November 4th, Friday.

Pei Qian finished his brunch at the Slackin’ Internet Café and headed toward the company.

Ma Yang’s livestream yesterday could be considered quite successful.

Although the viewership wasn’t particularly high, the response was good, and the livestream recording had been uploaded to various platforms like AiLiDao, where it was widely shared.

The toxic stationery brands had been thoroughly exposed overnight, and some of the more well-known stationery manufacturers had issued emergency announcements saying they would thoroughly investigate the matter.

Although they hadn’t yet provided satisfactory responses or compensation, at least the issue had been exposed, and many people were now aware of it, which was a good thing.

However, for Ma Yang’s livestream, the attention had reached its limit.

It had sparked some discussion within a small circle but hadn’t gone viral on a larger scale. It gained some reputation, but barely earned any money or traffic.

Pei Qian thought this was acceptable.

After some time, when Ma Yang had offended more manufacturers and various negative articles emerged, only then could they truly see whether this model could lose money.

He hadn’t originally planned to go to the company, but while eating, he received a message from Hao Yun saying there was something to report in person regarding Tenda’s employment exam.

Pei Qian had nothing else to do, so he strolled to the company to hear what specific issues Hao Yun had.

Shortly after arriving at his office, Hao Yun came knocking.

“Mr. Pei, these are some hidden issues we’ve discovered in Tenda’s employment exam. We haven’t come up with a good solution for whether to address them and how, so I wanted to report to you first.”

Pei Qian reached out to take the report materials, quickly browsing through them while listening to Hao Yun’s report.

The more he listened, the more surreal it seemed.

Creating study materials for Tenda’s employment exam has become an industry chain.

These training institutions had even set their sights on the Tenda Spirit Test?

It seemed that Tenda had indeed become a very influential company. Because more and more people wanted to join Tenda and become formal employees, this had, in turn, given birth to a new industry.

Pei Qian couldn’t help but frown, feeling a bit worried.

People who bought these study materials and attended training classes were indeed more likely to score higher on the written test, there was no doubt about that.

But didn’t this mean that the probability of “struggle addicts” getting in was higher?

But there wasn’t a good solution. Tenda’s reputation for great benefits had spread, and people were breaking their necks trying to get in.

No matter how the exam content and selection rules were changed, the people screened might not be the absolute top tier, but they would definitely be the least bad, most well-rounded batch of people.

This seemed somewhat unsolvable.

Moreover, Pei Qian was quite averse to the behavior of these training institutions. In essence, it was the same as what many “super schools” were doing.

The spots were limited, but when some people started an “arms race,” others were forced to follow suit, forming a culture of excessive competition where everyone was exhausted but no one gained more benefits.

Although this didn’t hinder Pei Qian from losing money, it did make him a bit unhappy.

Seeing that Mr. Pei remained silent, Hao Yun also had a serious expression: “Mr. Pei, have you noticed it too?”

Pei Qian: “?”

What have I noticed?

Hao Yun continued: “Mr. Pei, I believe that purifying the company’s internal atmosphere and resisting external temptations is becoming increasingly important!”

“Yesterday, a publishing house approached Wu Bin, wanting to pay a hefty sum for the Tenda Spirit Test questions. Fortunately, Wu Bin’s resolve was firm, and he flatly refused.”

“But this certainly won’t be the last time. Some people in key positions at Tenda might not be able to resist this kind of temptation. This risk must be prevented in advance!”

Pei Qian blinked.

Oh, so that’s what you’re talking about…

He hadn’t thought about this point before, but now that he considered it, it did seem to be a problem.

“What do you think should be done?” Pei Qian asked.

Hao Yun had clearly thought about this issue beforehand and immediately replied: “Mr. Pei, I think there are mainly two methods.”

“First, strengthen the supervision of the Human Resources department and Administrative department over Tenda’s internal departments and key positions to strictly prevent any behavior that sells out company interests or abuses power for personal gain.”

“Second, strengthen ideological education for employees, make them aware of the seriousness of this matter, and clarify the consequences and disciplinary actions.”

“As for specific disciplinary actions, I suggest establishing a punishment mechanism for different errors. Minor offenses result in fines, serious ones in dismissal. There should be clear distinctions between different levels of violations, and any illegal situations should be reported to the authorities immediately, with absolutely no leniency.”

Pei Qian again fell into deep thought.

Illegal criminal behavior would certainly be severely punished, as the system explicitly forbids it.

But as for employees using their positions to make a bit of money on the side, how should that be handled?

Like yesterday, people from outside training institutions found Wu Bin, hoping he could help produce training materials for the Tenda Spirit Test. If Wu Bin had agreed, how should such a matter be classified? How should it be punished?

This was the problem Pei Qian was grappling with.

Strengthening the supervision of the Human Resources department and Administrative department over various departments and positions—this was not acceptable.

What if employees who slacked off stopped slacking off?

But completely ignoring it also seemed somewhat unreasonable.

Pei Qian coughed lightly: “Let’s do this. In my view, there’s no need to establish various different punishment mechanisms. Anyone found using their position for personal gain, regardless of the amount of money or the severity, once discovered, will be immediately dismissed and never rehired!”

“Of course, when dismissing them, we should provide compensation. After all, they were once employees and have made contributions to Tenda in one way or another.”

“As for ideological education, you can handle it as you see fit. If you want to do it, go ahead, but there’s no need to take it too seriously.”

Pei Qian’s thinking was that if such a situation arose, just dismiss them directly!

After all, those who could use their positions for personal gain were people occupying relatively important positions in the company. The fact that they had worked for so long proved they had the ability. For capable people, it was just finding an excuse to dismiss them, so they wouldn’t hinder him from losing money.

Moreover, providing full compensation when they left was also a way of making the best use of people and resources.

Spending a bit more is still something, and every little bit helps!

Hao Yun was inexplicably moved, nodding: “I understand, Mr. Pei!”

Although Mr. Pei spoke casually, to Hao Yun’s ears, it carried a different meaning.

Mr. Pei had rejected the suggestion about “strengthening supervision,” which indicated that, in Mr. Pei’s view, while strengthening internal management and preventing official profiteering was important, maintaining the company’s free and spirited work atmosphere was more important.

As for why not use a tiered punishment mechanism?

Clearly, in Mr. Pei’s view, no matter how minor the official profiteering, it must be severely punished!

Other companies, when facing employees with exceptional abilities but moral flaws, would try to protect them. This wasn’t about being humane but about safeguarding company interests.

After all, replacing an executive in a key position might mean that the person taking over might not be competent enough, and such a change would affect daily operations.

But this would have a somewhat negative impact on the company’s internal atmosphere, failing to achieve absolute fairness and impartiality.

And this was precisely the difference between Mr. Pei and other company bosses.

On one hand, he was impartial and unsentimental; as long as someone used their position for personal gain, they would be immediately dismissed regardless of their position, showing no regard for past relationships.

On the other hand, if it were merely a work error, there would be no punishment. Even if they were dismissed, they would be given sufficient compensation as an acknowledgment of their time as colleagues and a gesture of gratitude. This showed Mr. Pei’s humanity toward employees.

Thinking about it carefully, this was the handling method most in line with the Tenda Spirit!

Looking at Hao Yun’s complex expression, Pei Qian felt that his words had probably been misinterpreted again.

But it didn’t matter. He was already used to it…

Hao Yun then asked: “Then, Mr. Pei, do we need to address the issue of training institutions profiting from our employment exam questions?”

After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian shook his head: “There’s not much impact yet, so no need to deal with it for now. I’ll think about it and then decide.”

The behavior of these training institutions had created a culture of excessive competition among Tenda’s job applicants, and profiting from Tenda’s applicants was indeed something Pei Qian found quite off-putting.

But currently, the impact was relatively small, and Pei Qian hadn’t come up with a good solution either, so he could only temporarily shelve it and wait until he had a better idea.

Hao Yun turned to leave.

“Wait.”

Pei Qian suddenly thought of an issue and called her back: “Recently, the pass rate for the Tenda Spirit Test has consistently been 100%. Do you have any thoughts on this matter?”

This was something Pei Qian had been suspicious about for a long time.

But he hadn’t been able to figure out a possible reason.

Logically, how could the Tenda Spirit Test, which was so difficult, have a 100% pass rate?

Yet the fact was that a large batch of new employees had all passed on their first attempt, and at the very worst, they had all passed the final test within a month. Not a single one had been eliminated.

This was very strange.

Hao Yun froze for a moment, then quickly said: “Maybe it’s because… everyone understands the Tenda Spirit more deeply? After all, the entire company’s atmosphere is subtly influencing these new employees.”

Pei Qian nodded slightly.

This was indeed a possibility.

“Alright, that’s all,” Pei Qian said.

Hao Yun breathed a sigh of relief and turned to leave.

Pei Qian opened the backend of the Tenda Spirit Test and carefully examined the questions that had been modified many times.

In truth, Pei Qian frequently modified these questions. Sometimes he changed a few key words in the same question, and the answer would change; sometimes he simply created new questions.

But no matter how he changed them, these new employees always managed to pass the test.

Pei Qian had secretly checked many times on the employee responsible for creating this function, and there was indeed no possibility of question leakage.

Therefore, the most likely explanation was that the employees had understood the Tenda Spirit, which was why they passed the test.

So the question arose: if employees all understood the Tenda Spirit, which glorified slacking off, why was Pei Qian still constantly making money?

Pei Qian couldn’t figure out what was going on.

“No, there must be something wrong here!”

“This definitely can’t be left as is!”

Pei Qian found it increasingly suspicious.

Perhaps the Tenda Spirit had been misinterpreted?

Perhaps these people had stumbled upon another set of solutions by accident, which just happened to match his answers?

This possibility existed!

With this in mind, Pei Qian immediately began to consider countermeasures.

A moment later, he sent a message to the TPDb website employee responsible for this function.

“Revise the Tenda Spirit Test before this batch of new employees joins. Reduce the number of questions, extend the answering time. Below each question, leave a text input box for subjective answers. Have them write in detail why they chose that option!”