Chapter 213 - 125: Counterbalance
"Mm." Gao Xiangyang was a man of few words.
"My son just graduated from vocational high school this year..."
Gao Xiangyang paused the unloading, then picked up his walkie-talkie. "The saplings are up. Get someone to unload them."
"Ksshh... Copy that!" a voice crackled back from the walkie-talkie.
Only then did Gao Xiangyang turn to Old Wu, his expression perfectly calm. "Your son wants to work at the farm?"
"He does," Old Wu said, wiping his hands and pulling out a pack of Huazi cigarettes to offer him. "Forestry Director Gao, could you help me out?"
"No need for the cigarettes. Your son is still young. Can he handle the hardship of farm work?" Gao Xiangyang had also gone to a vocational high school. After years of struggling and knocking around, he had come to terms with reality and obediently chosen to work on the farm.
"Well... I’ll supervise him," Old Wu promised.
However, Gao Xiangyang shook his head. "The farm is company property. According to the company’s hiring principles, young people are not kept in the local area. If he wants to join, after training, he’ll either be sent to the Gannan Branch or the Qiongzhou Branch."
"He can’t stay here locally?"
Gao Xiangyang explained, "That’s right. After training, young people are suited to go to farms in other regions to become team leaders or agricultural technicians. You should be well aware of the pay for a team leader."
Old Wu was indeed aware. The team leaders at their farm all had a base salary of 4,500. He thought for a moment. "So, should I have the kid go apply at the company when I get back?"
Gao Xiangyang reminded him, "You should talk it over with your son first. After all, young people’s minds are fickle. If he’s not willing, don’t force him."
This was another one of Jiang Miao’s devious tactics: intentionally designing jobs that separated employees from their families to test the applicants’ determination. It was a disguised obedience test.
If someone was unwilling to work in another region, it simply meant they lacked determination. They were only applying to find a dead-end job close to home where they could coast by.
If they were willing to work elsewhere, it showed they had the drive to succeed. Such people were worth cultivating and could be groomed as future core members of the company.
At the same time, this method provided a legitimate reason to refuse requests for favors from local employees, preventing them from trying to arrange jobs on the farm for the young people in their families.
After all, for any enterprise, if a department has a large number of employees with nepotistic ties, it can easily lead to them covering for one another or even enriching themselves at the company’s expense.
These local hires in their thirties and forties were only part of the initial emergency recruitment, which was why they were allowed to work locally. For future hires, the company would gradually adopt a policy of assigning them to different villages and towns, integrating the workforce.
Furthermore, Jiang Miao had already notified his brother-in-law, telling him to recruit 500 young people in the Gannan Region and bring them back to the Shanmei farm to serve as team leaders.
After all, for a Durian Plantation of over 50,000 mu, one team of 11 people was needed for every 100 mu. This meant a total workforce of over 5,000 people was required.
It was absolutely necessary to bring in workers from other regions to serve as a counterbalance to the local employees.
In reality, Gongping Town itself didn’t have that large of a labor pool. According to information from the town government, Gongping Town’s resident population in 2024 was about 110,000. Considering that Gongping Town is an area with a significant labor outflow, the proportion of the working-age population was only about 50%, or 55,000 people.
From this working-age population of 55,000, one had to exclude civil servants, teachers, small business owners, and pregnant women. After further excluding unsuitable individuals—such as the frail and sickly, the pampered and spoiled, those with a bad track record, and the gluttonous and lazy—at the very most, only about 30,000 people remained.
Recruiting 5,000 farm workers from a pool of 30,000 was clearly impossible.
After all, many already had steady jobs or ran their own family farms, and not everyone could endure the intensity of farm work.
Therefore, bringing in labor from other regions was the only viable choice.
To the side, Old Wu stuffed the Huazi cigarettes into Gao Xiangyang’s hand. "Please, Forestry Director Gao, don’t refuse."
"Don’t do this next time."
After hearing Gao Xiangyang’s advice, Old Wu felt he should indeed ask his son for his thoughts first. After all, many young people nowadays couldn’t handle hardship.
Although he felt that farm work was quite good—for middle-aged and older people like them who had spent their lives in the countryside, the labor intensity was already relatively low.
For example, when moving things, they mostly used three-wheeled carts and cable lifts. When they were young, they had to go into the mountains to cut firewood and could only carry it out on their shoulders with a pole.
Old Wu had just returned to his three-wheeled cart and was about to move a sapling.
Another middle-aged man from the same village leaned in and asked in a low voice, "Brother Shui, what did Team Leader Gao say?"
The two of them lifted a sapling together, placed it on the external rack of the cable lift, and then used a specialized fastening strap to secure it tightly.
As they worked, Old Wu replied in a low voice, "The company is indeed hiring, but young people have to go work in another region. As for us middle-aged folk, we can stay locally, but not in our own village."
"Looks like there’s no chance for my daughter, then."
Old Wu picked up another sapling. "Your daughter only graduated from junior high and is spoiled rotten. She definitely can’t handle farm work. The company’s office positions require a college diploma or a bachelor’s degree. You’d better find someone for her to marry soon! She’s already twenty-eight. In a few more years, it’ll be even harder for her to find a husband."
"I’ve been trying to introduce guys to her, but she looks down on all of them."
Suddenly, a thought struck Old Wu. "The team leaders on our company’s farm are all pretty decent. You could take this opportunity to try and set them up."
"Them? You think they’d be interested in that little money-pit of mine?"
"Just give it a try!"
The two men continued to chat as they moved the supplies.