Chapter 170: Money is good for business.
Chapter 167 – Good with Money
Salzburg, inside a hotel. The executive of the Austrian Federal Railway Company-Motrih was giving a mobilization meeting to the technicians.
“Listen up all, the board of directors has made a decision, within the next year, we’re going to connect the railroad to Adnin.”
There weren’t many civilized people who hung out at the construction site, and Mottrieh didn’t beat around the bush, and stated the task directly and bluntly.
He is only the administration responsible for the management, not a technical background, in this project team for more than a year, but for the progress of the project is a clear understanding.
Now the headquarters of this progress requirements, I am afraid it is very difficult to complete. However, as a qualified manager, he knew that he could not retreat when there were difficulties.
The board of directors have made a decision, no matter how great the difficulty, he must try to complete, this is the problem of attitude.
If he didn’t even take any actual action and shouted to the top that it was difficult and couldn’t be accomplished, then where was his value embodied?
Private companies are all very realistic, and if there is no more value, he can get lost. On this issue, he does not carry as much weight as the technicians below him.
Technicians in this day and age are treasures, indispensable talents no matter what project they are placed on, not so with administrators, of which there are plenty within the railroads.
The project chief engineer Salvador said in a good-natured manner, “Mr. Motrih, with our current construction progress, it would be good to be able to complete this task within two years, this is a pre-planned schedule, and wanting to complete it ahead of schedule is simply impossible!”
In this section of the railroad construction, nominally, Motrih is responsible for the overall management, but technically it is Salvador who has the final say.
Mottrieh simply can’t manage Salvador, or dare not meddle. He is smart people do not understand is not understand, know blind command is very easy to go wrong.
Now suddenly raise the construction task, the technical head of the opposition is also very normal. But Motrih is not unprepared, smilingly explained:
“Mr. Salvador, the way is always people come up with, lack of what you just open your mouth, I am responsible for and the head office to coordinate, but the work task must be completed on schedule.
In the next few days, everyone will just suffer a bit and sacrifice some rest days. Please rest assured that the company will not treat you poorly.
I’m here to assure you that as long as the task is completed ahead of schedule, the bonus you will receive will definitely not be lower than your current salary.
No, just complete the task on schedule. I’ll go to the head office to apply for you all, and if it’s lower than that, I’ll make it up to you out of my own pocket!”
Mottrieh’s performance was successful, many problems in this world could be solved with money, and speeding up the construction schedule was naturally no exception.
Two years of construction tasks to be completed in one year, pay two years of salary no problem, everyone did the same amount of work, the railroad company’s labor cost budget did not increase. Now is the time when there is a shortage of people, Mottrieh is fully confident that the money will be asked down.
A pay raise would appease most of the technicians, but Salvador still shook his head.
“Mr. Mottrieh, no one is doubting your character, the problem now is that time is too short, we’ve been working from both ends to the middle.
The only way to increase the progress any further is to split the current section in two and split it again from the middle lot. This will not only require more labor, but also more mechanical equipment, and we don’t have enough technicians, and the difficulty of management will have to be greatly increased.”
Mottrieh thought for a moment and said, “All of these problems can be overcome. I’m sure you’re all aware that the state has introduced a law in order to speed up the construction process of the railroad, counting from the establishment of the railroad, no tax will be levied on the operation of the railroad within ten years.
We started construction in 1849 and expect to complete the entire line only in 1854, which means that our tax-free operation time is only five years.
The Federal Railroad was a publicly traded company, and the headquarters had to take into account the opinions of the stockholders, who now wanted the railroad in operation sooner.
If we can complete the roadbed for the 5-block section in 1851, then we can lay the track and install the equipment in 1852, and we can have a trial run in 1853.
Being able to put it into operation a year earlier will surely bring a lot of profits to the company, and all of you will also be richly rewarded.”
“Profit” was only one aspect, but more importantly, the Austrian government demanded that the railroad company speed up the construction of the main line on the grounds that Austria was preparing to go to war against the Ottoman Empire, and that it would need to use the railroads to transport logistical supplies.
This reason, people have no way to refuse. Moreover, it is not as if the government did not give compensation, and that is how the tax exemption for ten years came about.
As for the war with the Ottoman Empire, why this railroad connecting the Kingdom of Bavaria must also be accelerated construction, is not the focus.
The point is that His Majesty the Great Franz himself has spoken, and since he said that it is the main line of the country to speed up the construction, then it must be the main line of the country.
Is it still possible to run and make conditions with His Majesty the Emperor, who is in charge of everything by day, over this issue?
Finally the management of the railroad company decided after a study to concentrate on accelerating the construction speed of the main line and suspend the branch line sections that were ready to be started.
……
In this year, railroad technicians are in high demand. In order to retain talents, the federal railroad company also took out part of the stock options as bonuses and issued them to these technicians.
Although the amount to each person’s hand is not much, but the effect caused by the very good, have their own share in it, did not want the railroad to open early.
Salvador thought for a moment and said: “I don’t have any opinion on the company’s decision, but Mr. Mottrieh, you have to help me to solve all these problems.
There is also the fact that we currently have too many casualties during the construction process, you’d better be able to restrain those managers so that they don’t go too far.”
The so-called managers, of course, were the hitmen that the railroad company had gracefully hired. Now this batch of free laborers, is the real “prison labor”, cheap is cheap, but the management is not very convenient.
One by one, all want to muddle through, as long as there is no one to keep an eye on will be grinding work, and even escape things also happen from time to time. If it were not for the army, there might even be a riot.
Although the army sent people to watch, but will not send people to help them manage. In order to speed up the construction speed, the railroad company gracefully invited the management personnel is naturally whip + big stick wait.
This makes the morality has not been completely lost Salvador can not stand to see, of course, he is not a mother of God, just mentioned in passing, for this kind of chaotic party elements he is also abhorrent.
Mottrieh smiled and said: ”No problem, the problem of insufficient number of laborers, I will immediately go to make a report, there are still inside the mechanical equipment company’s warehouse, directly send people over to pick up the goods.
The problem of insufficient technicians, I will report it to the head office. However, Mr. Salvador, there is a shortage of technicians everywhere right now, the head office is digging for people all over Europe, so you shouldn’t hold too much hope.”
That’s right, Austria’s railroad construction team also had technicians from various European countries. For the sake of strategic security needs, these people could not be the main designers.
This was requested by Franz, mainly because when the British exported their railroad standards overseas, they chucked in a lot of private goods in this area, and a lot of countries got screwed.
Now all the Austrian railroad companies, the same approach is adopted. When there is a shortage of technicians, let the engineers with apprentices fill in.
Anyway, the construction is according to the plan, as long as the construction site to learn for a year and a half, you can preside over the simple technical work, experienced engineers every day to guide, set up the task, and then check the acceptance on the line.
Basically a section of the railroad construction is completed, these apprentices are almost out of the master. Railroad engineers in this era, basically this is how it comes, from the school graduates are a minority.
Looking at his men with high morale, Salvador nodded with a bitter smile. With the addition of new construction lines, his task as the chief engineer was even heavier.
The means of transportation in this era was horseback riding, and anyone who couldn’t ride a horse wouldn’t be able to eat this bowl of rice. Having to travel a hundred and eighty kilometers every other day was not an easy life.
On the contrary, the technical staff under his command should be more relaxed, following the action of the army, without the need to run to both sides twice a day.
This was the disadvantage of the insufficient number of engineers, if he left all these jobs to his subordinates, he didn’t feel confident. Basically, when it came to technical difficulties, El Salvador had to go and personally preside over them.
From the beginning of the 19th century onwards, the construction of railroads in Europe was just taking off. As of 1850, the railroads that had been opened to traffic on the entire European continent combined would not exceed fifteen thousand kilometers.
Experienced engineers are naturally scarce talent, this background, the Austrian railroad construction began, the major railroad companies have broken out to steal the war.
For Salvador, it is now pain and happiness. The heavy workload also means high pay.
For example, if he served as the technical general engineer and was also responsible for the main technical direction of the construction of both ends, then he could get two more salaries.
Now adding two more construction sites, if the company didn’t send someone over to help him share the pressure, also meant that he could add another two salaries, or a total of five salaries.
If the paycheck hadn’t been so good, he would have quit long ago, how could he accept this kind of day and night work?
Good times like this don’t come around often, and with the bonus promised by Mottrieh, once the job was done, El Salvador had the equivalent of ten years’ salary in one year.
Salvador like this is after all only a few, the railroad company can not always not send engineers down to help, after all, a person’s energy is limited, the early stage can barely support, to the later construction time is simply too busy.
However, one person to complete the work of two or three people task thing, in the construction of railroads is happening from time to time.
Capitalists are not philanthropists, can not always be so generous. Now they belong to the irreplaceable, naturally the treatment from the favorable, once can be replaced, then their good days will be over.
El Salvador knows very well that once the construction of the railroad is completed, they will be ready to get out.
When the railroad company is in operation, it doesn’t need so many experienced engineers, and the capitalists will naturally choose cheaper general technicians to take care of the railroad’s later maintenance.
Even when the supply of engineers exceeds the demand in the later stages, they will still only get one salary in the end, even if they do the work of two people.
Supply and demand in the market determines the price of goods. The same applies in the human resource market, the capitalists open high salary when there is a shortage of people, when there is no shortage of people, they naturally have to find a way to make up for it.
On the whole, they are considered to have caught up with the good times, just in time to rake in the gold. After this village, there will never be this store again.
How long would these good times last, El Salvador wasn’t sure. If possible, he hoped that such days could last longer.
He even had the idea of going to the Ministry of Railways to seek a job, although the treatment was not as good, but it was stable and decent.
Nightfall, El Salvador lay on the bed, lit a cigarette, deep up, a long time not able to sleep.
(End of chapter)