Wu Bin looked at these comments with an expression that said “just as expected.”

However, the last comment particularly caught his attention.

Because this comment’s perspective differed from other negative comments, and the discussion around it wasn’t insignificant!

The allusion to “Zigong ransoming people” seemed rather like a lethal attack on one’s principles.

Wu Bin immediately clicked to see the details.

“Providing benefits to employees and looking after employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups is certainly a good thing, but many things must be viewed from multiple perspectives. There are plenty of cases where good intentions lead to bad outcomes!”

“On one hand, excessive benefits easily breed laziness. It’s certain that these three categories of people are mainly drawn by the high benefits. Can they still maintain a fighting spirit? Employee benefits are also part of corporate costs. If enterprises don’t control costs and keep providing benefits, employees might be happy, but how long can the enterprise survive? Once the company goes bankrupt, these employees will lose their jobs and even their basic wages. Isn’t this putting the cart before the horse?”

“Of course, I’m not saying Tenda will go bankrupt because of these benefits, since Tenda is already a giant corporation. But what about other small companies?”

“Everyone knows the story of Zigong ransoming people. Tenda’s action will objectively form a kind of moral coercion, where people will use this standard to demand the same from other companies, as if companies that don’t do this are evil sweatshops.”

“But not every company has conditions like Tenda! Many small companies constantly hover on the edge of bankruptcy, and it’s not uncommon for people to take maternity leave and then resign. If these small companies, under great public pressure, increase benefits leading to sudden cost increases and bankruptcy, aren’t the employees ultimately the ones who suffer?”

“Tenda’s benefits are certainly good, but many people simply can’t pass Tenda’s entrance exams and can only work in some small companies. If these small companies fail, they might become unemployed. Who will consider their livelihood then?”

“So I think Tenda’s action is inappropriate. They’ve created a persona for themselves, gained a reputation, but completely disregarded the survival of other small companies, ignoring their living conditions. This might actually cause greater harm!”

“I hope everyone can view this matter rationally. Don’t engage in moral coercion. Give small companies and ordinary workers a chance to survive!”

Wu Bin couldn’t help feeling worried.

Admittedly, these arguments were quite misleading.

Today’s companies aren’t stupid; they wouldn’t blatantly declare they don’t provide employee benefits, as they’d be severely criticized.

But seeing the popularity of Tenda’s special recruitment exam, they couldn’t remain indifferent. The more popular this event became, the greater the impact on them, and it would become increasingly difficult to fool both new and old employees in the future!

Their best strategy at this point was to “play the victim.”

Talk about how difficult it is for the company and the boss, how the boss is exploited by slacking employees, how the boss is actually the disadvantaged party who has to bear the burden of feeding everyone in the company, working diligently and painstakingly every day. If the company fails, everyone becomes unemployed, so they hope everyone understands, tolerates some dissatisfaction, or even voluntarily reduces their salary to share hardships with the company…

For many inexperienced people, this kind of argument can indeed be somewhat confusing.

Wu Bin was very concerned that these old, flawed arguments might actually influence public opinion.

But as Wu Bin continued reading, he realized he was wrong.

This post had high engagement not because many people agreed with it, but because it was being strongly criticized!

Clearly, netizens today had become increasingly savvy and weren’t so easily fooled.

These negative comments about Tenda’s special recruitment exam came quickly, but the backlash against them came even faster!

“Absolute nonsense! Benefits and fighting spirit aren’t directly linked! Some people believe benefits erode one’s drive, while others say benefits stimulate it. So which is it, erosion or stimulation? I think the key lies in how you view human nature. If you believe most people are inherently lazy, then benefits will erode their fighting spirit; if you believe human nature is about striving and progress, then benefits will stimulate their fighting spirit.”

“In this world, I can’t speak for other places, but in our country, there are definitely more people who work honestly and know gratitude. This is beyond doubt!”

“To those who say benefits erode fighting spirit, would you mind giving me your house and savings? Comfortable living conditions have eroded your fighting spirit, so give it all to me. This will surely stimulate your fighting spirit and propel you to the peak of success in no time!”

“Tenda creating a persona? Don’t misuse terms you just learned. If doing good is called creating a persona, then I hope there’s more of this persona creation. Even if some people loudly publicize after doing charity, that’s still better than not doing charity at all, right? A persona only collapses when words and actions don’t match. When has Tenda ever been inconsistent?”

“Don’t needlessly worry about Tenda and Mr. Pei. If Mr. Pei only had your level of intelligence and emotional quotient, Tenda would have gone bankrupt long ago.”

“It’s also ridiculous to worry about small companies. If a company doesn’t understand innovation, technological revolution, industry trends, or how to stimulate employee motivation, and only knows how to cut employee benefits to reduce costs and maintain corporate survival, then I think such an enterprise might as well go bankrupt. What’s the point of such a company’s existence?”

“Exactly. You’re worried about small company bosses, but did they worry about you when they were living in villas and driving sports cars? Even the boss of the smallest company earns money beyond what you wage workers can imagine. Still worrying about them—are you worthy?”

“Honestly, if there really are small company bosses who share hardships with their employees, workers would naturally be willing to give up benefits and work hard alongside them. But how many such bosses are there? Aren’t most of them both stupid and stingy, blaming employees for not being able to endure hardship rather than finding reasons within themselves when employees leave? Bah!”

“Good bosses who truly care about their employees won’t ask ‘why are employees so unreasonable.’ Conversely, those bosses who complain about employees, nine out of ten are scum, and they don’t even realize it!”

“Exactly. Didn’t Tenda also develop from a small company? When Tenda was small, the benefits were already very good. Did you see the employees becoming lazy freeloaders? Instead, they worked their hearts out and grew rapidly!”

“How is Tenda’s behavior moral coercion? And saying Tenda stands on moral high ground? I’m sorry, but I think it’s because all other companies are standing in moral lowlands, so Tenda appears to be on moral high ground from any angle!”

“Maybe these abnormal phenomena are too common and prevalent, and everyone has gotten used to them. When Tenda steps up to actively do good and tries to get things back on the right track, there are actually people who can’t adapt? What a rare sight!”

“Why do so many people think companies have it tough? Not to mention anything else, if a boss took half of his annual salary and distributed it among all employees, employees would definitely be willing to work their hearts out for him. Would the boss be willing? If not, then don’t talk about how difficult it is. Since the relationship is purely one of employment and being employed, don’t emphasize how tough it is. If the boss has it tough, are workers having it easy?”

“During the economic upswing, many bosses were like pigs riding the wind, effortlessly succeeding no matter what they did. Later, when the economy slightly declined and the wind stopped, their true colors were revealed. The key is that they still felt good about themselves. When successful before, wasn’t it because of my good leadership? Now why isn’t it working? It must be because you employees aren’t working hard enough! Reduce benefits, cut costs, strengthen assessments, ideological education… And then what? Then the company collapsed! What caused the company’s downfall? Was it because of the employees? Obviously, it was because of the incompetent boss!”

“Indeed, I hope both bosses and workers can have some self-awareness and not hold each other hostage! Workers shouldn’t speak for bosses; you should first figure out how to protect your rights guaranteed by law!”

“Yes, and unscrupulous bosses shouldn’t bother trying to fool workers. With that effort, you’d be better off thinking about how to do something practical and run the company well. To be blunt, real capitalists expand into overseas markets and earn money from other countries. What kind of capitalists are you if you keep squeezing your own countrymen? At best, you’re just bureaucratic compradors from the old society!”

People who posted similar views were thoroughly criticized by the spectating masses!

And these comments were still relatively civil. Some people had directly resorted to the simplest form of verbal abuse.

Wu Bin couldn’t help but sigh. The masses have sharp eyes. It seemed that the general public’s intelligence had indeed improved, making them increasingly difficult to deceive.

Many might say, what impact can mere online comments have on the actual situation?

But speaking up is often the first step in solving a problem.

If nobody thinks there’s a problem, it will never be resolved and might even get worse. If everyone acknowledges there’s a problem, even if there doesn’t seem to be any immediate change, solutions will gradually be put into motion.

Looking back now, Wu Bin realized his perspective had been too narrow.

Indeed, this recruitment might not attract particularly excellent people in the short term, but in the long run, as the special recruitment exam gains more recognition, naturally more excellent talents will come!

For Tenda, there wouldn’t be much difference in the end result between the two types of recruitment.

The greatest significance of this special recruitment exam wasn’t just in demonstrating Tenda’s spirit to everyone and attracting more talent, but also in changing the entire society’s perception. It let everyone understand that pursuing better living conditions and benefits, refusing unreasonable overtime, and rejecting so-called “fighting spirit” brainwashing were absolutely justified!

Striving is certainly correct, but it depends on who you’re striving for.

Striving for yourself is wise; striving for your boss is foolish.

If all those garbage companies that exploit employees without limits went bankrupt, the market wouldn’t disappear, and job opportunities wouldn’t vanish. The demand is there, so naturally, more companies willing to provide employee benefits and capable of surviving in harsh environments would emerge to occupy this market and provide these job opportunities for employees.

If Tenda’s collaboration with other companies and continuous promotion of Tenda’s work methods formed an internal influence on these companies, then this special recruitment exam was about guiding all workers to exert pressure on other companies from the outside!

Two different approaches, facing different companies, with varying degrees of intimacy, but the end results would likely converge.

Perhaps this process would be very long and progress slow, but as long as they persisted, there would be gradual improvement.