Volume 3: My days in a college fraternity Chapter 98 The World Needs Social Workers Like You
Tommy Hawke stood in front of the dressing mirror, carefully adjusting his golden hair, trying to make it look sharper, and asked his girlfriend Renee who was waiting beside him, "How do I look now?"
"Charming?" Renee stared at Tommy's face for a few seconds before she told him how she felt.
Tommy thought for a moment, took off his T-shirt, put on a floral shirt, and unbuttoned the top two buttons: "Now what?"
"Like local men from Texas or California, a little unruly, but doesn't care?" Renee finally realized what Tommy was doing and spoke up.
After getting his girlfriend's answer, Tommy nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, let's go."
This weekend, Symantec's number one employee, the shame of SSD, James Dunn helped Tommy Hawke make an appointment with Ian Nott, the human resources manager of his company. It was not formal, just a relaxing weekend party.
Since it was the weekend, the three men of course brought their girlfriends. They first went to a restaurant to eat together, and then went to the mall to shop. The three men became followers, and it was not until they arrived at the go-kart track and the three women excitedly had a racing competition that they finally got a chance to rest.
In the leisure area of Silicon Valley Karting Field, three men watched their girlfriends screaming and driving karts past them at high speed on the track not far away. They raised their drinks and cheered for each other loudly. After the three women chased each other and walked away, the men immediately slumped in their seats, not wanting to talk.
Ian Nott is 32 years old this year. Like the 35-year-old Symantec founder Gary Hendriggs, he is from Texas and graduated from the University of Texas. During college, they both joined the same fraternity.
"Tommy, I wasn't such a lazy guy like you when I was in college." Ian Nott saw Tommy's world-weary expression and laughed, "Especially with a beautiful girlfriend like this. It turns out that only after the age of 30 will you become as perfunctory as me. Of course, James can't be counted. That guy has a unique XP. His girlfriend is not as attractive to him as Flaky in the company. Every time I see James looking at Flaky, I feel terrified, as if he can take off his pants and pounce on him at any time."
Flakey is an artificial intelligence robot project that Symantec initiated and developed after receiving a large investment from the US National Fund.
Although Symantec was founded only a year ago, it is definitely not a small startup. After all, no small startup can get an eight-digit investment without any products.
Symantec was able to obtain an investment of tens of millions of dollars to start a business in Silicon Valley thanks to the connections of its founder Gary Hendriggs. His doctoral supervisor was hired as the chief scientist of a computer artificial intelligence project at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
In the United States, everything is business, and DARPA allocates only two million dollars a year to such projects, citing the country's lack of funds.
But if a private company develops a similar project, it can get a lot of investment from the state and the military. The reason is naturally to keep the technology in their own hands. Another point is that it is also convenient for officials to make wealth in such a company.
Gary Hendriggs founded Symantec in this way. His mentor, some people from DARPA, and some people from the national fund held shares in this company in various ways. DARPA's research and development was almost stagnant, but Symantec's progress was able to move forward at a steady pace. When the development reached certain key points, the country would continue to provide money to support Symantec. The final outcome was that DARPA's artificial intelligence project was canceled, and the US government had to pay a high price to purchase Symantec's products.
The above operations are no secret in this land. In Silicon Valley, as long as you see that a new company was not founded in a garage, but directly rented an expensive office building, recruited a large number of people, and purchased a large computer group, then it is basically certain that the new company should be similar to Symantec. It either has high-ranking officials as shareholders or has received state investment. In other words, it is not a nerdy technology startup, but a real businessman's method.
Tommy took a sip of juice and looked at Ian and James next to him: "I thought of a joke. A reporter interviewed a man and said to him, Sir, can I do a random interview for you? Who would you like to spend a pleasant weekend with? A, your wife, B... Before the reporter could finish, the man immediately shouted: BBBBBB!"
Ian and James both laughed and nodded. "Yes, that's right, we should choose B! That's definitely a wise choice."
After laughing, Ian reached out and patted Tommy, then said, "James said that you and your girlfriend are doing some social activities at Stanford to help women find jobs, and he hopes that I can help arrange some jobs for them. Boy, for the sake of this joke, you can talk to me."
"That's right. James said that Symantec now has nearly 40 clerks in the administrative and secretarial departments, not counting the assistants in other departments. I would like to ask Mr. Nott to give those women a chance. Those women are definitely more hardworking than everyone else in your company right now. They all cherish their jobs, and their efficiency is higher than the clerks you hired at a high price, but they only need two-thirds of their compensation." Tommy heard Ian Nott talking about this, looked at him, put away his smile, and said seriously:
"Most of those women only have high school education. They have never been to college, don't know what a college job fair is, and don't know about the various company benefits that other college students have already figured out during campus recruitment. They are as pure as blank sheets of paper, but they can do those ordinary jobs that we previously thought only college students could do, such as entering documents, forms, preparing speeches, printing reports, making coffee for you, etc. Now in your department, there is an administrative specialist who only knows how to open the computer and enter the attendance sheet. Most of the time, her job is just to make coffee for you, Mr. Nott. How much does Symantec have to pay her?"
"300 weekly salary." Ethan Knott took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth and lit it.
Tommy said confidently, "The woman I recommend only costs $220, and she will do whatever she wants even if you give her a job that doesn't belong to her, because she doesn't know how much work she should be responsible for. She only knows how to do everything the company assigns her to do."
Ethan Nott narrowed his eyes slightly and said to Tommy Hawke with a smile, "If you promote women's employment in this way, Tommy, no company will refuse. One person can save $80 in salary expenses, and forty people can save $3,200 a week, which is $150,000 a year. This data is more tempting . I will think about it and then talk to Gary."
"Oh, I forgot one thing. The saved 150,000 can still be counted on them. This is what I meant by a blank sheet of paper, Mr. Nott." Tommy saw that Ethan did not promise on the spot, and as if he suddenly remembered the missing point, he spoke to him.
Ethan looked into Tommy's deep eyes, and finally stretched out his hand to him, saying seriously, "When can I see those ladies who are eager to find jobs? Symantec has always believed that women are the greatest existence in the world, and we should lend a helping hand to them as soon as possible . Tommy, the world needs social workers like you, the more the better."
"You can now conduct an internal assessment and decide whether some people should stay or leave. We will have ten women in the first batch." Tommy and Ethan shook hands together. "Thank you for your help in women's employment. I think the Stanford Women's Equality Promotion Association will be willing to give Symantec a certificate of appreciation."
Ethan said earnestly: "Symantec is honored to make a small contribution to women's employment."
