158: Chapter 158 The New Office

Chen Fan sat in his office, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the desktop.

There were two reasons why he wanted to find a new project team.

First, Zhang Tao was already working on 'happy elimination'.

A person's energy is limited. If he were to oversee two projects at the same time, the most likely result would be that neither would be done well.

Instead of that, it was better to let him focus on making 'happy elimination' a success and start the new project from scratch with a different team.

Zhang Tao's technical skills were not an issue; he just needed to devote all his energy to one thing.

But the more important reason was that Chen Fan wanted to give Zhang Tao's team a sense of crisis.

Ever since 'defend the carrot' achieved success, Chen Fan noticed that some employees were getting a bit ahead of themselves.

That self-satisfied feeling of "we created a blockbuster" had slowly seeped into every detail of their daily work.

They weren't in the right state of mind at work; they were slacking off, and some even spent over half an hour taking 'paid shits.' Such data would be unacceptable in any company.

In his previous life, he had only done these things himself; he didn't expect them to appear in his own company.

Back when he was an employee, he also slacked off, took paid shits, and left exactly on the dot.

But that didn't mean he would allow such things now that he was the boss.

Although Chen Fan wasn't some sweatshop capitalist, he wasn't a philanthropist either.

The salaries he paid were higher than the industry average, and he provided social security, overtime pay, and everything else that was required.

With such treatment, frequently slacking off at work was simply unacceptable.

He treated his employees well in the hope that they would also treat the company well, so that everyone could achieve success together and grow the pie.

If he treated the employees well but they slacked off, coasted along, and wasted the company's resources, then why should he continue to treat them well?

While it wasn't a major problem yet, if such tendencies weren't nipped in the bud, they would eventually lead to a disaster.

Being late once might be a fluke, twice might be bad luck, but being late three times a week was no accident.

Slacking off once might just be fatigue, twice might be a bad day, but slacking off every day was not a matter of 'state of mind.'

Chen Fan knew all too well—the problems of any organization begin with "small matters being left unmanaged."

If you don't stop him from taking a half-hour paid shit today, he'll dare to take an hour tomorrow, and the day after, he'll dare to go out shopping during work hours.

The bottom line is breached bit by bit, and rules are broken piece by piece.

The delay in the launch of 'happy elimination' this time was indicative of the problem. It wasn't that a few days of delay was so severe, but rather that this "anyway, there's no rush" mentality would slowly erode the entire team's combat effectiveness.

On a project, delaying one day today, another tomorrow, and another the day after, and a week has passed. Delaying week after week, and a month has passed.

Delaying month after month, and the project fails. Chen Fan had seen too many such examples—it wasn't that the technology was lacking or resources were insufficient; it was the team itself that dragged itself to death.

Fortunately, Zhang Tao, as the lead programmer, had not slacked off.

It was just that he really wasn't good at management. He had a soft personality and wasn't good at pushing people, which led to his subordinates slowly becoming lax.

Asking Zhou Min to recruit a new batch of creators this time was intended to put some pressure on the existing team and give them a sense of crisis.

It wasn't about replacing anyone; it was to let everyone know—you are not the only team in the company. If you do well, you continue; if you don't, someone else can take over.

Big companies like Penguin and NetEase have multiple teams working in parallel.

When one team makes one product, there's no comparison, and whether it's done well or poorly depends entirely on self-discipline.

With two teams, it's different—the progress is there, the data is there, and it's clear at a glance who is doing well and who is doing poorly.

Those who do well naturally get bonuses and resources; those who do poorly get replaced, or their projects get cut.

This wasn't cruelty; it was the path a company must take to grow large. Chen Fan wasn't the type who liked office politics, but he knew that a healthy organization could not exist without internal competition.

Without competition, it's a stagnant pool. A stagnant pool doesn't raise big fish; it only breeds mosquitoes and flies.

However, Chen Fan was also reflecting on himself; he really wasn't very good at management either.

After all, in his previous life, he was just an ordinary office worker. His greatest management experience was managing his bank card balance.

Now, being asked to manage so many people in the company, he was truly crossing the river by feeling for stones.

He could manage so many people now only because he was the boss, holding a higher status than them.

He understood this. But if one day the company grew larger and there were more people, just saying "I'm the boss" wouldn't be enough.

By then, he would need someone who truly understood management to help him.

For the company's formalized operation, professional people were needed.

He wondered when there would be news about the Vice President he had asked Dean Zhou to help find last time.

In the blink of an eye, it was the 18th.

At 5:00 PM, an hour before the end of the workday, the dozens of employees throughout the company began to get busy—today they were moving to the new office.

After hearing that the new office occupied an entire floor, everyone was very interested.

After all, the current office was indeed a bit cramped now that there were more people; workstations were side-by-side, and you could hit the neighbor's chair just by turning around.

So everyone hoped to move as soon as possible. Who wouldn't want to work in a spacious and bright environment?

Qiao Linlin had originally suggested moving after work hours, but Chen Fan vetoed it.

Moving the company was part of the job, and he wouldn't take up the employees' personal time.

Employees wouldn't like a boss who took up their after-work time, just as he wouldn't like an employee who frequently slacked off during work hours.

Although Chen Fan had often slacked off at work in his previous life, he understood this logic clearly.

At this moment, Chen Fan was admiring his new office.

A private space of over fifty square meters, several times larger than his previous tiny cubicle.

Floor-to-ceiling windows took up most of one wall, and the afternoon sunlight poured in, spreading a layer of warm gold over the carpet.

Outside the window was the green space in the center of the Software Park. The artificial lake shimmered under the sun, and the glass curtain walls of several office buildings were scattered across the view in an orderly fashion.

The desk was solid wood, a deep walnut color. The surface was clean, with only a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, and a pot of green dill that Qiao Linlin had brought in that morning.

In the corner was a small meeting table with four chairs. The overall look was simple and elegant, but Chen Fan felt something was missing.

The only flaw was the lack of a tea set.