Chapter 50: Overtime? How Can My Employees Work Overtime?

A few days passed in the blink of an eye.

Outside the workshop, Chen Mo watched the employees doing their morning run. However, he noticed today that the employees did not seem to have much energy.

It would be understandable if one or two were like that; they probably stayed up late at night.

But now, almost all of them looked listless, which made him feel that something was not right.

After the employees finished running, Chen Mo called Li Shen over directly.

"Li Shen, what is going on with those employees? Why do they all look so listless!"

"Oh, you mean that, Manager Chen? Everyone has been working overtime these past few days, so maybe they haven't had enough rest." Li Shen said with a sudden realization.

"Overtime? How come I don't know about this?" Chen Mo looked puzzled; he had never asked the employees to work overtime.

"Ah, didn't Brother Yan accept a big order? I was worried that if we didn't finish this order and other orders came in, we wouldn't be able to keep up, so I asked everyone to work some overtime to speed up the production schedule."

"That way, we avoid having all the orders pile up at the same time and being unable to handle them."

"I decided this yesterday and hadn't had a chance to report it to you, Manager Chen yet." Li Shen puffed out his chest, looking like he wanted to reassure him.

Chen Mo frowned upon hearing this. He hadn't expected that as soon as he had sent Wei Yan away, Li Shen, that sly fox, would start causing trouble.

Overtime! What a detestable thing.

Isn't this just forcing himself to make more money?

In my company, overtime is impossible; don't even think about it in this lifetime. Not only will we not work overtime, but we must also reduce working hours.

Chen Mo suddenly realized that the employees of this Garment factory did not seem to have any days off. Ever since he took over the company, he had also been working every day.

He hadn't paid much attention to it before, since every small factory was like that. But those were other factories; his factory had to be different—it should have holidays.

As long as there are more holidays, the number of clothes processed by the factory will decrease, right? That way, his own profits will also decrease. Yes, that's the logic! Why hadn't he thought of this before?

Chen Mo's eyes lit up as he looked at Li Shen and said slowly.

"Li Shen, I understand you're trying to rush the production schedule, but you cannot occupy the employees' private time."

"Employees are people too. They have their own things to do after work, like watching movies, going shopping, or just lying down at home when they are tired."

"Once they are off work, that is their own time. We cannot deprive employees of their freedom for the sake of the company's interests."

"So, from now on, there will be no more overtime."

Listening to Manager Chen's words, Li Shen slowly lowered his head, a look of shame on his face.

"I understand, Manager Chen. It was my lack of consideration."

"But what should we do if there are too many orders in the future and we can't keep up?"

"Your workshop can discuss this with the sales department. Whatever the daily workload is, let the sales department accept orders according to that amount." Chen Mo said seriously.

In his heart, he secretly thought he was clever. This not only suppressed the production quantity of the workshop but also suppressed the order intake of the sales department. Combining the two, he wouldn't have to worry about not losing money!

"But this will limit the volume of orders the sales department takes, which will indirectly reduce their income. Will they be okay with that?"

"That is not something you need to worry about; I will handle it."

"Also, go back and notify the employees to come to the company lobby for a meeting later."

"Understood, Manager Chen." Li Shen nodded and turned to enter the workshop.

…

Company lobby. A group of employees gathered in the company lobby.

"What do you think Manager Chen called us here for?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's going to distribute some more benefits?"

"It can't be benefits again, right? Manager Chen has already given out so many."

"…" The employees gathered together, whispering to each other.

Not long after, Chen Mo walked out of the office with Shen Rou. Looking at the employees gathered in the lobby, he cleared his throat.

"I called everyone here today mainly to talk about overtime and working hours."

"First, regarding overtime: everyone worked hard yesterday. I will have Li Shen calculate your overtime hours later, and I will pay you double your normal wages for that overtime."

As his voice fell, a burst of enthusiastic applause rang out from the crowd.

Chen Mo smiled when he saw this and continued.

"However, I do not advocate for overtime. I advocate for everyone to complete their work with high efficiency and high quality within the allotted working hours. Therefore, there will be no more overtime in the workshop from now on."

"That is the first point. The second point is a change in working hours."

"Previously, everyone's working hours were from 7 AM to 6 PM. From now on, it will be changed to 8 AM to 5 PM, with a normal break at noon."

Clap, clap, clap… An even more enthusiastic round of applause rang out in the lobby.

When the applause died down, Chen Mo continued.

"Next is the issue of working days. I just found out something."

"Originally, everyone had one day off. If you didn't take this day off, you would get a 400 attendance bonus. If you took the day off, you wouldn't get this attendance bonus."

"Is that right?" Chen Mo asked. He had just learned about this full-attendance system from Shen Rou when he returned to his office.

He knew that the company had a full-attendance bonus, so he had just casually mentioned it, but he hadn't really looked into the specific details. But after just learning about it, he realized the problem.

This system was simply unreasonable. They said there was a day off, but if you took that day off, you lost the full-attendance bonus. This wasn't right!

Normally, shouldn't it be that you only lose the full-attendance bonus if you take more than one day off? The previous boss was too calculating; that wasn't really a day off at all.

"Manager Chen, that's right, it is like that." Some employees replied actively when they heard Manager Chen's question.

Chen Mo nodded upon hearing this. "I didn't really understand this system before, but today I realized that it is unreasonable."

"So I have decided to cancel this arrangement regarding rest days and full attendance."

"From now on, we will switch to a two-day weekend (Saturday and Sunday off), and we will also take all statutory holidays off."

"In addition, regarding the full-attendance bonus system: you will not have your full-attendance bonus deducted for taking your normal rest days. It will only be deducted if you take extra leave outside of your normal rest days."

After Chen Mo finished explaining the new rest and full-attendance system, the lobby fell into a deathly silence. It was so quiet that you could hear everyone's breathing.

A few seconds later, the lobby erupted in an uproar, and everyone looked at Chen Mo with excitement. The expressions on their faces were all of disbelief.

They didn't know how many factories they had worked in before; the previous benefits didn't even need to be mentioned. But this year's two-day weekend and statutory holidays off—this was something they had never expected.

You have to know, working in other factories, trying to get the boss to give them a day off was harder than killing them. Even if there were no orders in the workshop and no work to do, you'd be stuck in the workshop cleaning up; they wouldn't say, "take a day or half a day off."