Seeing Yu Xiaxing angry, Director Gao didn’t dare continue.
Could it be that their board director was a tyrant at heart, unable to tolerate any dissent?
Just as the two of them were feeling uneasy, Yu Xiaxing said to Lu Yanzhao, “I’ve told you repeatedly not to work overtime. When the workday ends, you leave. If you can’t finish something, continue the next day. Why were you still working overtime last night? And why did you make the teachers work overtime with you?”
Lu Yanzhao: “…Huh?”
You were being so serious just to say that?
He breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly apologized. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
Director Gao quickly backed him up. “Board Director Yu, they weren’t really working overtime. The teachers were just using evening study period to discuss things together.”
Yu Xiaxing said sternly, “I forbid you from teaching classes during evening study period. The first reason is to give the students time to digest everything they learned that day.”
“The second is to let the teachers grade papers and prepare the next day’s lessons, improving teaching efficiency.”
“You’re making the teachers sacrifice their evening study period. Won’t they have to stay up late preparing lessons when they get home?”
“What if the teachers are exhausted during class the next day?”
Lu Yanzhao and Director Gao both froze.
Then… what were they supposed to do?
Yu Xiaxing leaned back in her chair and said angrily, “Compensatory leave or overtime pay. Choose one!”
Lu Yanzhao: “…”
He had thought he was really about to be punished. He never expected the board director’s cold expression to be followed by benefits.
He said quietly, “I’m sorry, Board Director. I didn’t think it through.”
Yu Xiaxing frowned. “You didn’t fail to think it through. You’ve worked yourself into a frenzy.”
Lu Yanzhao felt a little moved, but also a little amused. He immediately admitted, “It was my fault.”
However, Director Gao’s expression beside them was not nearly as pleasant.
Organizing the arts exam preparation class had originally been a temporary assignment.
If they didn’t put some pressure on the teachers, how could they possibly finish a temporary assignment in time? What was wrong with working overtime?
Once they started paying overtime, where would it end?
If everyone demanded overtime pay or compensatory leave every time they attended a meeting or wrote an extra report, how was the school supposed to manage?
A smile spread across Director Gao’s face as she advised gently, “Board Director Yu, your intentions are certainly good. However, schoolwork is special by nature. Many tasks can’t be neatly divided by working hours.”
“The teachers are doing this for the students. The arts exam preparation class has to be established, and it’s understandable for everyone to put in a little extra effort during the early stages.”
“If you insist on calculating everything so precisely every time, the teachers may instead feel that the school is too rigid. It won’t be good for team cohesion either.”
Yu Xiaxing glanced at her. “Did you participate in the discussion last night too?”
The smile on Director Gao’s face stiffened.
She was responsible for relaying information between the principal and the teachers, as well as managing student discipline.
She wasn’t responsible for teaching students, so of course she hadn’t attended a meeting about arranging student courses.
Director Gao explained, “I’m generally in charge of administrative work. I don’t participate in that kind of thing…”
Yu Xiaxing understood.
A workplace exploiter, was she?
She made her subordinates work overtime to put together a proposal, then happily took their work to the leadership the next day to claim credit and show off her leadership.
Now that the boss wanted to give her subordinates benefits, she was opposing it.
Because she couldn’t get anything out of it herself, she couldn’t stand to see anyone else receive anything.
Yu Xiaxing leaned back against the chair and said blandly, “All right. I respect your dedication to work. If you think overtime pay and compensatory leave are too petty, then from now on, whenever you work overtime, you won’t receive overtime pay or compensatory leave. Everyone else will still get theirs.”
Director Gao’s expression turned ugly. “Board Director Yu, how can those be the same? I’m in an administrative position, while the teachers are in teaching positions. The nature of our work is different!”
Director Gao and Principal Wang shared one belief: teachers were supposed to work like silkworms until their death and burn like candles until nothing remained.
Teachers were supposed to burn themselves out through overtime for the sake of the noble cause of education.
But people like department directors and principals didn’t have to burn themselves out like that.
Lu Yanzhao spoke up as well. “Director Gao, there were seven teachers involved in last night’s discussion. Five of them had consecutive classes this morning, and one is a homeroom teacher who was already in class at seven twenty. They’re really exhausted, so could you… be a little kinder?”
Director Gao’s expression darkened.
And now she was being told to be kind? They were actually resorting to moral blackmail!
Cornered by the two of them from either side, she felt a surge of anger.
She had worked at Shengde for so many years. She knew better than anyone how to keep teachers under control.
Young teachers wanted awards, professional titles, performance bonuses, and allowances… Who would actually dare argue with the school over half an hour or an hour of overtime?
When she made them work extra hours, they were even happy about it!
But now Yu Xiaxing had arrived, and the first things out of her mouth were compensatory leave, overtime pay, and boundaries between work and personal time.
She was taking away the authority Director Gao and the principal held!
If these teachers really started following Yu Xiaxing’s example and used “Board Director Yu forbids overtime” to push back against her whenever they felt like it, how was she supposed to help Principal Wang manage them in the future?
Suppressing her anger, Director Gao still tried to reason with her. “Board Director Yu, I’m only saying this for your own good. Do you realize how much this will increase operating costs?”
Yu Xiaxing forcefully held back her delighted smile.
High costs were the entire point of her competition.
She declared righteously, “I don’t want to save this money. I want to create a high-end school. If Shengde can’t even afford to pay its teachers overtime, what right does it have to call itself a high-end private school?”
“…” Director Gao was speechless.
Fine. She would personally go and talk to those teachers later about the choice between overtime pay and compensatory leave.
She would tell them that she had fought desperately to secure those benefits for them.
At the very least, she could still earn their gratitude.
But in the next second, Yu Xiaxing suddenly instructed Lu Yanzhao, “You know exactly what work those teachers did today, so it seems you have a good relationship with them. That means you’ll handle the matter of overtime pay or compensatory leave. Let them choose for themselves. The director is not allowed to choose for them, and the grade group isn’t allowed to sign on their behalf.”
Lu Yanzhao nodded. “I’ll confirm it with each of them individually.”
Director Gao was stunned. Didn’t that mean she had lost her chance to win the teachers’ gratitude by taking credit for the benefit?
She hurriedly said, “Board Director Yu, wouldn’t that be too cumbersome? The teachers actually won’t…”
Yu Xiaxing cut her off. “And you know what they’re thinking? Why don’t you teach their classes for them too?”
Director Gao: “…”
She fell silent, but inside, she was already gnashing her teeth in hatred.
Yu Xiaxing—a foolish rich girl. Did she really think a school could be run through lenient management?
Schools were even more complicated than ordinary companies!
Their actual operation depended on a hierarchy, with pressure passed down layer by layer!
By raising the teachers’ expectations now, she was only ensuring that they would demand more and more in the future!
Yu Xiaxing noticed that Director Gao’s expression looked terrible.
Yes!
After the smoking ban incident, Principal Wang’s fighting strength had clearly been crippled.
Now she just needed to establish a new capable enemy for herself: Director Gao!
If Director Gao held a grudge against her over what happened today, wouldn’t she stir up trouble between the principal and the teachers every day from now on?
That was exactly the effect Yu Xiaxing wanted!
Yu Xiaxing easily kept her smile under control.
She glanced at the arts exam preparation class proposal in her hand and asked, “All right, let’s continue discussing the arts exam preparation class. Weren’t you about to start picking holes in it?”
