Nanlin’s Anti-epidemic Notes: Returning to work is not easy, and making decisions is even harder!

Oops, this will be a worldwide disaster

"Yesterday, Wuhan reported more than 160 confirmed cases." An engineer from Hubei who was preparing to return to his hometown early to celebrate the New Year said this when asking for leave from the chairman.

"Oh no! A new coronavirus! It could be worse than SARS!" This veteran who had experienced the SARS in 2003 was vaguely aware of the seriousness of the problem. This could be a global disaster. "Refund your ticket. It's better not to go back!"

"Today is January 20th. Wuhan just finished a banquet with more than 100,000 people. Suddenly, more than 160 confirmed cases of virus infection were reported. This is a bad signal." The chairman said to himself.

"I'll think about whether to refund the ticket," the engineer replied. After all, he had gone to great lengths to get the ticket.

That evening, the chairman sent a special reminder during the Spring Festival in the company group:

1. Try to go out as little as possible during the Spring Festival this year. The country may introduce measures to "restrict entry and exit from epidemic areas" at any time, which is like "drawing a line to imprison". This was used during the SARS period in 2003. Business travelers went to Guangzhou and were not allowed to return after a delay. Even if they came back, they had to be quarantined on the spot for 15 days (including family members and all people they had contact with). Some even quarantined the entire plane (or the entire carriage) collectively.

2. Avoid going to epidemic areas as much as possible.

3. Avoid going to crowded places.

4. Go back to work as soon as possible to avoid trouble.

The next day, the engineer decisively refunded his high-speed rail ticket. At that time, the country had not yet introduced the policy of "waiving ticket refund fees."

Two days later, on January 23, Wuhan indeed announced a "city lockdown"!

Immediately afterwards, the astute purchasing manager decisively purchased a batch of masks. At this time, the mask factory had not yet been taken over by the government, so we took a "half" step ahead.

Urgent delivery

"Guangzhou ** Medical Equipment Company is a company that makes thermometer guns. It needs power management chips from Nanlin Electronics and requests urgent delivery." Early in the morning, the chairman was awakened by a customer's urgent phone call.

"Ship? How can we ship goods when the whole country is not allowed to go to work?" The chairman hesitated for a moment and replied, "Okay, I'll find a way and try to ship it today."

"It's an emergency. A customer wants to ship thermometer guns to us. They are anti-epidemic supplies. Could you please check where the inventory is?" The chairman called in the company's employee WeChat group early in the morning.

"Who is closest to the warehouse? Please report." The chairman was looking for someone urgently.

"For me, it's about 200 kilometers." Ms. Luo, the office manager, replied, "I'll go! Other colleagues don't know how to operate it."

Xiao Luo can't drive, so she asked her husband to be the driver, and took her son with her, and the family of three drove to the company's inventory location. However, the door of the park building was locked, and no one was allowed to enter during the emergency.

After a series of emergency operations including the medical equipment factory issuing a certificate and the company sending a letter, Xiao Luo finally handed the chip to the SF Express courier at around 4:00 pm.

Long road to recovery

Soon after, Tianjin ** Medical Equipment Factory also needed chips for thermometer guns, but the company’s inventory was far from enough, because the demand for thermometer guns was not high under normal circumstances, and the inventory was far from enough to meet the sudden surge in demand.

"All employees, please note that we are preparing to resume work ahead of schedule in order to produce anti-epidemic materials." The chairman's instructions appeared again in the company's WeChat group, "Employees who can go out, please return to the workplace as soon as possible and prepare to resume work."

Upon learning that the company has power management chips for use in thermometer guns, all employees were extremely excited.

Starting from the second day of the Chinese New Year (January 26), a group of "Nanlin veterans" gradually returned to their workplaces. Those from Zhejiang returned, those from Anhui returned, and those from Hunan and Sichuan also returned. A group of middle and senior managers of Nanlin Electronics gradually returned to their workplaces.

"Ah Tang has arrived, waiting for the order to resume work!" The next day, Ah Tang from the packaging factory drove to the city where the factory was located.

"We're here too." Factory Manager Lao Luo, Quality Manager Sister Jia Jia, a group of engineers and operators all returned to the city where the factory is located.

"We should go back too!" A group of backbone personnel in production planning, purchasing, etc., risked being expelled and persuaded to return, and successfully "made it through".

Xiao Zhou, Xiao Ma and other technical backbones rushed to Wuxi from all over the country for self-isolation. What to do if there are not enough isolation dormitories? Several single engineers voluntarily locked themselves in dormitories in the park and survived on bread and instant noodles.

The Shenzhen supervisors also made preparations in advance in case Shenzhen was locked down. Key positions such as warehouse clerks arrived early and all procedures for resuming work were prepared. The Wuxi factory has a large number of employees and the work processes are complex. In addition, the Wuxi government's "strict prevention and control" made the procedures for resuming work extremely complicated.

Of course, three employees were persuaded to return by the "strictly guarded" police. One engineer "broke through" several checkpoints but failed, so he had to drive the car to the service area and sleep. The next day, he still failed to "broke through" and had to return home in disappointment.

The resumption of work procedures has kept the "Little Swallow" in the administrative department busy. Since February 2, they have been preparing for the resumption of work, preparing masks, thermometers, purchasing disinfectants, and tirelessly submitting and supplementing various resumption of work materials: resumption of work management measures, employee health forms, employee health commitments, company guarantee letters, etc. The employee's telephone travel destination inquiry alone was provided several times, and the service provider's inquiry certificate was revised several times. The 52 employees who had been in self-isolation for 14 days also actively cooperated, providing evidence over and over again and signing guarantee letters.

"The approval to resume work has finally come down!" Xiaoyanzi reported happily. At this moment, her body and spirit were about to collapse.

Tough choices

Although the approval for resumption of work has been obtained, the risks of resumption of work are still very high. It is reported online that a factory in Suzhou found a suspected case and the entire factory was quarantined. The quarantine costs were astronomical and all were borne by the company. Local governments have indeed issued policies that the quarantine costs of resuming work units shall be borne by the company itself.

"What should we do?" The company's management held an emergency online meeting. "The risk of resuming work is too great. If the government doesn't care, if there is any suspicion, the entire company will be closed."

"If we don't resume work, anti-epidemic materials cannot be supplied on time."

"If we resume work in small batches, the cost will be several times or even ten times the usual cost."... The online meeting was deathly silent, and all managers fell into deep thought. Making a decision was too difficult.

"Resume work! Resume work on a small scale." Finally, the chairman broke the silence. "No matter how high the cost or how big the risk is, we must resume work for the anti-epidemic chips."

"Brother Xiao Ma, you have too much responsibility!" The chairman earnestly told the person in charge of the resumption site during the online meeting. At this time, the intermittent and unstoppable sobbing of the chairman (a tough guy like steel) could be heard faintly on the Internet...