Smelting Special Topic. Career 3

During that time in the workshop, I realized that I was more like an outsider, going to work every day as if watching a play, observing various people competing and fighting against each other. From time to time, there are some disturbances in the workshop: sometimes someone opens a dry powder fire extinguisher, causing chaos in the workshop, or workers accidentally turn on the steam valves, resulting in noise all over the workshop. The director from back then, who is now the manager, still likes to go to the workshop in person to give instructions. During the process of feeding material into the distillation tank, he wouldn’t allow the pump to be turned off; instead, the material was discharged directly from a higher-level tank. The valves weren’t closed in time, so the material spilled out of the tank, covering everything around with sticky residue. I stood at the entrance to the control room on the second floor, watching as the manager down below directed the workers to cover the black, smelly material that had already settled on the ground. He glanced at me, and I met his gaze coldly. I knew my days working in the workshop were numbered.

In the turbulent year 1998, with floods, the Indonesian financial crisis, and a sharp drop in stock markets, chemical companies faced great difficulties. With the departure of Xiao Sichuan, my friend who graduated from East China University of Science and Technology along with me and worked in the General Engineering Office encountered a similar situation – he had a serious conflict with the head of the Technical Department. In 1996 we graduated and, by scrimping and saving, we partnered up in 1997 to build a 586. Pentium 100. We would take it apart and put it back together over and over again when we had nothing to do; this small computer was subjected to such handling many times a day. At that time, there were few computers in the entire company; the technical department had only one computer used for handling the company’s daily tasks. Since I knew that person well, I helped the information officer in charge of the computers with tasks related to Word and Excel. I felt very frustrated at that time, so I would make excuses to wander around the company during regular working hours, often going to the technical department to borrow some monthly magazines to read. That day, I saw with my own eyes the section chief come rushing into the office with some superior, and question my friend for fiddling with the computer during working hours. My friend also persisted, pointing at the computer and saying angrily, \"Explain clearly why you’re fiddling around like that. Come and take a look!\" After saying that, he flung the computer chair far away. I looked at the manager’s face; behind him seemed to be the chief engineer or the manager in charge. The manager said, \"You can see from this attitude that action needs to be taken,\" and he wouldn’t even let the higher-ups speak. My friend still said arrogantly, \"I’ve never seen a leader like you; it’s almost as if you’re calling yourself some kind of worthless leader.\"

In the second half of 1998, he was the first to choose to leave, and I then also submitted an application to take a leave of absence without pay. Faced with those self-righteous leaders, we students have no way to resist; we can be mistreated at any time. Even some veteran workers don’t treat these college students from other places very well. Fights often occur in the single-person dormitories, and many of these incidents are caused by senior employees who go to those dormitories to cause trouble. In the most serious incident, two workers who had finished their shifts rushed into a dormitory; to their surprise, the residents there were interns who had come to the company’s thermal power plant for training. One of the interns grabbed a kitchen knife and seriously injured one of those workers.

I and Xiao Sichuan encountered the same thing: two drunk workers from a coke oven plant came in and caused trouble. My friend and I held them down, and at that moment we picked up the empty wine bottles on the table with the intention of hitting those drunkards. The woman who worked as the gatekeeper, from a nearby village, heard the noise, scolded those two men and drove them away; she also advised us that if we really hit them, would we still want to be able to work in the future. That senior woman’s surname was Han; she took excellent care of me until I left the company.

What’s even more annoying is that the chief of the personnel department’s eldest uncle also lives in a temporary housing unit behind the single-student dormitories. His nickname is Zhang Niubie; during meal times, he would carry a large bowl around each room in the single-student dormitories, boasting about himself. Many people treated him with great respect, but when he came to our room, he acted indifferently toward us. He then said, “I haven’t seen you before.” I replied that it’s normal not to have met someone, given that the company has over 3,000 employees. He said no, I haven’t seen you at my brother-in-law’s house.

I asked who your brother-in-law is. He then said proudly, the head of the personnel department—is so-and-so. None of these graduating students will not go to his house. I said, right? I don’t know him. Zhang Niubi left in a huff, carrying his big bowl with him; his son, Xiao Zhang Niubi, was even worse – whenever he entered the dormitory, he would rummage through anyone’s room without permission. Because of this, I had to beat him up. That brat also started shouting at me, demanding that my uncle fire me!