perhaps only reaching five or six out of ten.

But Tenda was exactly the opposite. Overtime was strictly prohibited, and 996 was not allowed, but the employees' enthusiasm for work was fully mobilized. Some people were even so inspired and motivated that their work performance exploded, and their efficiency increased dramatically.

In the end, the work completion rate at Tenda might be much better than at some 996 companies!

Pei Qian's expression instantly became serious.

He seemed to have discovered the problem!

His original intention was to allow everyone to slack off, coast, and enjoy themselves more, but everyone had interpreted it as President Pei wanted everyone to enjoy themselves more and then complete their work better!

It was one extra step, but the ultimate goal was completely different!

Pei Qian quickly found another question.

The stem of this question seemed unchanged, still about being off work, but this time it was a task personally assigned by President Pei. What should be done at this time?

The standard answer this time was to work overtime to complete the task. If one asked President Pei for double overtime pay, they would get an extra point.

Many people still chose the correct answer, but the reasons for choosing it were still different from Pei Qian's original intention.

"We must execute any request from President Pei unconditionally."

"A task personally assigned by President Pei must be a very crucial task. Even if it means going through fire and water for Tenda, we must complete it perfectly!"

"A task specially cared for by President Pei must have a deeper meaning. At this time, we must carefully ponder it, deeply explore the thoughts behind President Pei, and complete the task perfectly after understanding the thoughts. It's not excessive to ask for a little more overtime pay for our merits."

"We must have confidence in ourselves. If we take President Pei's overtime pay, we can earn more money for the company in the future as a reward. If we don't dare to ask for overtime pay, it shows that we don't have confidence in our abilities, which is not in line with the Tenda Spirit."

Seeing these answers, Pei Qian felt 10% gratified and 90% worried.

He was gratified that the employees seemed to have an obsession and consensus about completing tasks assigned by President Pei and would definitely complete them as scheduled. In this way, Pei Qian basically didn't have to worry about projects not being completed or systems being delayed for settlement.

But... what was this "taking President Pei's overtime pay and earning more money for the company as a reward"?

Pei Qian was speechless. Who the hell asked you to repay me?

Don't make wild guesses here!

President Pei has always done good deeds without asking for anything in return. You're making it very difficult for me!

After reading the answers to these two questions, Pei Qian realized a very serious problem.

The original intention of this Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test had been severely distorted!

In fact, Pei Qian's original idea was simply to let employees rest more, slack off more, work less, and earn less money for the company. He didn't think too much about it.

But somehow, most people did understand the "more rest" aspect, but inexplicably added another step afterward: more rest is for working better.

This completely changed the taste!

From the original salted fish spirit to a striving bee.

"No wonder I've been making so much money lately that I'm getting a cerebral hemorrhage."

"No wonder the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test hasn't weeded out a single striving bee so far."

"So the questions were completely misinterpreted!"

Pei Qian held his forehead, feeling a bit speechless.

The question was, what to do?

Judging from the answers to these test questions, it was clear that striving bees had infiltrated Tenda's new employees, and there were quite a few of them.

The problem was, Pei Qian couldn't do anything to them. After all, they had passed the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test on their own merit.

In the end, Pei Qian felt that there was something slightly wrong with his screening method, which had caused everyone to misunderstand his intentions.

Of course, Pei Qian didn't think that all the blame was on his side. There were definitely things happening in the company that he wasn't aware of.

Even if everyone had misinterpreted the Tenda Spirit of encouraging salted fish, it shouldn't be so consistent as if they had discussed it beforehand, right?

There must be someone pushing the waves behind the scenes, unifying everyone's thoughts!

Pei Qian closed the backend of the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test and began to think about countermeasures.

First of all, he definitely had to change the question bank!

The current question bank no longer met the needs. Many new employees could perfectly pass the Tenda Spirit Test with a completely distorted Tenda Spirit, and the distorted Tenda Spirit had become an obstacle, greatly improving the employees' work efficiency!

Therefore, Pei Qian felt that he should add some new questions to distinguish the real loafers and striving bees from the original question bank.

For example, ask questions such as "Do you think it's more important for the company to grow and expand or for individuals to get high salaries?" or "Do you think it's more important to do a vigorous career or to live a stable life?"

Those striving bees who had passed the Tenda Spirit Test would definitely choose options such as doing a vigorous career and making the company grow and expand.

Of course, the specific questions had to be carefully considered, and the intention couldn't be too obvious. The key questions had to be hidden among many confusing questions so that loopholes wouldn't be easily discovered.

In order to avoid alarming the enemy, even if these options were selected, they would still pass the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test. However, Pei Qian would find an excuse to arrange these people elsewhere.

At that time, he would clearly tell everyone that he would select some people based on the test results and arrange them to work on other projects.

For example... Thrill Hostel, Upwind Logistics, and places like that.

In short, he would minimize the impact of their desire to strive on Tenda as much as possible!

In addition, the reason why the Tenda Spirit had gone astray must be thoroughly investigated and could not be left at that!