About an hour later, Fang Bai heard the sound of the door opening downstairs; it seemed his father had returned.
A moment later, he saw his father coming upstairs, a little sweat on his forehead, but his face was full of joy:
"Son, they're all posted."
"Dad, you worked hard. How do you feel?"
"It's not hard. I'm just worried if these TVs can be sold."
"We'll know in a couple of days. Besides, we'll break even if we sell a dozen TVs, so don't worry."
"Okay, you continue studying. I'll watch the store downstairs. I'll call you if someone comes for an interview." After Fang Shi finished speaking, he went downstairs. It wasn't easy for his son to both study and make money now.
With such a large undertaking, Fang Shi truly didn't know how he would manage without his son.
Just two hours later, someone came to the store for an interview. He glanced at the TVs inside and was a bit surprised: So many TVs!
But he also found it a bit strange. Didn't they say it was a company?
Why was it just one storefront?
But since he was already there and needed money, he gritted his teeth and asked the dark-skinned middle-aged man who was organizing the TVs inside: "Hello, sir, I'm here to interview for a TV repair job. Is the interviewer here?"
"Oh, yes, yes, just a moment, I'll call someone."
Fang Shi looked up, saw a young man asking, and politely replied, then jogged to the stairwell, looked up, and called upstairs, "Son, someone's here for an interview."
A calm and unhurried reply came from upstairs, "Oh, okay."
Hearing this, the young man who came for the interview became even more curious: The interviewer is this middle-aged man's son?
Is this a family workshop factory?
A moment later, steady and firm footsteps came from the stairs, neither hurried nor slow, and a very young man walked down.
As he expected, the interviewer was young.
But to his surprise, he was a bit too young!
Perhaps he started working early; it was quite normal in the area.
Jing Tian was momentarily stunned by surprise. He saw the other party smiling, with deep eyes, and the other party spoke first:
"Hello, you are a student from Wencheng University, right? I'm in charge of the interviews."
The other party's speaking pace was neither fast nor slow, appearing even more composed than his university professors.
Jing Tian suddenly felt nervous, stood up straight, and quickly recited the lines he had prepared:
"Hello, interviewer, my name is Jing Tian, and I'm a third-year student at Wencheng University. I saw the recruitment poster at our school, so I came to check it out. Are there any specific requirements?"
Fang Bai saw the slightly reserved answer and smiled, knowing that the other party's nervousness was normal. He said: "My surname is Fang. You can just call me CEO Fang.
The requirements are quite simple: disassemble TVs, repair them according to my instructions, and it's best to have some knowledge of electrical work. You need to be able to operate tools and not be afraid of hard work.
Normally, a workday is 8 hours, or you repair and clean five designated TVs. For example, if you work half a day in the morning and have classes in the afternoon, you can go back to attend them, and I'll pay you for half a day. However, working half a day does not include lunch.
You can arrange your own working hours, as long as you complete the tasks I assign.
For students, you need to come at least three days a week. Wages are settled on the same day. If there are no problems, I need to see you operate the tools."
"Okay."
Jing Tian agreed without much hesitation. One day on the weekend, and he just needed to take out two more days to make it three days.
He hadn't expected that the requirements weren't extensive.
"Alright, put on the gloves and first open the back cover of this 17-inch black and white TV." Fang Bai gave him gloves and tools, directly assigning the task to see if his operation was flexible.
Fang Shi stood by, observing how his son interviewed people.
Fang Bai didn't demand that people knew everything. He still reminded them about safety procedures like static discharge. As long as they could complete tasks under his guidance, they would be considered qualified.
Few students now had the opportunity to assemble and repair TVs, so he didn't expect them to get started right away. He just wanted to see how quickly they learned.
If they were clumsy and couldn't be taught, wouldn't that be a waste of his time? What would be the point of having them?
Once he taught them, the experienced workers would then guide the new ones.
To Fang Bai's pleasant surprise, the student named Jing Tian was quite agile with his hands and feet. He quickly removed the TV's back cover and began static discharge.
"Jing Tian, have you repaired TVs before?"
"CEO Fang, I have a black and white TV at home that broke down. During the holiday, I specifically disassembled it to study. Since I'm in electronics, I have some understanding."
"Oh, I see. Replace this capacitor and resistor, and remove all these other components." Fang Bai held a red marker and directly put an 'X' on the damaged components, indicating they should be removed and replaced.
He had created a chart himself, with different symbols representing different meanings.
Next, Jing Tian performed the repairs according to Fang Bai's instructions.
More than an hour later, Jing Tian had repaired the TV and, as per Fang Bai's request, cleaned the dust and dirt from the TV, making it look about ninety percent new.
Most second-hand TVs had little damage during use; the main issue was scratches during transport.
Customers had high demands for appearance. As long as it worked, they didn't care about the internal condition. When Fang Bai selected TVs, he chose those with newer-looking casings.
"Good, very good. If you're free, you can start today. Your salary will be calculated from today. Let's have lunch together." Fang Bai didn't bother with complicated procedures. He was in a hurry and directly hired anyone he deemed qualified.
This made Jing Tian feel that happiness came too quickly. He said with a joyful expression: "CEO Fang, yes, I'm free today, I can start working now."
"Alright, let me explain first. You start by disassembling the back covers of five TVs. I'll mark them for you, and then you repair them according to the marks. This will be more efficient. After repairing, you need to clean the TVs and gather them in a separate empty area, so they don't get mixed up with the unrepaired ones.
Some TVs are assembled from parts, so pay attention to the markings. If you don't understand, ask."
Fang Bai explained. He had nearly four hundred TVs in this batch. One repair worker could probably repair and clean 4-6 TVs a day.
This storefront could accommodate a maximum of 7 people working; any more would be too crowded.
This meant that this batch of TVs would take 10-13 days to repair and clean, and the wages Fang Bai paid would be less than one thousand yuan.
Once twenty TVs were refurbished, Fang Bai would begin organizing sales.
Sales also required staff; he put his father in charge of bookkeeping and collecting money.
Therefore, Fang Bai estimated he would need 7 repair personnel, 2 odd-job workers, and 2 sales personnel.
Considering that students couldn't work full-time, the number of repair personnel would need to be doubled, so about 15 would be enough.
The odd-job workers needed to be strong, and the sales personnel preferably girls, who were articulate.
Around noon, Jing Tian had disassembled the back covers of five TVs and finished repairing and cleaning the second one.
Lunch was at a small restaurant nearby. Fang Bai ordered three meat dishes, one vegetable, and one soup, which made his father's heart ache.
Jing Tian hadn't expected the food to be so good. This morning, he had figured out the situation of this store: Fang Bai was the main person in charge, and his father was his helper.
What surprised him even more was that Fang Bai was still studying for his re-examination.
A high school student both studying for a re-examination and making money surprised him greatly; he had never heard of it before.
Let alone high school students, very few university students started businesses.
What shocked him even more was that Fang Bai knew which components in the TVs were problematic. He just didn't have time to repair them because he was studying, which was why he hired people.
A high school student mastering such professional electrical and circuit board knowledge was simply too talented.
Jing Tian guessed that Fang Bai was extremely intelligent, and his re-examination was probably because he hadn't performed well and wanted to get into a top university.
In short, Jing Tian greatly admired Fang Bai.
After a morning of interaction, he felt that Fang Bai was easy to talk to, had requirements, but wasn't strict.
Of course, Jing Tian also had concerns.
If he didn't get paid after work in the afternoon, he definitely wouldn't come back the next day, no matter how talented a student he was.
In the afternoon, people kept coming for interviews, all of them students.
Close to 6 PM, the total number of interviewees today reached forty, and the number of visitors exceeded a hundred. Many students came in groups, some accompanying out of curiosity.
Fang Bai interviewed them one by one and hired 18 part-time workers, including two girls who came out of curiosity and were hired as sales personnel; they were locals.
Sales personnel were best if they were locals, as out-of-town students couldn't understand the local Ouyu dialect.
Ouyu is extremely regional; once outside the Wen City area, no one can understand it.
Thus, some people compared Ouyu to "bird language," and some cursed Wencheng dialect as "plague language," being hailed as one of the most difficult dialects to understand in China.
Getting back to the point, Fang Bai hadn't expected hiring to go so smoothly. He asked his father to tear down the posted flyers, and the school posters were to be torn down by the students themselves when they returned.
It was past 6 PM, well past closing time.
Fang Bai gathered the staff and stood in front of two rows of students, saying: "Today's interviews took up some time. Normal working hours won't be this long.
On the day, if you come late in the morning, you will definitely leave later in the afternoon. It's up to your own arrangement.
Jing Tian came in the morning, completed the task, and his salary is 10 yuan;
Chen Youbiao started working at 2 PM. Although he didn't complete the task, I'm still giving him five yuan. He can make up the workload later. There's no such thing as deducting wages with me.
Tell me the times you can come to work, and I'll arrange your working hours.
The store space is limited; we can only fit seven people at most, so everyone's working hours need to be staggered.
If you don't want to work anymore, tell me one day in advance so I can find replacements, understood?"
"Understood, CEO Fang." Over a dozen students replied in unison.
Fang Bai took out a ten-yuan bill and a five-yuan bill and settled today's wages.
Everyone saw CEO Fang paying on the same day and no longer worried about not getting paid for their work.
Jing Tian and Chen Youbiao, who received their money, were very happy, laughing and joking.
Next, everyone reported their available times for the upcoming week. After they finished, Fang Bai planned and quickly arranged their working hours.
Fang Bai hired a total of 19 people, with only two girls, who were part-time sales staff.
Seeing that everyone had arranged work, these two girls couldn't help but ask Fang Bai:
"CEO Fang, when do we start selling?"
"You two come the day after tomorrow morning. It's Saturday, so you should memorize the sales script as soon as possible to avoid poor on-the-spot performance.
You two are responsible for communicating with customers. Moving TVs and watching the store are odd jobs that the boys will do."
Fang Bai offered commission to sales personnel. The basic salary was 5 yuan, plus 7 yuan for completing tasks, and bonuses for exceeding task completion.
For the repair workers, Fang Bai would observe who had stronger organizational skills and select them to be team leaders, adding a bit to their salary to help him share the workload.
If any of these personnel had great potential for development, he would bring them under his wing.
A reminder: The national two-day weekend system began in 1995. Before that, it was a six-day workweek, with only Sundays off.
Some plot points might have mistakenly referred to two weekend days. If found, they will be revised.