However, what Liu Jun hadn’t expected was that when the pawn shop owner saw someone coming with big business, he looked worried and gloomy. This owner had known Liu Jun for about ten years – when Liu Jun first started Tengfei, he had borrowed money from this very owner, so they could talk quite freely with each other. The owner opened his safe to show Liu Jun a box full of famous watches and sparkling carat diamonds. The owner said that since opening the pawn shop, he had never simultaneously received so many pawned items, forcing him to upgrade security equipment and worry day and night. The owner kept advising Liu Jun that if he could find another way, he shouldn’t consider pawning. He had been paying out large sums for pawned items recently and was already worried about insufficient cash on hand. But Liu Jun had ulterior motives in entering the pawn shop. Under his insistence, the owner finally offered a low price at half the value and accepted the Porsche as collateral.
Walking to the underground parking garage, the owner pointed to a corner full of cars and smiled bitterly, telling Liu Jun this was where he had bought space to park pawned vehicles. But since this year, cars have kept being brought for pawning, yet a significant proportion either renewed their pawn terms or became dead pawns after expiration. Most frustrating was that dead pawned items were now very difficult to handle – everyone was chanting “cash is king,” and few were willing to spend money buying luxury goods from pawn shops at such times. So that parking space finally became insufficient, forcing the owner to develop new parking areas. Moreover, the cars being pawned now were increasingly valuable, and the owner didn’t dare place so many good cars in some corner of a public parking lot. Therefore, the new parking area was located at a closed company, somewhat far from the city. Considering that good cars might encounter problems on the way that he couldn’t afford to compensate for, the owner had Liu Jun drive the car there himself.
Liu Jun drove to the designated location and saw that the originally ventilated steel gate had been completely sealed. People standing outside couldn’t see anything inside, though they could hear dogs barking wildly within. Liu Jun and the pawn shop owner’s two cars waited a long time before the gate opened. The owner explained that security inside had to chain up five wolf dogs before letting people enter, otherwise someone would get hurt. When Liu Jun drove in, he indeed saw five large, fierce dogs locked in separate iron cages. The pawn shop owner had recently received so many cars that he had to resort to this strategy – when no outsiders were around, he released five dogs to patrol the compound to prevent theft of valuable vehicles. There were simply too many pawned items to guard against everything. Though Liu Jun had come to pawn something, seeing this, he couldn’t help but smile wryly – this was surely a special phenomenon under special economic circumstances.
After handing over the car, Liu Jun rode back to the city in the pawn shop owner’s car. Passing the used car market, the pawn shop owner wanted to check how his pawned cars were selling. Liu Jun followed him in and discovered several familiar cars belonging to car enthusiast friends. He even saw the Jeep Qian Hongming used to drive. Liu Jun couldn’t help but walk over and stand silently by the car window, staring blankly at the empty interior. When the pawn shop owner finished his business and came over, seeing this car, he thought for a moment and said: “Seems like it was Mr. Qian’s?”
Liu Jun nodded without speaking and pulled the pawn shop owner away, but couldn’t help looking back at that car.
In a few days, it would be payday. Liu Jun took the cashier to the bank to handle transferring funds from his account to the company account, casually mentioning that driving a car to the pawn shop couldn’t even guarantee half its value, only getting this little money. The cashier was shocked and didn’t dare ask questions, but returning to the company, he indeed saw that the flashy car was gone from the garage. Soon, news that the boss had pawned his car to pay salaries spread throughout the entire company.
Before payday, there was the usual monthly work summary meeting. After reviewing last month’s work, Liu Jun changed topics to discuss layoffs.
Currently, most companies in the industrial zone are laying off workers. The employment environment is harsh, and I don’t want to choose this irresponsible method of dumping burdens. There are two reasons: First, considering employees individually, if laid off at this time, those who could find jobs quickly are extremely rare. Our layoffs now would cut off employees’ livelihoods. The company would be relaxed, but what about employees facing hardship? Second, our employees are the company’s most important component. Many have worked here for nearly ten years, sharing ups and downs with the company all these years, truly becoming family members. As a boss, if I turned against employees who have always followed me during the crisis, it would be irresponsible and a betrayal of everyone’s support and trust. Currently, the company can still hold on, but life is very difficult. Can everyone share fortune and misfortune, tightening belts to weather this together? Please discuss what methods we might have.”
With pawning his car as precedent, Liu Jun immediately occupied the moral high ground, so his words no longer sounded like hypocrisy or scheming to senior management. Besides, except for the boss, everyone else, even shareholders, were minor shareholders whose job security worries were similar to other employees. Liu Jun’s two reasons for not laying off workers might seem pedantic if said normally, but spoken during such turbulent times, they showed passionate blood and easily won everyone’s favor. However, the office director still suggested that some employees were truly deadweight, and taking this opportunity to eliminate them would be good, as long as numbers were kept small, it wouldn’t affect morale. This proposal gained unanimous agreement.
The problem was that limited layoffs wouldn’t help much, and everyone knew who would bear the burden of sharing fortune and misfortune. With the boss having already pawned his car to pay salaries, even if unwilling, everyone had to show conscience on the surface and cut out a piece of their good meat. Suggestions included company-wide salary cuts or temporarily suspending bonus payments, keeping records to pay back when company conditions improved, etc.
Unexpectedly, Liu Jun didn’t adopt these suggestions. He proposed that employees providing labor and bosses paying wages was contractual obligation. When everyone was prepared to make painful sacrifices, Liu Jun presented a gentler plan: starting the 8th of this month, except for R&D center and marketing department, others must mandatorily take Olympic holiday in three rotating shifts, each person resting ten days and receiving basic salary during rest periods. Next month’s arrangements would depend on circumstances.
This plan was reasonable and measured without hurting harmony, avoiding major upheaval throughout the company over salary cuts or layoffs. Nobody present wanted to be the villain or fall out with subordinates they had worked with harmoniously for years. Therefore, everyone found it relatively acceptable. After all, the overall environment was poor – not laying off workers was already the boss’s mercy.
Afterward, Luo Qing carefully broached the topic, tactfully saying: “Mr. Liu, doing this – will employees appreciate it? Most people just do one job for one salary. They’re not family members as you describe.”
Liu Jun replied: “Many people don’t easily remember kindness, but easily remember grudges. Normally, being able to do one job for one salary is already difficult. If they harbor resentment in their hearts, the work they do becomes discounted. Especially if the company selectively lays off or cuts salaries, it will inevitably stir up internal fighting among employees. The result is reduced costs, but scattered hearts, making it harder to build cohesion later – this economic calculation isn’t easy to make. Moreover…” Liu Jun sighed. He thought of Qian Hongming’s prophecies. He didn’t know why, but even without anyone’s guidance, watching the situation deteriorate daily, he increasingly believed Qian Hongming’s judgment and often repeatedly pondered Qian Hongming’s thought processes. “Haven’t you seen the news these days about huge companies going bankrupt one after another, and related officials being exposed and investigated? Too many. Behind those bankrupt companies that borrowed heavily for Great Leap Forward-style development, there are strings of related officials. If this continues, decision-makers can’t handle public opinion. I believe all this is currently not on the agenda only because the entire nation is focused on the Olympics. There should be policies after the Olympics.”
Luo Qing nodded after hearing this: “Moreover, if enterprises continue collapsing, rapidly shifting from last year’s labor shortage to current high unemployment, social stability would also be a problem. There should be measures coming out. Our country’s banks are relatively healthy, unlike those problematic European and American banks. I always feel we’re magnifying the crisis now. Except for the imported crisis, our country’s problems aren’t serious. With appropriate measures, I also believe the economy can improve. Besides, during this period, several of our competitors alone have collapsed – capacity has already been naturally adjusted. Hmm, I understand now – no need to rush into layoffs, let’s see about this month. Boss, far-sighted vision – admirable.”
Liu Jun smiled, swallowing the words “Hongming’s idea.” He couldn’t refute Qian Hongming originally, and now Luo Qing, who had worked in government, also acknowledged Qian Hongming was right. This showed Qian Hongming had recognized reality one step earlier than all of them. But… the entire nation was currently jubilant…