Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 359: The Theme of the Annual Meeting
Very soon, the guy from the administrative department finished setting up all of Wu Bin's internal system access, including intranet permissions, his TPDb website account, and his employee account on the internal forum.
Wu Bin took the mouse from the admin staffer.
Mm…
This mouse.
This keyboard.
This monitor…
So comfortable!
Having long been accustomed to office computers that were cheaply made and cut corners wherever possible, being able to use hardware like this nearly brought Wu Bin to tears.
Just thinking about typing on such a comfortable keyboard made him feel excited all over.
He looked at Hao Yun, hesitating for a moment about how he should address her.
Judging by position, Hao Yun was now the head of the Human Resources Department. If he wanted to be polite, he should probably call her "Director."
If that felt too stiff or distant, then maybe "Sister Hao" or "Sister Yun."
At the very least, maybe "senior"?
But Wu Bin was actually older than Hao Yun and had more years of work experience…
That made things rather awkward.
So Wu Bin hesitated a bit and decided to observe how others addressed her first.
To his surprise, everyone seemed to be calling each other by their first names…
Wu Bin was a little confused and quietly asked the male colleague next to him.
"Do people in our department all just use first names?"
The guy—who had just come back from the snack area and was aggressively munching on a bag of potato chips—took a sip of coffee and nodded.
"Yeah."
"Strictly speaking, it's not just our department. All the other departments do the same."
"At most, if people are closer, they'll call someone 'Brother X' or 'Sister X.'"
"But the safest option is just using names. No one finds it strange. Calling people by their job titles is what feels strange."
Wu Bin was genuinely surprised. "Really? Why is that?"
The guy shook his head while chewing on his chips. "No idea. I'm not one of the first batch of employees either, I've only been here three or four months. And it was already like this when I joined."
"Oh, right. If you want snacks, just go grab them yourself. There's no limit."
As he spoke, he waved the bag of chips in his hand, making it clear they were free to eat.
The smell of the chips was pretty tempting, but considering it was his very first day at work—and he wasn't even officially confirmed yet—Wu Bin felt it might be inappropriate. He shook his head.
"It's fine, I'm not hungry."
Then the guy suddenly thought of something else.
"Oh, right—there's only one exception: President Pei."
"Out of respect, people usually don't call him by his name directly."
"Of course, President Pei is very easygoing. Even if you did call him by name, he probably wouldn't be angry."
"It's just that everyone genuinely respects him, so they address him that way. He's the only exception in the entire company."
"In short, other than President Pei, you can call anyone by their name without any problem."
Wu Bin nodded silently. It seemed that these unwritten rules really were something he'd need to learn from veteran employees.
The two chatted a bit more and introduced themselves to each other.
Wu Bin also casually asked some questions about daily work, for example… whether the things written in the employee handbook were actually true.
The guy thought for a moment and said, "Not entirely."
Wu Bin nodded, feeling he understood.
Sure enough, when most companies introduce themselves, they tend to hide their shortcomings and exaggerate their strengths to some degree.
That wasn't really wrong, it's just human nature.
The guy continued, "I think the handbook actually left out a lot of stuff."
"What about the twice-a-year Best Employee Selection Process awards? First place gets a one-million-yuan Dream Fund, second place gets paid vacation travel."
"And the regular health checkups? Medical expense reimbursements?"
"And also—"
The guy kept listing things off, running through all the other benefits Tengda Group offered.
As he spoke, he realized he had missed a few things, so he checked again and only then managed to complete the list.
There was no helping it, there were simply too many benefits to remember clearly.
Wu Bin: "..."
He had originally thought this guy was about to reveal some inside information that wasn't written in the employee handbook—things like serious overtime, or occasional wage deductions.
Instead… he had completely misunderstood.
It turned out that what was written in the handbook wasn't even the full list of employee benefits. There were many more benefits that hadn't made it in simply due to space limitations…
Wu Bin was utterly speechless. For a moment, he almost suspected that he'd been scammed and accidentally walked into some kind of fraudulent company.
Benefits this good—who are you trying to fool?!
But Tengda Group's reputation was well known, and the ironclad reality was right in front of him. Believe it or not, he had no choice but to believe it.
After calming himself down, Wu Bin asked, "Hey, do you know what the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test mainly tests?"
The guy tossed the empty chip bag into the trash and shook his head.
"No idea."
"This test is being done for the first time with your batch of new hires. I've never taken it either."
"As for the details, the confidentiality is really tight. I only know a tiny bit."
"All the questions for the test were written by President Pei himself. Other than President Pei, no one has permission to modify them."
"Don't worry, though. I think it won't be very hard. It's probably like those psychological health tests some schools do—just a formality."
"As long as nothing major shows up, passing should be easy."
Hearing this, Wu Bin finally relaxed a little.
As long as it wasn't difficult, that was fine!
Alright then, time to start work full of anticipation!
Wu Bin stood up and walked over to Li Yada, hoping she would assign him some tasks.
Li Yada looked up at him. "Work?"
"Uh… during the probation period, you're not allowed to be assigned work."
"And right now, staffing is basically sufficient. Your task during this time is to observe more and learn more, and try to pass the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test in one go. That way, you can be officially confirmed sooner."
Wu Bin returned to his seat in a daze.
This was the first time he'd ever seen a situation where he proactively asked for work—and was told there was no work for him to do…
…
…
Inside the office.
"President Pei, this is the annual company meeting proposal prepared by the administrative department. Please take a look."
Pei Qian took the document from Assistant Xin and flipped through it casually.
The content was quite extensive.
At the very front were the expenses for the annual meeting, as well as the arrangement of prizes.
Participation Prize:
– 1,000 cash red envelopes of 1,000 yuan each
– 799-yuan headphones × 300
– 899-yuan mechanical keyboards × 300
– Random cash red envelopes (500–1,000 yuan) × 200
– 1,299-yuan air purifiers × 200
– 2,199-yuan robot vacuum cleaners and vacuum cleaners × 70 each
– 3,599-yuan game consoles × 80
– 4,599-yuan Pro tablets × 80
– 5,699-yuan Pineapple phones and Shenhua flagship phones × 40 each
– 5,999-yuan televisions × 70
– 11,999-yuan digital cameras × 20
– 18,888-yuan cash gift packages × 10
– Worldwide destination of choice, five-day trip for two × 3 (Includes first-class airfare, luxury five-star hotel accommodations, and an additional spending allowance of up to 30,000 yuan)
The total estimated value of these prizes was already over four million yuan.
This was the maximum amount permitted by the system.
Nearly a thousand employees would be attending the annual meeting—of course, a large portion of them were delivery drivers from Against the Wind Logistics.
Although the delivery drivers were engaged in physical labor, Pei Qian would of course never discriminate against them because of that. They were all Tengda Group employees as well, diligently delivering packages every day. On an occasion as special as the annual meeting, they absolutely deserved to take part.
Pei Qian had originally wanted to arrange a particularly extravagant participation prize—something like giving everyone a flagship smartphone—but once the total value of all the annual meeting prizes had been fixed, that would have meant cutting down heavily on the rest of the prizes.
That would've made the lottery segment far less exciting.
So in the end, the participation prize was just a 1,000-yuan cash red envelope.
That said, considering that most prizes were prepared in quantities of two or three hundred, even excluding the 1,000-yuan red envelopes, the total number of prizes had already reached 1,483.
Moreover, the on-site lottery system had been designed with restrictions:
No one could win the same prize twice, and each person could win at most two prizes.
The longer someone went without winning, the higher their chances became in later draws.
In other words, even the unluckiest participants would, with high probability, still win something. There wouldn't be a situation where one lucky person walked away loaded while others got nothing at all.
Pei Qian was quite satisfied with the prizes and continued reading.
Next came the detailed schedule for the annual meeting, including on-site performances and catering arrangements.
As for food, chefs from Mingyun Private Kitchen and Moyu Delivery would be invited to prepare dishes directly at the hotel venue. Ingredients would be purchased in advance, and the menu would be arranged by Lin Canrong himself.
In short, there was nothing to worry about when it came to eating.
What Pei Qian really cared about was the specific activity arrangement for the annual meeting.
For most companies, annual meetings could be summed up in one word: cringe.
Forcing male employees to wear ballet outfits and dance, awkwardly performing viral internet songs, or various bottom-of-the-barrel vulgar game segments…
In comparison, simply asking employees to perform a program on stage was already considered relatively humane—but it was still awkward.
It was hard to say whether this was a distortion of human nature or the collapse of moral standards.
Fortunately, the annual meeting plan prepared by Assistant Xin didn't make those mistakes. Overall, it looked pretty decent.
There was no proposal to force all department heads to cross-dress and perform on stage, either.
Pei Qian was very pleased with this. As the saying went, sparing others was sparing himself—he had absolutely no desire to go on stage dressed like a clown.
Singing and dancing weren't unacceptable, but what was there to watch, really?
Not to mention annual meetings; even at large gala events, how many people genuinely enjoyed watching song-and-dance performances?
Letting employees go on stage to play mini-games was better than vulgar games, but it was still awkward.
After all, people weren't there to enjoy the games themselves, they were there for the prizes.
Since the employees' goal was to win prizes, and his goal was to give out prizes, why not just skip all those embarrassing middle steps?
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian said:
"Cancel all the performances and on-site mini-games."
"Set up gacha machines and claw machines instead. Also arrange activities like ring toss, dart throwing, or air-gun shooting booths."
"When the time comes, the entire venue should be surrounded by these entertainment facilities, all filled with gacha capsules, plush toys, and various figurines."
"When everyone enters, give them a pile of tokens so they can play to their heart's content."
"Oh, and for those claw machines with shady mechanics, crank the success rates up to the maximum."
"When people come to the annual meeting, they'll have just two things to do: eat and play!"
"Run the lottery throughout the entire event. Once everyone's full, they can take their tokens and play gacha and claw machines until all prizes have been drawn, everyone's eaten their fill, and all the tokens are used up. Then the annual meeting officially ends."
"At Tengda Group, we don't do formalism, we don't hype people up with empty slogans, and we definitely won't force anyone on stage to make a fool of themselves."
"Eating, drinking, and having fun—that's the theme of our annual meeting!"
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