231: Chapter 230: Transsion Motors Trending on Social Media

"I heard Transsion employees can get 12 months of year-end bonuses?"

"It's true. My classmate works in Transsion Hong Kong R&D; he just confirmed it. He got 8 months."

"8 months... What about our plan? It wouldn't just be one or two months, right? I want to cry..."

The HR department at Huawei Terminal sent out a soothing notice just as everyone's excitement was at its peak.

"With the significant growth in Huawei Terminal's business this year, and following approval from the board, we will be comprehensively upgrading our benefits policy. The year-end bonus is one of them. Whatever the parent company has, we will have too..."

To put it simply: Don't panic. This year's benefits have been significantly upgraded, but only certain positions will get 12 months.

Meanwhile, it wasn't just the Transsion mobile phone R&D department that was causing a stir.

Transsion Auto employees were also promoting it vigorously.

"Transsion Auto's 2011 year-end bonus: 6 months' salary. Thank you, company! After 5 years in the automotive industry, this is the first time I've known a year-end bonus to be half a year's pay. By the way, our first car will be launched next year."

The attached image was a screenshot of the year-end bonus notification text. The amount was blurred out, but you could see it was a 6-figure sum.

Not long after his Weibo post went up, all his old friends from the base gathered around.

"Old Wang, is Transsion Auto still hiring? You guys are giving out 6 months of year-end bonuses before even going public. Over here, we acquired Volvo last year, and this year we didn't get a single cent in year-end bonuses. We're both in the car manufacturing business; why is the gap so big?"

"Damn it, I'm quitting! Last year they gave us a blank check, and this year they didn't even bother with that..."

"Hahaha, regretting not joining Transsion? I heard one year there is worth three years' salary elsewhere."

"It's not actually that high, but you can still get 1.5 times the amount. I really do regret it now."

This "regret" was pushed to the top of the trending topics.

In 2010, Geely acquired Volvo for 1.8 billion USD. At the time, not just within Geely, but the entire automotive circle celebrated—it was arguably a nationwide jubilation.

But after the acquisition, Geely realized that Volvo was a bottomless pit.

The technology was certainly there, but the integration... capacity upgrades, brand rebranding—every single thing required burning money.

This resulted in Geely not only failing to make a profit for the entire year of 2011 but also losing quite a bit.

Year-end bonus? They were lucky not to be laying people off.

But with Transsion pulling this stunt, they were once again put in the spotlight...

Consequently, Geely's internal design institutes, executives, and department heads all stood up to say: "This year is just the first year of brand integration; growing pains are normal... Once we get past this period, our future will be extremely glorious, and the company will not treat everyone poorly."

Another familiar empty promise...

Meanwhile, Transsion Auto had given out 6 months of year-end bonuses without having sold a single car yet.

A tech blogger did the math: Transsion Auto currently has over 20,000 employees. Calculating based on an average annual salary of 150,000, and assuming most get a three-month year-end bonus, that's 37,500 per person, totaling 750 million.

750 million to buy the reputation of a conscientious employer, while simultaneously building hype for the cars about to launch.

No matter how you look at it, this is genius marketing.

After all, only when employees make money can they work harder, and it can also attract employees from other companies to join Transsion Auto voluntarily. After all, while the end of the year is a time for celebration, it's also a time for resignations...

As long as they can poach some top talent, this money won't be a loss.

But the most heartbreaking thing wasn't for Geely's engineers; it was for those who had received poaching offers from Transsion but ultimately chose other companies.

"Transsion Auto tried to poach me last year, but I didn't think it was reliable, so I didn't go..."

"Damn it, I'm a fresh graduate and I also received an offer. But my family didn't agree and made me go to SAIC. Now SAIC gave a one-month year-end bonus, while Transsion gave three months, and the base salaries are different too. I regret it so much I want to bang my head against a wall..."

"Is Transsion's car very reliable?"

"Absolutely reliable. They treat employees like family, so of course you have to work hard."

"To the person above, you can't say it like that... but Transsion Auto is definitely reliable."

Meanwhile, "some people" began compiling a list of year-end bonuses for the Chuan Yin Group. The mobile phone R&D department, Transsion Panel, and semiconductor R&D department all got 8–12 months, Transsion Africa got 4–6 months, and the Southeast Asia department got 3–5 months.

The online shills who had been prepared long ago commented frantically under these posts: "Transsion is trying to drive all the HRs in the industry to their deaths."

"It's not driving HR to death; it's driving all the companies that don't pay year-end bonuses to their deaths."

This rhythm of self-questioning and answering immediately made many ordinary people feel a sense of consensus.

Exactly!

Meanwhile, when Shen Fei saw these discussions, he was eating in his office. Zhang Mingzhu was sitting opposite him, with the prenatal meal that Shen Fei's mother, Zhang Ruyue, had made for her placed in front of her.

"Weibo is discussing our year-end bonuses, especially the auto department." Shen Fei handed her his phone.

Zhang Mingzhu glanced at him: "Billions, just to buy a few days of trending topics? Is it worth it?"

"Of course it's worth it!" Shen Fei put away his phone. "Billions to buy so many days of trending topics, at least tens of thousands of Weibo posts, thousands of press releases, and we even built up hype for the car along the way. This effect is a hundred times better than buying ads. Most importantly, the employees also had a happy year, but only the last point was our goal; everything else was a free bonus."

Zhang Mingzhu rolled her eyes at him and laughed, scolding: "Capitalist."

"Wrong." Shen Fei laughed. "I am a socialist entrepreneur."

Time quickly arrived at January 22nd, the Lunar New Year's Eve.

Yangcheng, the old Shen family courtyard.

Shen Fei had never spent a New Year like this before.

Before taking over the business, he might have been out partying, but after taking over, overtime was out of the question.

Even last year... he already thought he had paid enough attention to it, but this year... his father, who hadn't been in the kitchen for a long time, personally cooked today.

He made a full 8 dishes.

And they were all substantial dishes.

Like braised fish, spiced beef, boiled chicken... filling the whole table.

Zhang Ruyue was helping on the side, muttering as she served the dishes: "Old Shen. You put too much soy sauce in this fish; Mingzhu can't eat things that are too salty."

Shen Guoming slapped his forehead: "Oh, I forgot. Mingzhu, don't eat that fish; Old Zhang made you a steamed one."

At this moment, Zhang Shiqing smiled and brought out a plate of steamed sea bass from the kitchen: "Still have to rely on me? Low oil, low salt, I made it myself."

After serving his own dish, Zhang Shiqing pulled Shen Fei to sit back down in front of the sofa, watching the Spring Festival Gala warm-up program on TV, chatting with Shen Fei from time to time.

"That Taishan 910 of yours, I saw it. That benchmark score, 28,000 points—it's kept quite a few people awake at night recently."

Shen Fei thought for a moment and said with a smile: "This is a New Year's gift I specifically prepared for them; it's normal to be a bit excited."