interview

Working conditions at universities “Human and anti-science ”

Status: 06/24/2021 5:03 a.m.

Chain contracts, extra work and a lack of prospects: under the hashtag #IchBinHanna, scientists mobilize against difficult working conditions. At their pressure, the Bundestag is also dealing with the subject today. tagesschau.de: With #IchBinHanna, working conditions in science make it into parliament. How did the hashtag come about? Sebastian Kubon: Until recently, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research had a video on its website in which an animated figure named Hanna explains the legal basis of employment, the Science Contract Act. This is a special right of fixed-term employment that regulates that scientists in Germany can be employed for a maximum of six years before and six years after completing their doctorate. Thereafter, the time limit must be extended. But that doesn’t happen due to a lack of jobs, so most of them are thrown out of the system by then at the latest – with all their qualifications and knowledge that are then lost to science. And in addition to this immense loss for Germany as a research location, there is always a personal fate. If there is such an explanatory video to explain this absurd situation, then in my opinion it is anti-human and anti-science. Therefore, Dr. Amrei Bahr, Dr. Kristin Eichhorn and I give the scientists a face – with the hashtag #IchbBinHanna.

To person Dr. Sebastian Kubon is a research associate at the History Department at the University of Hamburg, currently on parental leave. He is mainly concerned with public history and food history. At the moment, criticism of the German science system is at the center of his commitment. To do this, he and Dr. Amrei Bahr and Dr. Kristin Eichhorn created the hashtag #IchBinHanna.

tagesschau.de: What are your main points of criticism and what are your specific suggestions? Kubon: I hardly know where to start. The short-term contracts are particularly bad. Instead of doing research in peace, you have to keep writing new applications and proposals. We need realistic contract terms, i.e. as long as you actually need for a doctorate, for example. And those who then have a doctorate should be employed on a permanent basis – or at least receive a clear and transparent perspective. In addition, there is a lot of unpaid overtime at universities. Many colleagues only have half jobs – and still work as much as if they had full jobs to keep the business running. We need reliable and sufficient basic funding. This does not always mean more third-party funding, i.e. project-related funds that have to be applied for and raised at great expense.

“Then you shouldn’t get any professors out of time”

tagesschau.de: The Ministry of Education justified the temporary positions by stating that research always needed new impulses. Kubon: This argument that only constant fluctuation creates innovation has been around for decades without ever being scientifically verified. According to this logic, professors should not be deferred. I think that is more of an exaggerated argument. Because it is – at least in the short term – easier and cheaper for young scientists to work unpaid overtime. But this literally burns them up, which is expensive in the long term and not sustainable at all. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not about pity. But this system means that important research projects are put to rest, teaching suffers in terms of content and students keep losing contact. Many highly talented people, when asked if they could see themselves in science, wave their thanks. tagesschau.de: Another argument from the Ministry of Education is that if all posts were to be expelled, a single generation would “clog” the system … Kubon: But nobody is asking that all positions be permanent – as far as I know, not even the union. It is about transparent criteria and a concrete perspective: in other words, expiry under the and the circumstances. Surely it cannot be that every new generation has to struggle again and again with precarious working conditions and cannot conduct research properly.

“No wonder that many seek their happiness elsewhere”

tagesschau.de: Is that actually a purely German problem, is it better to deal with young scientists abroad? Kubon: “Offspring” is a terrible term. Some people in their mid-40s are not newcomers, but highly qualified experts who have long had highly paid management positions elsewhere. No wonder that many seek their happiness elsewhere. Foreign universities have already tried to poach German scientists as part of #IchBinHanna. But to come back to the question: Overall, science is a precarious system worldwide. But I cannot judge that in detail. But it would perhaps also be more the job of the ministry to set up a commission to deal with working conditions elsewhere in order to see what one can learn from there. But that would presuppose that deficits are recognized at all in their own country.

Mobilize via Twitter – in response to pressure from academics, the Bundestag is currently dealing with working conditions in research and teaching (archive). Image: picture alliance / Geisler-Fotop

tagesschau.de: Now there is a current hour in the Bundestag today. What do you expect from it? Kubon: I hope that this will bring science back on the political agenda. If it is to provide urgently needed orientation, then we can no longer work under such conditions. But I have the impression that many politicians simply do not know anything about it. Therefore we say: stop – it cannot go on like this. And maybe a few parties will see it as an opportunity to position themselves on questions of science policy.

Workers’ rights, as for everyone else

tagesschau.de: It is the last week of the session, then there will be general elections in September, so there will be no quick solutions. How do you intend to carry the topic forward? Kubon: The Science Contract Act is currently being evaluated. However, the corresponding forms are designed in such a way that I cannot imagine that valid data will come out of them. Nevertheless: The law is on the agenda for the next legislative period. Therefore, the deficits must now be described as precisely as possible in order to propose possible solutions. This is done in the traditional way, i.e. via local programs, party work or unions. But thanks to social media, initiatives can also arise quickly and spontaneously – the success of #IchBinHanna has shown us that. You made the Ministry of Research have to deal with our criticism. And on this point we will not let up: Scientists must have the same employee rights as everyone else. The interview was conducted by Stefan Keilmann, tagesschau.de

Bitter melon is a fruit that, although not beautiful in appearance, is extremely nutritious. Bitter melon can be refrigerated and then eaten raw directly with very attractive, can be steamed, fried, cooked in soup… in which stir-fry is the most popular. However, not everyone dares to eat bitter melon because the bitter taste of melon causes an unpleasant feeling. Moreover, bitter melon is not easy to stir-fry, although the frying time is fast, if you don’t know how, it will make the melon soft and lose its original green color. So how to keep the crispiness of the melon, the beautiful green color and eliminate the bitter taste of the melon after stir-frying? Some people think that blanching bitter melon before stir-frying will reduce the bitter taste, but just blanching is sour enough, needing to take another step. Some people say, you should soak the melon with salt water before cooking. But we also know that salt has a very strong dehydrating ability, if you soak bitter melon with salt first, it can indeed reduce the water in the melon and remove a small part of the bitterness. But this will also make the bitter gourd lose its crispy taste, when eating the melon it will be a bit mushy. Long-time chefs share their experience, it is not difficult to process fried bitter melon with little bitterness. You can refer to the following tips: First, when buying melon, it is necessary to wash it with clean water to remove dirt on the surface of the fruit. Then use a knife to cut off the two ends, cut / remove the intestines of the loofah. Use a spoon to scrape out the white part of the bitter gourd. This white part is the cause of the bitter taste of the melon. At this time, use a knife to cut bitter melon into thin and even slices. Put bitter melon in a large bowl, add a moderate amount of sugar, stir well and marinate for about 20 minutes. When the time is up, wash the bitter melon twice with clean water. Next, pour a sufficient amount of water into the pot, turn on the heat and bring to a boil, add bitter melon to blanch quickly, blanch until the melon turns dark green, then immediately take it out and drain. Pour a little cooking oil into the pot, turn on the stove to high heat, add minced onion and garlic and fry until fragrant. Then add bitter melon and stir-fry on high heat, stir quickly. Add a little salt and seasoning powder (optional) to taste and then turn off the heat. Only stir-fry the melon for about 2-3 minutes to keep its crisp, beautiful green color, if it takes a long time to cook, the melon loses its color and becomes soft and not delicious. So when stir-frying bitter melon, you only need to remember 2 important steps, which is marinating sugar with melon. Sugar has a weaker dehydrating property (removing water from the fruit) than salt, will not soften bitter gourd, and can remove the bitter taste. Moreover, marinating sugar makes bitter melon more crispy. The second step is that after washing, it is necessary to blanch the melon, the bitter melon is both green and crispy, the bitterness is reduced again. Good luck!

However, from these part-time jobs, each student has different experiences. Some of you have been cheated by your employer, have a situation where “old ghosts bully new ghosts” … and you are mocked “why do college students do manual work”? That is also the story that a female student has just shared on a social networking forum and received a lot of attention from fans. At the beginning of her story, the hot girl student H oh : “Selling coffee carts is not respectable labor, people?”. The female student chose the job of selling trolley coffee to work part-time, even though it was a genuine job, she was ridiculed by her friends. Illustration Next, the female student recounted that, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the economic situation of her parents in the countryside was severely reduced, so the female student found herself a part-time job after school to earn more money. tuition fees for living expenses. The job that the female student chooses is selling trolley coffee, a job that receives a salary that makes her happy, more importantly, that she has just made money without affecting her studies. The story would not be worth mentioning if the female student did not have to listen to the sarcasm and teasing of her classmates about the job the female student is doing. The text of the story is shared as follows: “This year, the epidemic has returned, so my parents are in the countryside, doing live music rental business, but during the epidemic season, no one can organize events or get married to have an income. Just under control, our family receives After a few parties, when the festival came, the epidemic broke out again. If I could not pay the investment debt to buy equipment, I would lose my income because of the epidemic, so my education would also be affected. I see that, so I also want to go to work to help my parents in the countryside. But I still have a busy schedule, so full time is impossible. So I’m looking for part-time jobs. That’s it, I read and found a job that was selling trolley coffee. The work is not very hard, just push the small coffee cart to the corner of the street to sell. With an initial salary of 28k / hour, but one day I sold a lot, so the owner supported me to increase it to 40k / hour. I worked for a few weeks and felt that I could both ensure my schedule and take advantage of my free time to earn extra income, so I’m quite satisfied. And the story should have stopped here, but when I was assigned to sell near my school in Binh Thanh and my guests that day were students in the same course as me. And especially before, I once refused the love of a male friend in that group and until now I still think it was the right decision because even though he is really rich, he is like a beloved son with a series of “favorites”. ” about his feelings on his school’s Confession. Yesterday, it was sunny, but I was still recognized by them. They mocked “I knew you in the past, but now I don’t have to do this hard wholesale” and many sayings sound like nothing, but really, in my situation, I can understand what it’s like to be hinted at. Only “studying in college but going to the street to sell coffee, accepting friends N. is time to go out” is very annoying. Honestly, at that time, I was also a little sorry because I did not have the same conditions as them. But it wouldn’t be sad if today I didn’t hear my friends talking about them going around the school saying “business administration” but selling coffee, mocking me for studying “business administration” at a school. fame without finding a suitable job to do but selling coffee for a walk…. Then my friends also asked if I needed any help… Then when I go to class, everyone keeps teasing me, why don’t you sell coffee anymore, tomorrow get me a few dozen cups and I’ll invite the whole class to drink. … Hey everyone, the ministry of manual labor is not worthy of respect, is it that I go to college to gain knowledge, universities train quality labor, not always training directors and chiefs? where is the room. I do it with my own strength, I wake up at 5 am to prepare, at 5:30 am I have to be at the shop. I do it with my own strength, not cheating or stealing from anyone. Every industry is a profession, it is also a labor. Why do they have a mocking attitude towards people, part-time students like me?”. Immediately after this story appeared on social networks, it immediately received a lot of attention from fans, especially students. A series of comments were made, most of which advised female students to stay confident in what they are doing, to be proud of themselves when they can earn genuine money to support themselves. help parents. “Why do you care so much? I just do what I like, I have to be myself. I don’t care what other people say, as long as it doesn’t break the law it’s fine.” “In the past, when I went to school, I sold burgers, cleaned the toilet, cleaned the office, still delicious. Only someone who has never worked for a living behaves like that, but what makes money without committing crimes? All laws are the same.” “There is nothing funny about doing business with your own labor, thanks to a few small businesses, you have learned a lot of experience, the important thing is that not everyone dares to work hard and show their face to sell like that. !”. “Students in any profession need to be respected and put in the effort to be shameless. Those who are successful, they have also done manual and hard work to get the results they are today. what the gossip in and out of”. Indeed, any profession is worthy of respect, any genuine work is suitable for us to be passionate about. Earning money is not easy, for this reason, when you earn it yourself, you can see how precious it is. For those young people who are fortunate to have a better life, better family conditions, please refrain from criticizing and mocking other friends. Because you can’t know that those words, whether unintentionally or intentionally, will not make you more noble and noble; not to mention will severely hurt those “innocent” friends.

Always striving to bring great experiences to customers, over the years, FPT Telecom has continuously invested in infrastructure and upgraded products to ensure the best service for users. With the desire to increase the experience, in this upgrade, FPT Telecom continues to double the bandwidth capacity and keep the price unchanged for customers to meet the needs and optimize the experience for users, especially during the current pandemic. Thus, in the roadmap to improve the experience, all old and new FPT Telecom customers will be upgraded to Internet service bandwidth at the same price, all operations are operated automatically, customers do not need to do any further procedures. This program instead of thanking customers who have always loved, trusted and attached to FPT Internet services during the past time. Currently, the Internet – FPT TV combo package is highly appreciated in the market with a reasonable fee: The MAXY channel package owns nearly 200 domestic and international TV channels with many attractive contents, including 70 channels. HD quality standard. Not only that, the MAXY package also leads in the number of international channels when adding foreign content channels, appearing for the first time such as: FX, Nat Geo Wild, DreamWorks, Animax, Boomerang, BabyFirst, CBeebies and provide a full range of central and local online learning channels, which can be viewed in 72 hours.

Talking to CNBC, 6 people said they refused to be interviewed, offered a job or left TikTok as soon as they learned of the company’s 996 culture, whether through online review or direct experience. Culture 996 is very popular with Chinese business. It comes from the requirement that the work begins at 9am to 9pm, 6 days / week, or 72 hours / week. Meanwhile, the number of working hours in the UK and the US is about 40 hours / week. In the UK, working in excess of 48 hours per week on average is considered illegal. “I stopped discussing immediately” An employee invited to act as a communicator for TikTok said 996 culture is really a concern. When researching TikTok on the Glassdoor recruiting site, the most common downside is work imbalance – insane working hours and life. This person “stopped talking immediately when he knew that they were not very flexible about the location and working policy”. A few weeks later, the person was offered a similar role at ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, but declined. Another senior artificial intelligence researcher revealed that he did not accept TikTok’s invitation even when the employer announced the salary of more than £ 100,000 / year (3.25 billion / year), not including bonuses. The expert also went to Glassdoor to look for TikTok reviews. For this person, the balance between public – private is very important. Of course, online reviews are not the only factor to refuse to go with TikTok. While Glassdoor is recognized as a useful platform when searching for a company’s internal culture, it’s not perfect, and reviews are for reference only. People can post many different reviews. However, 4 former TikTok employees told CNBC that they have had a really negative experience here. A former employee said TikTok is the most “poisonous” office I have ever tasted. “Everyone there is completely miserable and life is too short. In the first year before the epidemic swept, I counted only four or five weekends without work… I know TikTok is having trouble with hiring but in the end they don’t care. People to them are just numbers ”. Another former employee shared that, on average, he had to work 15 hours a day at TikTok. “For them, that is normal. Everyone complained but still accepted, perhaps because of good pirated wages “. This person also dislikes the company’s very opaque culture because he doesn’t get an answer when asking a question about his or her workplace. “Stay away, stay away, stay away” Two other former employees of TikTok concur with the above point. One person even sent CNBC a review of the company on Glassdoor titled: “Stay away, stay away, stay away”. In the 1-star review, there are 10 reasons listed why people should refuse to join TikTok and look for another company. This person criticized the “unbalanced public – private life” to “toxic groups” and “terrible management”. TikTok is expanding its workforce globally to deal with the pressure of becoming too popular. The company seeks content management, technical or policy staff. To improve the working environment, TikTok recruited Michal Osman from Facebook to be the European Cultural Director in January. However, countless people left before. Currently, TikTok employees in Europe are more than 3,000 people, up from 1,600 people in September 2020. Many people used to work at Facebook and Google. A TikTok employee said not to go through 996 culture at the company. In addition, they have rules such as prohibiting meeting on Wednesday lunchtime or not meeting on Friday afternoon. Like any other development startup, employees work hard and sometimes have to work overtime when urgent, said a TikTok spokesperson. Song TikTok has no 996 policy. In the UK, consulting firm Great Place to Work ranks TikTok as the 30th best place to work based on employee experience and anonymous feedback. Du Lam (According to CNBC)

DV last month

Only when I was “failed to get a bachelor’s degree is a problem with IQ”

That company is disgusting

Related reports↓↓↓

HR recruitment claims that “I cannot pass the undergraduate IQ test. There is a problem.” Where does the sense of superiority come from?

Was again this month

“Not working overtime is rubbish” Offended

What kind of human suffering is this…

According to media reports

A netizen is looking for a job on an online recruitment platform

What I did not expect is

Can’t find this job

But was inexplicably humiliated by the recruited HR

↓↓↓

recently

A netizen posted a picture on a workplace platform

Cited by many netizens

The picture shows a company in Guangzhou recruiting developers

The company’s HR asked candidates if they could accept overtime

Inquiries from job seekers

Is there any overtime pay?

This was originally a commonplace thing

But the company’s HR said

“Please lower your profile before entering the workplace

Study hard instead of worrying about overtime”

At last

Under the premise that the candidate does not have excessive language

Throw “We don’t collect garbage” if

After this wonderful job application experience was exposed

Netizens spit in an instant

“It’s so hard to hit a worker”

On April 24, talking to PV Tien Phong, Binh Duong’s police representative said that in order to keep up with the set schedule, the unit was strengthened to implement the work of granting CCCD to local people. On the upcoming 4-day holiday, the police of Binh Duong province still work day and night and do not take a rest. Binh Duong police issued CCCD to people during 4 holidays With the goal of completing the issuance of CCCD cards to all people aged full 14 years and over in the area by July 1, 2021, Binh Duong Provincial Police has focused on maximum all available resources, including “Overtime” works at night to keep pace. Colonel Trinh Ngoc Quyen, Secretary of the Party Committee, Director of Binh Duong Provincial Public Security said that the whole province is currently equipped with 20 apparatuses by the Ministry of Public Security to issue CCCD cards to people. In order to meet the needs of people to use CCCD cards and ensure the right time as prescribed by the Ministry of Public Security, Binh Duong Police gather all available resources to issue CCCD cards 3 shifts / day, day and night continuously. including working on Saturdays and Sundays and increasing mobile work in communes, wards and towns. Binh Duong is located in 10 provinces and cities selected by the Ministry of Public Security as the implementation point to be completed until July 1. Ethnic minorities in Binh Phuoc are offered free transportation to CCCD In Binh Phuoc province, the police force was arranged to increase working day and night to timely issue CCCD to the people. The current time in Binh Phuoc is the cashew season, during the day people are busy harvesting cashew, often take advantage of at night to get citizenship. This is a locality where there are many ethnic minorities living, the way at night is very difficult. People in Binh Phuoc harvest cashew during the day, and work as CCCD at night In order to support ethnic minorities, where traveling is difficult, the police of Phu Rieng commune (Phu Rieng district) mobilized a 52-seat passenger car to carry and pick up people for free from 7:00 pm the previous night. 5 o’clock the next morning. Only on April 23 and 24, about 300 people were brought in, including priority for the elderly, students, pregnant women, young children, families with no means of transportation …

Apartment safety net is expensive After the incident took place on the afternoon of February 28 in an apartment in Hanoi, many families hired workers to install protective nets for balconies, windows, and corridors. The price ranges from 130,000 to 250,000 VND / m2. Apartment 60B Nguyen Huy Tuong (Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi) is one of many buildings that recorded accidents when children fell from a balcony on a high floor. The apartment where H. fell two days ago is located on the back, adjacent to 62 Nguyen Huy Tuong building. People said that when she discovered the incident, the little girl climbed over the railing of the apartment. The corrugated iron roof where Mr. Manh jumped to support baby H. sank in a corner. The people at the building are still not completely shocked by the incident. “My house is in the front, until last night my children told me to know the incident. I have lived here for 4 years. Right from the moment I got the house, I installed a protective net to pull from the railing to the ceiling outside the balcony so that when the children come to play, we will be more secure ”, Ms. P., resident on the 10th floor, said know. According to observations, the handrail of the apartments is about 1.3 m high, the distance between the bars is 15 cm. The apartments in the opposite apartment building are also in the state of houses with protective nets and no houses. According to Zing’s survey around Hanoi, the apartments of an apartment building on Nguyen Chi Thanh street (Ba Dinh district) have a rather low railing design, but out of 6 apartments on the photo, only one apartment is installed. protective mesh system outside the balcony. Designing an X-shaped handrail in an apartment on Hoang Dao Thuy street. In N3B building (Thanh Xuan district), many apartments have installed protection systems outside the railing, the rest have iron frame systems, with aluminum and glass frame doors. Most apartments in an apartment on Nguyen Chanh street are fitted with protective nets, some are ceiling-mounted, some only have a plastic mesh system below to facilitate clothes drying. People live in apartments or leave pots of plants on the balcony for decoration. If there is no protection system on the railing, the young children will easily climb up thanks to these potted plants. “I just moved here to live. From the beginning, the building management has talked to the apartment owner about installing a protective grid system. The apartments here have a balcony near the kitchen, and a backpack for drying clothes. Although there are seldom children at home, I still install it from the beginning to ensure safety, partly to prevent theft, ”said Ms. Thu Giang, living in an apartment in Long Bien district. To avoid small children climbing on flower pots on the balcony sticking to the railing, Mr. Cuong (Long Bien) installed a safety net system early from the time of repairing the apartment. Mr. Cuong also installed a protective net on the window in the children’s bedroom. According to the Vietnam Construction Code on housing and public works – safety of life and health issued by the Ministry of Construction in 2008, the minimum height of handrails is specified: Houses, offices, schools school, office and public works of loggias and terraces at the position of 9 floors or more, the minimum height is 1.4 m. For works used by children under 5 years old, the balustrade must be constructed not for children to easily climb over and the gap must not exceed 10 cm wide. With handrails or loggias used with glass material, the glass is protected by a fixture, ensuring it is solid, no gaps are inserted into the 7.5 cm-diameter sphere, difficult to climb over to prevent prevent falling.

You can be the best technology company without working overtime.

By Xing Shubo

The employees are so “lazy” and Microsoft is so rich and can lead innovation. This is unreasonable!

【1】

In 2008, Zhang Yiming served as the manager of Kuxun, with 40 employees under his hand, which made him feel that he was in a management bottleneck. So he crossed mountains and rivers and became a Microsoft employee.

Zhang Yiming originally intended to learn about the management of large companies, but chose to leave after only half a year. Speaking of his time at Microsoft, he used two words to describe it: boring.

“Half-day work, half-day reading, work without many challenges.” Zhang Yiming said.

It’s not just Zhang Yiming who thinks that Microsoft’s work is too easy and boring.

A friend once said, “The group that just joined Microsoft is too idle. Basically, the group leader rarely sees it. Every once in a while, he talks about skiing and other entertainment.”

Later, the friend transferred to another group because he thought the job was too idle and affected his personal career development. And the status of another busy working group is like this: 10 mornings and 5 nights every day, a seven-hour work day, and the highest local hourly wage.

▲The picture comes from the Internet

In the IT circle, Microsoft, Intel, and EMC are known as the “three major nursing homes”, where work is idle and employees are “lazy”.

In 2020, Microsoft Japan announced that the four-day shift will have three days off, and the collective start “Three Rest System” .This week, Microsoft’s LinkedIn announced that all employees are paid Take a week off, It is not a statutory holiday, nor is it to circumvent labor supervision, but just to be happy.

Microsoft also allows some employees to work freely at home on a regular basis, not more than 50% of the working time per week. If the manager approves, you can even work remotely permanently. Microsoft will pay for home office expenses for employees who work remotely permanently. It’s okay to work at home for a long time and want to go back to the office. Microsoft has temporary office space available at any time.

▲Microsoft’s hardware laboratory in Redmond, Washington, USA, allows working from home

However, the lazy Microsoft has created amazing performance.

Microsoft’s current market capitalization is US$1.93 trillion, which is equivalent to three Alibaba (US$661.8 billion) and five byte beats (US$400 billion). With another 5% rise, the technology giant may join Apple’s ranks and join the $2 trillion market capitalization club.

In fact, on February 11, 2020, Microsoft once surpassed Apple to become the world’s most valuable technology company.

Microsoft has the highest market share of traditional operating systems and office software, both at over 97%; its innovative business cloud computing, AR business and game business also continue to lead.

In terms of cloud computing, 95% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft’s Microsoft Azure intelligent cloud service.

In terms of AR, Microsoft received a $22 billion order at the beginning of this month. The IDC report shows that the scale of global AR market-related expenditures will reach a compound annual growth rate of 54% during the five-year forecast period from 2020 to 2024, exceeding US$70 billion.

In terms of games, Microsoft is also one of the world’s three major console game brands, and its Xbox console market share is close to one-third, reaching 26%; PC games are even the only one.

In March 2020, Microsoft acquired Zenimax Media, the parent company of the well-known gaming giant B. Company B has many world-renowned 3A masterpieces such as “The Elder Scrolls”, “Radiation”, and “Humiliation”, which have a huge influence in the game industry. The acquisition of Microsoft caused industry turmoil, and even attracted a joint review by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the European Union.

▲Microsoft exclusive game

This leads to a question: Why is Microsoft so lazy, so successful and competitive? Can still lead innovation?

【2】

Scolding employees for throwing their mobile phones and recording their license plates to prevent leaving early, Microsoft has not always been a “good man” in corporate governance.

In the early stage of entrepreneurship, Microsoft was not friendly to employees. Employees not only need high-intensity work, but also face the dilemma of being insulted by their personality anytime and anywhere; in the mid-term growth stage, Microsoft has encountered many antitrust investigations, failed to enter the Internet, and high performance pressure, which has caused its requirements for employees to become more severe; In the later stage of business transformation, in addition to shooting negative advertisements for competitors, Microsoft also smashed its employees’ mobile phones on the hot search list.

In an interview on BBC’s “Desert Island Records” program, Bill Gates admitted that in the early days of Microsoft’s founding, I am “very enthusiastic about work”, which is an unfortunate thing for my colleagues.

Microsoft was just established in 1975, and the company is still in its infancy, with only a few employees.

In order to improve efficiency, Bill Gates not only turned himself upside down day and night, lived in the company, did not change his clothes for a few weeks, but also imposed his almost crazy work habits on his employees. For a while, Bill Gates even relied on recording employee license plates to control employees’ working hours and prevent them from arriving late and leaving early.

“I know everyone’s license plate, so just look at the parking lot, you can know the employee’s commuting time.” Bill Gates said.

▲It is mentioned in the documentary “Decoding Bill Gates” that although he is very busy, he still has two major interests in his spare time: road racing and watching striptease.

Bill Gates is not a human being at work, but in his opinion, one of his clients is even more cruel and inhumane, even workaholics can’t stand it. That person was the famous Apple founder Jobs.

At that time, Apple 2 needed a set of office software. Bill Gates got up early to write the earliest Office software such as Word and Excel for him, but he was often urged by Jobs.

Gates’ evaluation of Jobs is “very enthusiastic about work” and “strictly demanding of me.”

When workaholics encounter people who work hard for their lives, especially when both of them are founders of technology companies, their employees suffer.

According to “Silicon Valley Legend”, Jobs had a grumpy attitude toward employees in the early days, and he also pitted some stocks of co-founder Woznick.

Bill Gates participates in the product review board, swearing for pleasure, and employees even use the number of times he says “fxxk” as a basis for evaluating whether his product design can pass smoothly.

Microsoft engineer Polski wrote about Bill Gates in his blog:

“He didn’t really want to review your design, he just wanted to make sure that you have control over it. According to his usual standards, he will ask harder and harder questions until you admit that you don’t know, and then he can scold you. Unprepared. If you can answer the hardest question he asked, what will happen next? No one really knows. Because no one has ever done this.”

Bill Gates scolds people equally, not only scolding employees, but also co-founder Steve Ballmer. In the multiple work emails exposed by the media, the dialogue between Bill Gates and Ballmer can be described as “violent speech.”

Under the influence of curse culture, especially after Ballmer took over as Microsoft CEO, he also became hysterical.

In Seattle in September 2009, it was dry and dry. Microsoft is experiencing failure to replace Windows Vista, Windows Mobile is suppressed by Google and Apple’s mobile operating systems, and even music players such as Zune cannot sell iPods. What’s more disturbing is that Microsoft, which is jealous of Apple iPhone, released two generations of multimedia mobile phones Kin1 and Kin2 within a year, and sold a total of exaggerated…500 units in the life cycle.

On September 14 of that year, Ballmer smashed an employee’s mobile phone at an internal Microsoft meeting.

At that time, Ballmer had just entered the venue, he was alive and kicking as before. But when he saw someone taking pictures with an iPhone, Ballmer rushed to grab the iPhone, laughed at it, and threw it on the ground, trampling it with his feet.

Ballmer has also thrown chairs at employees, and even yelled at Google because an executive switched to Google: “I want to bury Google CEO Eric Schmidt alive! I want to eliminate Google!”

The irritable culture has also continued into the professional habits of Microsoft employees, so that during the upgrade of Microsoft’s Windows 10 Dev Build 21313, the engineer wrote on the update page: “Configuring update, please don’t turn off the computer”.

Today, when Bill Gates has become a benevolent old man, he has begun to reflect on his relationship with employees:

“I must remind myself that my standards can no longer be used to require employees to work hard.”

【3】

The predecessors planted trees, and the descendants took the shade. Microsoft’s 50-year history, from the disaster of corporate governance to the current “professional pensioners”, is not so much that Microsoft actively chooses to seek benefits for employees, but it is actually forced.

According to the research of historian Thomas McGraw, 4227 American companies merged into 257 from 1897 to 1904. By 1904, about 318 trusts controlled two-fifths of the nation’s manufacturing assets. Since then, the United States has experienced three waves of anti-monopoly, and each anti-monopoly has promoted the improvement of employee welfare and the level of corporate governance, and at the same time promoted new technological progress.

In the first wave of anti-monopoly in 1890, the United States promulgated the “Sherman Antitrust Act.” A batch of trusts such as Rockefeller and the Morgan family were split up. New companies such as Ford and Chevrolet were able to develop at the time. “Wait for the implementation of the system.

In the second wave of antitrust in 1970, telecommunications giants such as IBM and AT&T were punished and almost split up. The two companies have respectively released monopoly technology to the market and corrected vicious competition and bundling sales. Open source technology has enabled companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard to develop. The telecommunications industry has been criticized for improving overtime and overwork. The flat management and flexible working system have spread with the development of Silicon Valley.

In 1998, the Dragon Knight Microsoft grew into a dragon and took advantage of the operating system’s monopoly to infiltrate the browser market. It was not until the release of Google’s Chrome browser in 2008 that the ten-year hegemony of IE browser was ended. It is precisely this decade that the early Internet advantages of the United States have been exhausted, Internet companies such as China, India, and South Korea have developed greatly, and Facebook and Amazon have begun to rise.

Microsoft, which has lost its monopoly advantage, found that the original method of squeezing employees to increase the scale of monopoly benefits is no longer applicable. Internet companies such as Facebook, which are relatively loosely managed, are scrambling for their own talents. The method is simple and rude: higher salary, lower working hours, more flexible employment system.

Silicon Valley has entered a virtuous circle in employee benefits: talents are limited, but business expansion is unlimited. In order to obtain talents, companies have begun to spare no effort to improve employee benefits.

For example, Google built a special bicycle track for employees; Facebook expanded maternity leave, and male employees also had a four-month vacation; Apple provided female employees with up to 20,000 US dollars for freezing eggs.

Microsoft has nothing to do except being rich, so in the face of competition for employee benefits of major Internet companies, Microsoft used its “money capability” to defeat the market dream rate of Silicon Valley technology companies.

In the final analysis, Microsoft’s improvement of employee benefits and corporate governance is the result of a combination of internal and external factors.

On the one hand, Microsoft’s traditional business is shackled by anti-monopoly gloves, and it is difficult to make breakthroughs, and it will be meaningless to continue to squeeze employees; at the same time, Microsoft’s new business growth points are in cloud computing, AR, games and other innovative fields to improve efficiency and development Creativity can increase productivity more than crowded tactics and overtime madness.

On the other hand, in the past ten years, traditional technology companies have encountered the impact of new Internet companies, and Microsoft needs to recruit talents through employee benefits; the problem of declining birthrate in developed markets such as Europe, America and Japan is serious, and there is no demographic dividend and engineer dividend, which objectively improves employees The bargaining chip in the game with the enterprise, because no one is available.

In addition, due to the harsh US “Labor Law” and “Employment Law” and other laws, large companies such as Microsoft are facing huge compensation in labor lawsuits. Countless human rights lawyers use labor disputes to seek sky-high labor compensation; the labor union system is deeply entrenched in the United States, and labor unions even provide free legal aid to laborers in order to obtain mediation fees from companies.

【4】

Both Silicon Valley companies and domestic companies are now inevitably falling into the disease of large companies:

The meaningless but endless meetings and PPT summaries, seemingly strict management but reducing the efficiency of the level of approval, the employees are working overtime on the surface, but under the pressure, people are overwhelmed by things, like to do things.

This disease is incurable, making the company bloated and difficult to adapt to market changes. Silicon Valley has invented various management tools such as KPI (Key Performance Indicators), OKR (Objectives and Key Results Method), agile development, garage planning, etc., but the results have been minimal.

Microsoft and IBM are also the same. When the scale reached a certain level, large company diseases occurred. Each department fought independently. The corporate politics obscured the voice of customers and the response was no longer agile. Compared with emerging companies, the gap is visible to the naked eye.

IBM’s solution is to lay off employees and abolish the business, control the company’s scale to a certain range, reduce the level, and make the business more flexible. Microsoft chose to face it directly. Around 2011, the current CEO Nadella started reforms from the technical level with the least resistance, and finally carried out a comprehensive reform of corporate culture and corporate governance.

The most successful part of Microsoft under Nadella was breaking down departmental barriers and breaking down small circles, but did not vote against the original departmental system.

According to Coase’s theory, when the organization is large enough, there is essentially an “enterprise boundary” between each department. This is a sociological phenomenon that actually exists, and it does not depend on human will.

Microsoft actually acquiesced in the establishment of departmental barriers and factions, because it is impossible to eliminate them. Even Bill Gates said, “The company has grown to a certain scale, and I have to relax this standard.”

Microsoft’s strategy is “the company serves employees to grow”: if an engineer wants to be cool, then create conditions to make him cool; find people by department is too cumbersome, then find people according to specific functions, and be responsible for their own business without having to be responsible for the department. The leader is responsible.

In fact, Microsoft did not use the traditional departmental hierarchical system. Instead, it empowered the employees at the bottom. On the contrary, the goal was easier to achieve and efficiency was improved at the company level.

For a startup company, employees are like a tension spring, and the company needs them to go all out to win the market; for a large company, if it treats employees as a spring like a startup company, it will not rebound if it is too full. Up.

For example, after the implementation of Microsoft Japan’s “four holidays and three holidays” system, Microsoft said its labor productivity has increased by 39.9% compared with last year. Between extending labor hours and improving production efficiency, Microsoft chose the latter.

From Microsoft’s experience, Microsoft employees under Ballmer did not work less overtime, but the company’s performance did not grow much; Microsoft employees under Nadella were very happy, but it did not prevent Microsoft’s market value from approaching two trillion US dollars.

Microsoft summarizes the experience of the corporate governance system into three:

First, improving employee welfare can promote productivity development, but not the other way around; especially in high-tech fields and creative industries, efficiency is more important than simply overtime;

Second, the disease of large companies cannot be eliminated, but it can be adapted;

Third, the level of corporate governance depends on the top level. Don’t expect the middle and bottom levels. They are not obligated to contribute to the company’s culture. The ultimate decision makers that determine whether employees work overtime are still the founders and the senior management team.

But it is undeniable that, to this day, there are still companies and even super large companies that have not realized this.

Recently, Amazon, which is known for its squeezing of employees, still seems to want to continue the employment system of the Rockefeller era 100 years ago. It was strongly resisted by its employees. 30,000 employees went on strike. Amazon in Europe even faced a shutdown.

In addition to Amazon’s e-commerce business, although Amazon’s cloud computing market share currently ranks first in the world, its share continues to decline, from 45% in April last year to 31% in March this year. Under pressure, Bezos announced that he would step down as CEO in the third quarter of this year.

In contrast, Microsoft, ranked second in cloud computing, has a market share that has increased from 7% to 20%, and new businesses such as AR and games have continued to grow. It has also been rated as one of the 25 companies with the highest employee happiness in the world.

Two companies created by different corporate governance cultures can have the last laugh. Let time prove it.

【Reference Materials】

1. “Bill Gates revealed that he was a workaholic in the early stage of his business, recording license plates and checking employee attendance” China News Weekly

2. “Amazon employees organize an online strike next week” Sina Technology

3. Chief Financial Observer of “How the United States Anti-monopoly”

4. “Microsoft’s official announcement is that the B game is exclusive to Xbox! PC players may become the biggest winners in the future” Tencent.com

5. “Gates said the tech executives who testified before Congress reminded him of his own experience: “I bless them”” Squawk Box

6. “Entrance Controversy: The History and Future of Browsers” Tiger Sniff

   ——END——

   Welcome to pay attention to 【Chinese Business Strategies】, learn about the heroes, and read the legends of the strategies.

   All rights reserved, unauthorized reprinting is prohibited!

   Some pictures come from the Internet

   If it involves infringement, please contact to delete

You can be the best technology company without working overtime.

By Xing Shubo

The employees are so “lazy” and Microsoft is so rich and can lead innovation. This is unreasonable!

【1】

In 2008, Zhang Yiming served as the manager of Kuxun, with 40 employees under his hand, which made him feel that he was in a management bottleneck. So he crossed mountains and rivers and became a Microsoft employee.

Zhang Yiming originally intended to learn the management of large companies, but chose to leave after only half a year. Speaking of his time at Microsoft, he used two words to describe it: boring.

“Half-day work, half-day reading, work without many challenges.” Zhang Yiming said.

It’s not just Zhang Yiming who thinks that Microsoft’s work is too easy and boring.

A friend once said, “The group that just joined Microsoft is too idle. Basically, the group leader rarely sees it. Every once in a while, he talks about skiing and other entertainment.”

Later, the friend transferred to another group because he thought the job was too idle and affected his personal career development. And the status of another busy working group is like this: 10 mornings and 5 nights every day, a seven-hour work day, and the highest local hourly wage.

▲The picture comes from the Internet

In the IT circle, Microsoft, Intel, and EMC are known as the “three major nursing homes”, where work is idle and employees are “lazy”.

In 2020, Microsoft Japan announced that the four-day shift will have three days off, and the collective start “Three Rest System” .This week, Microsoft’s LinkedIn announced that all employees are paid Take a week off, It is not a statutory holiday, nor is it to circumvent labor supervision, but just to be happy.

Microsoft also allows some employees to work freely at home on a regular basis, not more than 50% of the working time per week. If the manager approves, you can even work remotely permanently. Microsoft will pay for home office expenses for employees who work remotely permanently. It’s okay to work at home for a long time and want to go back to the office. Microsoft has temporary office space available at any time.

▲Microsoft’s hardware laboratory in Redmond, Washington, USA, allows working from home

However, the lazy Microsoft has created amazing performance.

Microsoft’s current market capitalization is US$1.93 trillion, which is equivalent to three Alibaba (US$661.8 billion) and five byte beats (US$400 billion). With another 5% rise, the technology giant may join Apple’s ranks and join the $2 trillion market capitalization club.

In fact, on February 11, 2020, Microsoft once surpassed Apple to become the world’s most valuable technology company.

Microsoft has the highest market share of traditional operating systems and office software, both at over 97%; its innovative business cloud computing, AR business and game business also continue to lead.

In terms of cloud computing, 95% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft’s Microsoft Azure intelligent cloud service.

In terms of AR, Microsoft received a $22 billion order at the beginning of this month. The IDC report shows that the scale of global AR market-related expenditures will reach a compound annual growth rate of 54% during the five-year forecast period from 2020 to 2024, exceeding US$70 billion.

In terms of games, Microsoft is also one of the world’s three major console game brands, and its Xbox console market share is close to one-third, reaching 26%; PC games are even the only one.

In March 2020, Microsoft acquired Zenimax Media, the parent company of the well-known gaming giant B. Company B has many world-renowned 3A masterpieces such as “The Elder Scrolls”, “Radiation”, and “Humiliation”, which have a huge influence in the game industry. The acquisition of Microsoft caused industry turmoil, and even attracted a joint review by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the European Union.

▲Microsoft exclusive game

This leads to a question: Why is Microsoft so lazy, so successful and competitive? Can still lead innovation?

【2】

Scolding employees for throwing their mobile phones and recording their license plates to prevent leaving early, Microsoft has not always been a “good man” in corporate governance.

In the early stage of entrepreneurship, Microsoft was not friendly to employees. Employees not only need high-intensity work, but also face the dilemma of being insulted by their personality anytime and anywhere; in the mid-term growth stage, Microsoft has encountered many antitrust investigations, failed to enter the Internet, and high performance pressure, which has caused its requirements for employees to become more severe; In the later stage of business transformation, in addition to shooting negative advertisements for competitors, Microsoft also smashed its employees’ mobile phones on the hot search list.

In an interview on BBC’s “Desert Island Records” program, Bill Gates admitted that in the early days of Microsoft’s founding, I am “very enthusiastic about work”, which is an unfortunate thing for my colleagues.

Microsoft was just established in 1975, and the company is still in its infancy, with only a few employees.

In order to improve efficiency, Bill Gates not only turned himself upside down day and night, lived in the company, did not change his clothes for a few weeks, but also imposed his almost crazy work habits on his employees. For a while, Bill Gates even relied on recording employee license plates to control employees’ working hours and prevent them from arriving late and leaving early.

“I know everyone’s license plate, so just look at the parking lot, you can know the employee’s commuting time.” Bill Gates said.

▲It is mentioned in the documentary “Decoding Bill Gates” that although he is very busy, he still has two major interests in his spare time: road racing and watching striptease.

Bill Gates is not a human being at work, but in his opinion, one of his clients is even more cruel and inhumane, even workaholics can’t stand it. That person was the famous Apple founder Jobs.

At that time, Apple 2 needed a set of office software. Bill Gates got up early to write the earliest Office software such as Word and Excel for him, but he was often urged by Jobs.

Gates’ evaluation of Jobs is “very enthusiastic about work” and “strictly demanding of me.”

When workaholics encounter people who work hard for their lives, especially when both of them are founders of technology companies, their employees suffer.

According to “Silicon Valley Legend”, Jobs had a grumpy attitude toward employees in the early days, and he also pitted some stocks of co-founder Woznick.

Bill Gates participates in the product review board, swearing for pleasure, and employees even use the number of times he says “fxxk” as a basis for evaluating whether his product design can pass smoothly.

Microsoft engineer Polski wrote about Bill Gates in his blog:

“He didn’t really want to review your design, he just wanted to make sure that you have control over it. According to his usual standards, he will ask harder and harder questions until you admit that you don’t know, and then he can scold you. Unprepared. If you can answer the hardest question he asked, what will happen next? No one really knows. Because no one has ever done this.”

Bill Gates scolds people equally, not only scolding employees, but also co-founder Steve Ballmer. In the multiple work emails exposed by the media, the dialogue between Bill Gates and Ballmer can be described as “violent speech.”

Under the influence of curse culture, especially after Ballmer took over as Microsoft CEO, he also became hysterical.

In Seattle in September 2009, it was dry and dry. Microsoft is experiencing failure to replace Windows Vista, Windows Mobile is suppressed by Google and Apple’s mobile operating systems, and even music players such as Zune cannot sell iPods. What’s more disturbing is that Microsoft, who is jealous of Apple’s iPhone, released two generations of multimedia mobile phones Kin1 and Kin2 within a year, and sold a total of exaggerated…500 units in the life cycle.

On September 14 of that year, Ballmer smashed an employee’s mobile phone at an internal Microsoft meeting.

At that time, Ballmer had just entered the venue, he was alive and kicking as before. But when he saw someone taking pictures with an iPhone, Ballmer rushed to grab the iPhone, laughed at it, and threw it on the ground, trampling it with his feet.

Ballmer has also thrown chairs at employees, and even yelled at Google because an executive switched to Google: “I want to bury Google CEO Eric Schmidt alive! I want to eliminate Google!”

The irritable culture has also continued into the professional habits of Microsoft employees, so that during the upgrade of Microsoft’s Windows 10 Dev Build 21313, the engineer wrote on the update page: “Configuring update, please don’t turn off the computer”.

Today, when Bill Gates has become a benevolent old man, he has begun to reflect on his relationship with employees:

“I must remind myself that my standards can no longer be used to require employees to work hard.”

【3】

The predecessors planted trees, and the descendants took the shade. Microsoft’s 50-year history, from the disaster of corporate governance to the current “professional pensioners”, is not so much that Microsoft actively chooses to seek benefits for employees, but it is actually forced.

According to the research of historian Thomas McGraw, 4227 American companies merged into 257 from 1897 to 1904. By 1904, about 318 trusts controlled two-fifths of the nation’s manufacturing assets. Since then, the United States has experienced three waves of anti-monopoly, and each anti-monopoly has promoted the improvement of employee welfare and the level of corporate governance, and at the same time promoted new technological progress.

In the first wave of anti-monopoly in 1890, the United States promulgated the “Sherman Antitrust Act.” A batch of trusts such as Rockefeller and the Morgan family were split up. New companies such as Ford and Chevrolet were able to develop at the time. “Wait for the implementation of the system.

In the second wave of antitrust in 1970, telecommunications giants such as IBM and AT&T were punished and almost split up. The two companies have respectively released monopoly technology to the market and corrected vicious competition and bundling sales. Open source technology has enabled companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard to develop. The telecommunications industry has been criticized for improving overtime and overwork. The flat management and flexible working system have spread with the development of Silicon Valley.

In 1998, the Dragon Knight Microsoft grew into a dragon and took advantage of the operating system’s monopoly to infiltrate the browser market. It was not until the release of Google’s Chrome browser in 2008 that the ten-year hegemony of IE browser was ended. It is precisely this decade that the early Internet advantages of the United States have been exhausted, Internet companies such as China, India, and South Korea have developed greatly, and Facebook and Amazon have begun to rise.

Microsoft, which has lost its monopoly advantage, found that the original method of squeezing employees to increase the scale of monopoly benefits is no longer applicable. Internet companies such as Facebook, which are relatively loosely managed, are scrambling for their own talents. The method is simple and rude: higher salary, lower working hours, more flexible employment system.

Silicon Valley has entered a virtuous circle in employee benefits: talents are limited, but business expansion is unlimited. In order to obtain talents, companies have begun to spare no effort to improve employee benefits.

For example, Google built a special bicycle track for employees; Facebook expanded maternity leave, and male employees also had a four-month vacation; Apple provided female employees with up to 20,000 US dollars for freezing eggs.

Microsoft has nothing to do with it except being rich, so in the face of competition for employee benefits of major Internet companies, Microsoft used its “money capability” to beat the market dream rate of Silicon Valley technology companies.

In the final analysis, Microsoft’s improvement of employee benefits and corporate governance is the result of a combination of internal and external factors.

On the one hand, Microsoft’s traditional business is shackled by anti-monopoly gloves, and it is difficult to make breakthroughs. It will be meaningless to continue to squeeze employees; at the same time, Microsoft’s new business growth points are in cloud computing, AR, games and other innovative fields to improve efficiency and development Creativity can increase productivity more than crowded tactics and overtime madness.

On the other hand, in the past ten years, traditional technology companies have encountered the impact of new Internet companies. Microsoft needs to use employee benefits to recruit talents; the problem of declining birthrates in developed markets such as Europe, America and Japan is serious, and there is no demographic dividend and engineer dividend, which objectively improves employees. The bargaining chip in the game with the enterprise, because no one is available.

In addition, due to the harsh US “Labor Law” and “Employment Law” and other laws, large companies such as Microsoft are facing huge compensation in labor lawsuits. Countless human rights lawyers use labor disputes to seek sky-high labor compensation; the labor union system is deeply entrenched in the United States, and labor unions even provide free legal aid to laborers in order to obtain mediation fees from companies.

【4】

Both Silicon Valley companies and domestic companies are now inevitably falling into the disease of large companies:

The meaningless but endless meetings and PPT summaries, seemingly strict management but reducing the efficiency of the level of approval, the employees are working overtime on the surface, but under the pressure, people are overwhelmed with things, likes to go back and forth.

This disease is incurable, making the company bloated and difficult to adapt to market changes. Silicon Valley has invented various management tools such as KPI (Key Performance Indicators), OKR (Objectives and Key Results Method), agile development, garage planning, etc., but the results have been minimal.

Microsoft and IBM are also the same. When the scale reached a certain level, large company diseases occurred. Each department fought independently. The corporate politics obscured the voice of customers and the response was no longer agile. Compared with emerging companies, the gap is visible to the naked eye.

IBM’s solution is to lay off employees and abolish the business, control the company’s scale to a certain range, reduce the level, and make the business more flexible. Microsoft chose to face it directly. Around 2011, the current CEO Nadella started reforms from the technical level with the least resistance, and finally carried out a comprehensive reform of corporate culture and corporate governance.

The most successful part of Microsoft under Nadella was breaking down departmental barriers and breaking down small circles, but did not vote against the original departmental system.

According to Coase’s theory, when the organization is large enough, there is essentially an “enterprise boundary” between each department. This is a sociological phenomenon that actually exists, and it does not depend on human will.

Microsoft actually acquiesced to the establishment of departmental barriers and factions, because it is impossible to eliminate them. Even Bill Gates said, “The company has grown to a certain scale, and I have to relax this standard.”

Microsoft’s strategy is “the company serves employees to grow”: if an engineer wants to be cool, then create conditions to make him cool; find people by department is too cumbersome, then find people according to specific functions, and be responsible for their own business without being responsible for the department. The leader is responsible.

In fact, Microsoft did not use the traditional departmental hierarchical system, but empowered the employees at the bottom. On the contrary, the goal is easier to achieve and efficiency is improved at the company level.

For a startup company, employees are like a tension spring, and the company needs them to go all out to win the market; for a large company, if it treats employees as a spring like a startup company, it will not rebound if it is too full. Up.

For example, after the implementation of Microsoft Japan’s “four holidays and three holidays” system, Microsoft said its labor productivity has increased by 39.9% compared with last year. Between extending labor hours and improving production efficiency, Microsoft chose the latter.

From Microsoft’s experience, Microsoft employees under Ballmer did not work less overtime, but the company’s performance did not grow much; Microsoft employees under Nadella were very happy, but it did not prevent Microsoft’s market value from approaching two trillion US dollars.

Microsoft summarizes the experience of the corporate governance system into three:

First, improving employee welfare can promote productivity development, but not the other way around; especially in high-tech fields and creative industries, efficiency is more important than simply overtime;

Second, the disease of large companies cannot be eliminated, but it can be adapted;

Third, the level of corporate governance depends on the top level. Don’t expect the middle and bottom levels. They are not obligated to contribute to the company’s culture. The ultimate decision makers who decide whether employees work overtime or not are still the founders and senior management team.

But it is undeniable that, to this day, there are still companies and even super large companies that have not realized this.

Recently, Amazon, which is known for its squeezing of employees, still seems to want to continue the employment system of the Rockefeller era 100 years ago. It was strongly resisted by its employees. 30,000 employees went on strike. Amazon in Europe even faced a shutdown.

In addition to Amazon’s e-commerce business, although Amazon’s cloud computing market share currently ranks first in the world, its share continues to decline, from 45% in April last year to 31% in March this year. Under pressure, Bezos announced that he would step down as CEO in the third quarter of this year.

In contrast, Microsoft, ranked second in cloud computing, has a market share that has increased from 7% to 20%, and new businesses such as AR and games have continued to grow. It has also been rated as one of the 25 companies with the highest employee happiness in the world.

Two companies created by different corporate governance cultures can have the last laugh. Let time prove it.

【Reference Materials】

1. “Bill Gates revealed that he was a workaholic in the early stage of his business, recording license plates and checking employee attendance” China News Weekly

2. “Amazon employees organize an online strike next week” Sina Technology

3. Chief Financial Observer of “How the United States Anti-monopoly”

4. “Microsoft’s official announcement is that the B game is exclusive to Xbox! PC players may become the biggest winners in the future” Tencent.com

5. “Gates said the tech executives who testified before Congress reminded him of his own experience: “I bless them”” Squawk Box

6. “Entrance Controversy: The History and Future of Browsers” Tiger Sniff

   ——END——

   Welcome to pay attention to 【Chinese Business Strategies】, learn about the heroes, and read the legends of the strategies.

   All rights reserved, unauthorized reprinting is prohibited!

   Some pictures come from the Internet

   If it involves infringement, please contact to delete

Abdullah Abdul-Gawad and the “tiny” excavator. Photo: BI

But what happened five days later is quite the opposite.

Ever Given – a container ship the size of a skyscraper was stranded on the banks of the canal on March 23. And Abdul-Gawad’s boss immediately called him to the scene.

“We need you to get in the car and come now because you are the only excavator driver nearby,” the leader told the 28-year-old male employee, who has been driving the excavator since college.

Abdul-Gawad vs “monster”

Liberating Ever Given was a combined effort, with winch, tugboat and excavator. But Abdul-Gawad was the one who really faced the problem. Once at the base of the ship, Abdul-Gawad had no choice but to start digging.

According to his estimates, the bow of Ever Given was stuck below about 6 meters of ground. The stern is also caught on the opposite shore. The ship blocked the Suez Canal, blocking all traffic.

The image of a tiny excavator facing a giant ship made many people laugh. But for Abdul-Gawad the situation is much less humorous. It is really dangerous.

The dreadful contrast between the size of the Ever Given ship and the size of Abdul-Gawad’s excavator. Photo: BI

Taking on the task of shoveling to release the bow, just a small mistake by Abdul-Gawad could cause the ship carrying tens of thousands of containers to collapse.

“I was afraid that the ship would be too tilted on one side or the other. If it leans on me, goodbye the excavator, goodbye Abdul-Gawad.

If you see the contrast between the size of the ship and the size of the excavator, you will find it very frightening. ”

Two other excavators were dispatched to the scene a few days later, but the drivers were too scared to do what Abdul-Gawad was doing. Instead, they were just sticking around clearing the rock that Abdul-Gawad dug.

21 hours / day

Wearing thin flip flops, Abdul-Gawad undertook digging for hours. When the tugs are active, Abdul-Gawad will receive a radio signal to temporarily retreat away.

“But you know, until I dig 5 or 6 meters, there’s still no movement.”

Photo: BI

When pictures of Abdul-Gawad’s excavator began to appear on the Internet, he said he felt as if “people were just making fun of me.”

“And that’s what made me more determined. I think, you’re making fun of me so I’ll prove I can do this. ”

Abdul-Gawad said that for several days, he and his colleagues were only allowed to rest at a barracks of border guards nearby.

“They know that if we go home, we won’t be back in about eight or nine hours,” he said.

Abdul-Gawad and his colleagues only slept about three hours a night. One day, only one hour of sleep.

Success

On March 25, a dedicated dredger – Mashhour – participated in the rescue effort Ever Given. Abdul-Gawad’s job at this time was to move soil, rock and sand from the bow of the ship to another place, while the Mashhour knocked silt off the canal.

This concerted effort – with the help of a high tide – brought hopeful signs the next day. And finally, the campaign was successful on March 29. The image of the Ever Given boat escaping made all the workers shout, and the tugboats honk to celebrate.

Abdul-Gawad said he and his colleagues were “half alive from exhaustion.”

“We were pushed to our limits,” said Abdul-Gawad. “But the moment we saw Ever Given off to sea, all fatigue seemed to vanish.”

Field survey officials. Photo: BI

Scary silence

The Suez Canal is a source of pride in Egypt, being called “Egypt’s Gift to the World” on billboards when it expanded in 2015.

President of Egypt – Abdel Fattah el-Sisi declared: “The Egyptians have ended the crisis of the ship stranded Ever Given despite all difficulties.”

But Abdul-Gawad said he hardly attended any of the celebrations. Apart from a small ceremony held by a newspaper, Abdul-Gawad received little or no official recognition for his role.

“I was invited to a ceremony, where they honor the people who took the ships out to sea.” But it is primarily intended for Suez Canal Authority employees, not including Abdul-Gawad because he works for a subcontractor.

Invitations were also sent to Abdul-Gawad at the last minute only. Because the celebration took place in a city four hours away by car. And Abdul-Gawad received an invitation an hour and a half earlier.

Abdul-Gawad said he felt deeply hurt.

“The Suez Canal Authority patted himself on the chest that they have done a great job. But in the end, without an excavator, the ship wouldn’t go anywhere. It can still get stuck. ”

Image of the jam seen from satellite. Photo: Maxar

In an interview on April 8, Abdul-Gawad said that he and his colleagues still have not received overtime pay, even though they work more than 21 hours a day.

However, Abdul-Gawad said he will look back on those extraordinary days with pride.

“This is an achievement,” he said. “At first it was an achievement for Egypt, but it was also an achievement for me. This event can only happen once in my life. Twice at most. It is something to be proud of.”

Spring rolls are usually made of ingredients such as vermicelli, minced meat, onions, carrots, wood ear fungus, shiitake mushrooms, eggs … Although according to preferences, spring rolls can be changed accordingly.

When mixing spring rolls, the amount of eggs should be just enough. Too few eggs will dry the kernels. Fried spring rolls are not crispy, the filling doesn’t have the necessary moisture content. Also too wet will make fried spring rolls easier to peel.

Make sure all ingredients are completely drained before mixing. Vermicelli should not be too big or too soft because it can easily cause fried rolls.

Spring rolls

When wrapping the spring rolls, you should not splash too much water on the spring roll because it makes the spring roll soft and easy to crack. Just put a little water on the edges to stick. You can also take 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar mixed with 1/2 cup of water to soften the rice cakes when wrapping and help make the spring roll more crispy, more beautiful when fried.

Do not roll too tightly because when frying the filling with vermicelli and the eggs inside hatch a little, the rice paper (rice paper) will be podium. Only moderate, may be a little loose.

Nem should be of moderate size, not too big or too small.

Put spring rolls in the refrigerator before frying

You should not put spring rolls just wrapped in the fry, but let them in the refrigerator cooler for about 20 minutes to make the rolls tight, dry. This is the secret to making fried spring rolls even more crispy.

Illustration.

Crispy fried spring rolls

Sisters often mix a bowl of dilute sugar water after spreading on the rolls of non-fried spring rolls. Sugar water will help spring rolls to be golden, crispy and delicious.

When frying wedge, do not add too little oil. Frying oil must be close to the surface of spring rolls. When the oil is boiling, you start to drop the rolls into the pan and lower the heat gradually. Should be fried in batches, do not fry pillows evenly to avoid forgetting which ones to fry first, the ones to fry later.

Add a few drops of lemon juice to the oil pan to keep the oil from splattering while frying and the seasoning will also be crunchier.

When preparing to take out the spring rolls, let the heat rise up. This is a way to prevent the oil from sticking to the spring rolls. Take the spring rolls out of the pan quickly.

You can put a blister on the top of the frying pan to drain the rolls, then put them in a basket lined with clean paper and cover it. When eating, open the wrapping and take out spring rolls. This way, you will keep the spring rolls crispy.