novelhk Chapter 143 Recruitment
Chapter 143 Recruitment
Jing Yan thought this arrangement was reasonable and looked at He Zhijun: "Should we post job advertisements? Or you can ask your colleagues if they have any family members who are idle at home. As long as they are clean and hardworking, our job is simple and easy to learn."
He Zhijun pondered for a moment: "I'll go ask tomorrow. If we're hiring employees, the maximum trial period is three days. After that, we need to sign a contract. You can go to the Industry and Commerce Bureau tomorrow to inquire about the relevant regulations. If there's a contract template, it's best to get a copy. Since we're doing this, we should try our best to be legal and compliant."
Also, our shop only has a business license, a health permit, and a tax registration certificate. While you're at it, ask if there are any other certificates that need to be replaced. I think it's best if everyone has a health certificate or something, just in case someone causes trouble later. It doesn't cost much anyway, so it's better to have it properly obtained.”
Jing Yan nodded, indicating that she understood.
He Zhijun then changed the subject and brought up the iron skewers: "I went to the steelmaking workshop director today to ask about our iron skewers. He's relatively free right now, so he asked me to bring one of our iron skewers tomorrow as a sample. He'll make a mold for us first. The specific cost will be calculated for us at the last minute, but he requires a deposit first, with any overpayment refunded and any underpayment collected."
Jingyan was delighted: "How much is the deposit?"
“One thousand yuan,” He Zhijun replied.
Jing Yan paused for a moment, then nodded: "Of course, I'll find the passbook tonight and withdraw the money tomorrow to deliver it to your workplace."
He Zhijun shook his head: "A thousand yuan is not a small amount. I'm worried about the journey back from the island after withdrawing the money. I've taken a day off tomorrow. I'll go to the bank and transfer the money to the Postal Savings Bank on the island. It will be more convenient for us to deposit and withdraw money here in the future. You can come with me. The account name will be yours."
Jing Yan had no objection to this, "Okay, I'll listen to you."
Now that everything had been discussed, the family closed and locked the shop doors and windows. He Zhijun carried An'an, Jingyan carried Zhizhi, Sister Wang held He Chaoli's hand, and Grandma followed behind them, all exhausted, and they went home.
Looking at the deserted house, Jingyan couldn't help but say, "How about we hire five people? We can replace Grandma and Sister Wang at the shop, and you can stay home to take care of the children and manage the household chores. We can't all be stuck in the shop; the house is practically abandoned."
Sister Wang looked at her grandmother, who rubbed her aching back and nodded in agreement: "If we can find an honest and reliable person, we'll come back. If we can't find someone suitable right away, we'll help out for a while longer. We can't let you shoulder everything alone."
Jingyan naturally accepted her family's kindness. The next morning, she went to the dock first to bring the meat back, and then prepared the spices and handed them to Sister Wang: "Sister Wang, our shop can open a little later today. You can pick out the braised meat first, and then braise today's meat and bones."
"The rest can wait, we can take our time. Actually, if we didn't have so much braised meat, I'd close the shop for the whole day. As long as we can make it tonight, it's fine. If there's any left over, we can keep it for ourselves."
Sister Wang agreed, and after the family had breakfast, she urged the couple to hurry up and get things done. Jingyan carried a basket on her back and followed He Zhijun to the dock to leave the island. When they arrived in Haishi, the bank had just opened.
He Zhijun took his passbook to the bank window to inquire about transferring money. There weren't many people doing business at the bank at the moment. The bank staff saw that he was dressed well and had a decent demeanor, so they were quite friendly.
Jing Yan stood in a corner of the hall waiting for He Zhijun. After about an hour, He Zhijun returned with a transfer slip and handed it to Jing Yan: "We'll take this to the post office bank on the island to open an account. The money from this transfer slip can be deposited directly into your account. Keep it safe."
Jingyan looked around and shook her head: "Keep it for now. I'm afraid I'll lose this piece of paper. Let's go find out what permits or licenses our shop is missing, and then go to Yanjia Village. I want to buy some eggs from Auntie's to add to the braised pork noodles later. Our chickens need to be raised for a while before they can lay eggs, and besides, we don't have enough."
He Zhijun put away the deposit slip, nodded, and followed her out onto the bus. When they arrived at the Industry and Commerce Bureau, He Zhijun found out the office of the section chief in charge of the market. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he explained his purpose. The Market Administration Bureau was newly established, and nowadays, almost no private shop owners paid attention to these so-called procedures, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that this office was deserted.
It's rare to encounter a private shop owner who knows a little about the law and is willing to abide by it. The section chief was exceptionally kind, carefully inquiring about the main business and what permits had been obtained. I couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
"Your paperwork is relatively complete. Most private business owners don't have health permits or tax registration certificates these days. If you want all your documents to be complete, I suggest that all your employees get health certificates."
It doesn't cost much. You just need to go to the hospital for a medical check-up, clearly state that you're in the food service industry, and include the shop's location and name. After the hospital check-up, the certificate is issued by the health bureau, and it should take at most two weeks to process.
When you display these people's health certificates in a prominent place in the store, you won't be bothered by subsequent hygiene inspections. Although they're not strictly enforcing this now, it will be taken seriously sooner or later. By the way, health certificates need to be renewed every year. Don't let them expire and cause other problems if you don't renew them on time.
Jing Yan quickly pulled out paper and pen from her pocket and began to write: "After we go to the hospital for a physical examination, do we take the examination report to the health bureau?"
The head of the marketing department nodded: "Indeed, one of you can go and take everyone's medical examination reports to process it; not everyone needs to go."
After thanking him, He Zhijun and Jing Yan left. This time, they headed straight for Yanjiacun. When they arrived at the old lady's house, they found that there were many more chickens in her yard than in previous years. It seemed that the chicken business was really good.
After greeting the old lady, Jingyan politely said that she wanted to buy more eggs. The old lady was naturally happy to hear this and quickly took her daughter-in-law to check how many eggs she had that could be sold. She kept the fertilized eggs separately and did not mix them with the eggs for consumption.
After finding out the details, he came over to Jingyan and said with a smile, "Girl, my family only has about 230 eggs to sell right now. If you buy a lot, how about I sell them to you for six cents each?"
Jingyan knew that eggs without ration coupons currently cost seven cents each in the market, but since she was buying them door-to-door, she should offer a discount. However, she figured even a further discount wouldn't be acceptable, and eggs were selling easily these days, so she nodded in agreement.
Two hundred eggs isn't a lot, but it's quite heavy. They can't all be put in one basket, or they'll crush the bottom one. Jingyan was a little worried. She turned her head and saw the old lady's daughter-in-law sifting soybeans in the yard with a sieve. Her eyes lit up, and she pointed to the soybeans in the yard and asked, "Auntie, these are last year's soybeans. What are they for?"
The old woman looked back and said, "Oh, you mean soybeans? We planted them on our reclaimed land last year. But they're not worth much. They're only seven or eight cents a pound on the market. If you want them, five cents a pound will do. That's the price they'll get from outside."
Jing Yan happily agreed, put the basket on the ground, weighed fifty jin of soybeans, poured a layer of soybeans into the basket, then added a layer of eggs, and then added more soybeans. She continued to fill the basket with eggs layer by layer. After paying the bill, He Zhijun took the basket and carried it on his back, and the two of them were about to leave.
But the old woman stopped her: "Young lady, do you only want these eggs this time, or do you want to keep buying them?"
Jing Yan turned around and said, "I opened a shop on Changxing Island, selling some food, so I'll be using these eggs all the time. But I don't know how many I'll use every day. Do you have any ideas, Auntie?"
The old lady smiled a little embarrassedly: "My family lays about forty or fifty eggs a day. Now that fewer people want chicks, I don't need to prepare too many fertilized eggs."
I think the income from eggs should be quite good. If you're sure you need them regularly, my family can deliver them to the dock here in three or four days, saving you the trouble of coming to collect them yourself.
Jingyan thought about it and felt it wasn't a big problem, so she nodded: "How about this, I'll take this batch back and try selling it for a few days to confirm the approximate quantity. Then I'll come back to place the order with you. If our demand is large, you can also buy some from the village. This way, it'll save me trouble, and you can earn a little less, right?"
The old woman was very satisfied and personally escorted the couple to the door. She insisted on helping them find an oxcart to take them to the city to catch a bus. Jingyan gladly accepted her kindness; who would want to walk when there's a car to ride in?
We made it back to the store without any problems. We picked the eggs out of the soybean basket one by one, and surprisingly, not a single one was broken. This was much better value than using straw husks.
Sister Wang looked at the half-basket of soybeans with some worry: "Although we make some noodle soup every day and need some soybeans, we don't need this many, do we? What are we going to do with the rest?"
Jingyan didn't seem to mind: "Whenever we want to eat tofu, we can exchange it for soybeans. I remember one pound of soybeans can be exchanged for a large block of tofu."
Otherwise, we could get a stone mill and put it in the yard. When we have time, we can grind soybeans to make our own soy milk. The leftover soybean pulp can be steamed and used to make soybean pulp and flour pancakes or to feed the chickens. With enough food, we won't have to worry about not being able to finish it all.
Sister Wang thought it was a good idea and nodded with a smile as she put the soybeans away. When He Zhijun arrived at the shop, he first found a large sheet of red paper, wrote a job advertisement, and then posted it on the outer wall of the gate.
After lunch, He Zhijun and his wife went to the Postal Savings Bank to open new savings accounts. When they returned, they found that people had already come to inquire about job openings. Most of the people who came were unemployed young men at home.
In this era, girls can do everything. They are practically all-rounders, doing housework, cooking, and laundry. So even when they are at home, they are never idle. On the other hand, boys who don't have jobs or land to farm are just freeloaders at home. So when they finally get a job, the news comes quickly.
Jingyan currently only wants to find a waiter who is male; she doesn't care about other jobs, even if they aren't for women, she'll accept women. But there are really... no people coming.
The waiter was quickly chosen; he was a handsome and refined young man who was pleasing to the eye just by standing there. Jing Yan took a liking to him at first glance. After asking him a couple of questions, she noticed that his voice was clear and pleasant, and his reaction speed was also very fast.
Now that the person has been chosen, the salary also needs to be set. Twenty-five yuan a month isn't a lot at this time, but it's not a small amount either. In addition, Jingyan promised a red envelope and holiday gifts at the end of the year, so the new boy named Dou Zhixiao was very satisfied.
The trial period is three days. I started work this afternoon. After that, I need to come in every morning at 10 o'clock to help with some odd jobs. When there are customers, I will run errands. When there are no customers, there are other jobs to do. I have already been paid, so I should get more than my fair share.
But after that, they didn't meet any women who met their expectations. If they couldn't find four women for the time being, they would need at least three to make do. The shop started getting busy around 4 p.m., and everyone was working like crazy. However, with He Zhijun and Xiao Dou joining them today, they weren't as tired as before.
After finishing their work, they hung up the "Closed" sign and everyone sat around a table in the lobby to start their dinner. Each person had a braised pork rib. Today, Sister Wang was in good spirits and even picked some greens from the yard to stir-fry. They also had a bowl of braised pork noodles. Mmm, it was a really delicious meal.
Dou Zhixiao was very satisfied with his first employee meal. At home, eating meat once a week was a luxury, let alone gnawing on a bone. He felt that he would be willing to stay here for a long time just for the food.
After cleaning up the kitchen, He Zhijun went to work the next day, and Jing Yan and the others arrived at the shop early as well. They had also braised forty eggs on the way to the braised meat that day; they threw them into the pot and quickly disappeared into the broth.
After the preparations were almost complete and the shop door was opened, people started coming in to ask about hiring. After the boys were hired yesterday, He Zhijun added a note to the notice that only three to four female workers would be hired, so no boys came in to inquire today.
There were quite a few young women and married women coming in and out throughout the morning. It was the first time that Xiao Dou had observed the recruitment process. He couldn't help but think that without some skills, one really couldn't be competent for the position of a staff member in this store.
The noodle-making team requires the entire process, from kneading the dough to rolling out the noodles, to be completed independently, with consistent taste each time. This demands high culinary skills. The preparation of braised pork, ribs, and lamb also requires assessment based on Jingyan's requirements.
As for washing the dishes, it's quite simple and doesn't require any special skills, but you need to have enough strength in your hands, otherwise even metal skewers aren't so easy to clean. And then there are the noodle bowls and such, which aren't easy either.
After a lot of fuss, they finally managed to gather three people. However, the age gap between these three, ranging from an older woman to a young girl, was quite large. Fortunately, Jingyan didn't care about that and only focused on her skills.