Chapter 651: Chapter 651: Straw Bag
The atmosphere at the company had grown tense over the past few days due to the people sent down from above. From top to bottom, inside and out, everyone was tucking their tails, working cautiously, afraid of making any mistakes that might get them fired. After all, several people in the marketing department had resigned for unknown reasons, and the HR department had undergone a major shake-up, with the head of the HR department directly removed from their position. Now, the HR department is in the process of recruiting new people, resulting in many new faces around the company lately.
Xu Ke did not expect there to be so many issues within the subsidiary when he arrived. What was originally planned as a three-day business trip had to be extended because of this matter. To prevent Lin Mengyao from overthinking, Xu Ke specifically called her to explain the situation. Fortunately, Lin Mengyao was responding well and did not dwell on the matter. Instead, she reminded Xu Ke to take care of his health.
Xu Ke felt a sense of relief after putting down the phone.
The next day.
The conference room was silent, the only sound being the rustle of paper as Xu Ke flipped through reports. Everyone held their breath, staring at the young man seated at the head of the table.
After a long while, Xu Ke adjusted his glasses on his nose and let out a laugh that was hard to interpret, causing everyone’s scalp to tingle instantly. Sure enough, the next moment they heard Xu Ke’s voice, "Ha, I just want to ask, who taught you to make these reports? Hmm? And these proposals, did you even look at them before submitting them to me? What’s written on them? Dreams? Can you consider your actual capabilities before doing things, and focus on practical work instead of putting a bunch of stuff that looks nice but turns out to be all dreams when you read it?"
The group couldn’t help but lower their heads as Xu Ke scolded them. A few older individuals blushed with embarrassment, or perhaps anger.
"And about these reports, do you know why I singled them out? Not because they’re well-written, but because they’re terribly written. The others are just full of empty words, but these reports actually contained errors. So, you really don’t check them before handing them to me, do you? Data, something that can be easily verified, and yet you made mistakes? Adding an extra zero to ten million isn’t how I spend money. What’s even more infuriating is that the mistakes in these reports are all the same. What? Are you copying each other?"
Xu Ke tossed the three reports he was holding across the meeting table, sliding them far down its length.
"This is a company, not a school, and I’m not your teacher. Should I be correcting your work? If you can’t even handle this small task, then why should I keep you around? The time I’ve spent reviewing these reports and proposals, I could have made my own. What’s more frustrating is that after spending enough time on these things, I found nothing I could use. I was truly just wasting my life before." Xu Ke shook his head and said.
"I’m giving you one last chance. At the same time tomorrow, if you can’t hand in proposals and reports that satisfy me, you can pack up and leave. I can’t afford to keep such idle talents." Having said that, Xu Ke stood up from his chair without looking back and walked out in the direction behind him, leaving all the company executives in the conference room.
The conference room door closed, and still inside it remained silent. Only when Xu Ke’s footsteps grew further away and finally out of earshot did they begin to relax one by one, with some even undoing their ties and leaning lazily against the chair backs.
"That was frightening. I was almost too scared to breathe." A slightly balding man reached out, extracted his own document from a pile, and leafed through it. "I thought my proposal was quite excellent, but why wasn’t he satisfied? What exactly does he want? Without specific requirements, how are we supposed to know what to make?"
The others in the meeting room listened quietly to his complaints, no one interrupting. Although they didn’t say anything, they all agreed with the man’s words in their hearts.
"What age are we living in now? Things should be just acceptable; why need to be so exact?" the man muttered in dissatisfaction.
"Enough. Don’t say more. After all, he’s the boss, and we’re just small fry working for him. We should just do as he asks, no need to think in all sorts of ways unless you really don’t want to work here anymore."
Seeing such glaring errors from his subordinates, it was like a sieve in Xu Ke’s eyes, with nothing redeemable. The most crucial part was that the problems Xu Ke pointed out were indeed all there, which resulted in the situation where he could just watch helplessly. He shouldn’t defend his subordinates because he was too humiliated to plead for the garbage they produced.
However, they wouldn’t consider that what they made was genuinely shoddy—so bad that Xu Ke couldn’t be bothered to look at it, so bad their leader had no face to beg on their behalf. They only believed Xu Ke was finding trouble or trying to assert dominance. Consequently, their expressions turned sour, and those who had messed up the data heaved a sigh, fetching their erroneous reports.
"I’m getting old, my eyes aren’t as sharp anymore; it’s inevitable I made a little mistake. If he found them, he could’ve easily corrected them for us. It’s no big deal really, why make us redo it?" someone voiced.
"Enough, everyone, shut up. Haven’t you realized yet? He’s not someone easy to deal with. If you still want to stay in this company, you better adjust your attitudes. Otherwise, he might very well turn against us and throw you all out. I’m telling you upfront so you can’t blame me for not warning you later on." The CEO, with a foul expression, took his document and turned to leave.
The CEO’s words left some in the conference room disgruntled while others began to ponder.
As for Xu Ke, feeling angry in his chest because of this group of fools, if it weren’t for the fear that firing them all would cause chaos within the company, he wouldn’t want to keep even one of them around. They’ve never seen such incompetent workers, it’s a miracle the subsidiary has not gone bankrupt till now.
As Xu Ke was walking forward, still fuming, a figure suddenly collided into him. If it were usual circumstances, Xu Ke would have evaded, but today he was preoccupied with thoughts, didn’t pay much attention, got hit directly, and ended up covered in the smell of Nescafe.