Five-Times Overtime Pay on Labor Day, and the Intern Put Me on Blast

When I landed that urgent order from the German client, the pen in my hand felt heavy. I solemnly stamped the company seal on the contract.

The twomillion deposit hit the company’s corporate account the next second. I let out a long breath.

Because there were no orders, the factory had already been shut down for a full half month.

The profit from this order was enough to support the fifty workers in the factory for half a year. The only deadly problem was how tight the deadline was.

The client insisted the goods had to be delivered on time on the first day after May Day. I walked out of my office and looked at the empty production floor.

I immediately took out my phone and opened the company’s SnapChat group. “I’ve got some good news for everyone.

The factory just landed a big order.” “If anyone is willing to stay and work overtime during the May Day holiday, I’ll pay five times the normal wage.” “It’s completely voluntary.

Nobody will be forced.” I honestly thought the group would explode right away. These workers usually complained the loudest about not getting overtime pay.

Now it was five times the normal rate. Work five days, and you’d make almost half a month’s usual income. One minute passed. Five minutes passed.

The company SnapChat group stayed dead silent. Not even one person replied with a simple “got it.” I frowned and walked toward the employee break room with my phone in hand.

Just as I reached the door, I heard a smug voice coming through the halfopen crack. “Everyone, whatever you do, don’t reply to him in the group.” The one talking was Ethan, a college intern who had just been hired last month.

He was wearing a branded Tshirt and waving his phone around as he talked nonstop. “Bosses are all heartless.” “He says he’ll pay five times the wage.

Do you really think he’ll follow through?” “He just wants to use us like animals during the May Day holiday.” Old Mike, who had worked in the factory for five years, was smoking.

He blew out a puff of smoke and joined in. “Ethan makes sense.” “I’ve been working here for years, and I’ve never seen any five times wage.” “Let’s ignore him for now and see how anxious he gets.” My face darkened, and I shoved the break room door open.

The discussion inside stopped dead. I stared coldly at Ethan. “The fivetimes pay is written in black and white in the group chat.

That’s legal proof.” “If you don’t want to do it, you can just go home and rest.” Ethan curled his lip and crossed his arms with a cold laugh. “Boss, quit trying to play games with us.” “You need to deliver the order on the first day after the holiday.” “If we don’t work overtime, you’ll have to pay the client a huge penalty, right?” He pulled out his phone and shoved the screen right in front of my face. “I already screenshot your message in the group and posted it online.” “Now everyone online is calling you heartless for forcing employees to work overtime during the holiday.” I only felt a surge of blood rush straight to my head.

I quickly took out my own phone and found that my private messages were already flooded.

Tens of thousands of netizens were screaming abuse at me in the comments. “Heartless boss, all you care about is money.

Hope you go bankrupt soon.” “Report him to the mayor’s hotline right now and get the labor bureau to shut down this broken factory.” Seeing the ugly look on my face, Ethan got even more arrogant. “Boss, online public pressure is a big deal these days.” “We workers are the vulnerable side.” “You want us to work overtime to save your order, and five times pay won’t cut it.” “We want ten times pay.” As soon as Mike and the other old employees heard that, their eyes lit up and they started chiming in. “Yeah, ten times pay.” “We won’t do a single thing for less.” I took a deep breath and forced down the anger in my chest.

I turned and strode back to my office to get the ledger for this order.

Then I slammed the ledger down hard on the table in front of them. “Open your eyes and look clearly.” “The total profit on this order is only five hundred thousand.” “If I pay you five times wages, forty thousand will be cut right out.” “The remaining one hundred thousand has to cover the factory rent for the second half of the year.” “As the boss, I haven’t put a single cent in my own pocket from this order.” Looking at these familiar faces, my voice even started to shake. “I fought like hell to get this order just to keep the factory alive and keep your jobs intact.” Mike lowered his head and looked at the ledger, and his expression softened a little.

But Ethan snatched up the ledger and threw it straight to the floor. “Who knows if this junk ledger is fake bookkeeping meant to fool people?” “You bosses are best at pretending to be poor.” “I’m saying it here and now: ten times pay, not a cent less.” “We already made a new group chat on the side.” “We’ve all agreed.

If you don’t give us ten times pay, we absolutely will not start production.” I stared hard at Ethan’s arrogant face.

Then I looked at Mike and the other employees who had silently gone along with it. My heart went completely cold.

I treated them like family who were going through hard times with me.

But they treated me like a sucker they could take advantage of however they wanted. “Fine.” “I understand.” I bent down, picked up the ledger from the floor, and walked out of the break room without looking back.

I didn’t sleep at all that night. I sat alone in my office and made three longdistance calls in a row. At eight the next morning, I held a companywide meeting right on time.

Fifty employees stood neatly in the open space of the factory floor. Ethan stood in the front row, his face full of a winner’s arrogance.

He lowered his voice and muttered to Mike beside him. “Just watch.

He’s about to beg us.” “The second he gives in, everyone needs to hold the line and not budge on ten times.” I held the microphone and walked to the very front of the group.

I looked at them and suddenly smiled. “Last night I deeply reflected on my mistakes.” “The company humbly accepts everyone’s criticism and has decided to fully fix itself.” “Starting today, the whole company is officially on holiday for May Day.” “No one is allowed to work overtime.” The whole factory went dead silent in an instant.

Every face froze.

Mike’s eyes widened in a flash, and he hurriedly took a step forward. “Boss, what about that order?” “If we can’t deliver, the penalty will be millions!” I tapped the microphone, and my voice echoed through the loudspeaker. “We outsourced it.” “I gave the fortythousand overtime budget directly to Mr.

Brooks, who runs the factory in the industrial park next door.” “We signed the contract overnight, and they started rotating shifts and producing today.” “The German client has already confirmed and agreed too.” The factory exploded into chaos.

The fifty employees panicked like ants on a hot pan.

Mike’s face went completely pale, and his hands shook uncontrollably. “Outsourced?” “So my nearly fifteen hundred dollars in overtime pay is just gone?” Ethan jumped out in fury. “Fake!” “He’s definitely bluffing to scare us!” “The equipment at Mr.

Brooks’s factory next door can’t handle a precision job like this!” He pointed at my nose and cursed me out. “Boss, your acting is way too fake.” “You’re just trying to scare us on purpose so we’ll accept five times pay.” “I’m telling you, not happening!” Ethan’s finger was almost poking my nose.

His young face was full of smug, selfrighteous cleverness. “Don’t let him fool you.” “Mr.

Brooks’s broken factory next door only has a few outdated machines.” “He can’t handle a highprecision order like this from the German client.” Ethan turned around and raised both hands high at the panicked workers. “The boss just can’t bear to lose that forty thousand in overtime pay.” “He deliberately found people to act it out, trying to put psychological pressure on us.” “If we back down today, then from now on we’ll be nothing but free labor in this factory.” Mike’s white face instantly got its color back.

He let out a long breath and slapped his thigh hard. “Ethan’s right!” “I’ve been around this industrial park for years.

Who doesn’t know old Brooks’s tech is trash?” “Boss, this switcheroo is way too fake.” The other workers started joining in too.

The fear from moments ago vanished in an instant, replaced by even more arrogant anger. “You almost scared me to death.” “If you don’t bring out the cash for ten times pay today, we absolutely will not compromise.” “Stop trying to scare us with penalties.

That’s your problem, not ours.” I looked coldly at all fifty of them. Their greed and stupidity made me sick. I didn’t even feel like explaining anymore.

Seeing that I was silent, Ethan thought he had exposed me.

He smugly pulled out his phone and opened the livestream function in the shortvideo app. “Boss, since you won’t take the toast, you’ll have to take the punishment.” “Then I’m going live right now.” “I’m going to let everyone online see how you, this heartless capitalist, bully us.” “Today I’ll make sure you can’t survive in the local manufacturing circle.”

As soon as the livestream opened, hundreds of people flooded in.

Ethan pointed his phone camera at me. “Guys, this is the heartless boss.” “He took an order worth millions and wants us to work for free over May Day.” “When we refused, he staged this whole act to scare us.” Mike also leaned into the camera and put on a pitiful expression. “Please judge fairly, everyone.

Us workingclass people have it so hard.” Just then, a piercing truck horn suddenly sounded outside the factory.

Right after that, a heavyduty truck backed straight into our factory gate. Two forklifts, rumbling loudly, followed behind it. Mr.

Brooks from the factory next door jumped down from the passenger seat.

He was a fat man in his fifties, sweating all over, with a thick stack of documents clutched in his hand. “Hey, man!

I brought the truck to pick up the raw materials!” “I looked over the German client’s drawings overnight, and there’s no problem at all.” “I just spent three million last month to replace my imported CNC machines, and this order is perfect for their debut.” The whole factory went dead silent in an instant.

The workers who had just been yelling so arrogantly all turned stiffly around. They stared dumbly at the huge truck. Mr.

Brooks held the documents and strode up to me. “I’ve already received the deposit for the processing fee.” “Don’t worry, brother.

I guarantee the goods will be delivered to you in perfect order on the first day after the holiday.” “You guys, hurry up and load the raw materials from old Hill’s warehouse onto the truck!” Mr.

Brooks waved toward the door. More than a dozen workers in the next factory’s uniforms rushed into our warehouse.

The forklifts skillfully lifted pallet after pallet of raw materials and moved them onto the truck. Their movements were crisp and efficient, with no wasted motion.

The cigarette butt slipped from Mike’s hand and hit the floor, but he didn’t even notice when the sparks burned his foot. His lips trembling, he rushed over to Mr. Brooks. “Mr.

Brooks, you really took our order?” “Can your junk machines even do this work?” Mr.

Brooks shoved him aside, looking impatient. “Who the hell are you?” “My newly bought Germanimported CNC machines are even more advanced than the equipment in your factory.” “Old Hill was generous and gave me the whole fortythousand budget.

Why wouldn’t I kill myself to get this done?” Mike’s mental defenses completely collapsed.

He dropped straight to the floor and sat there, clutching his head. “So it really was outsourced...” “My nearly fifteen hundred bucks in overtime pay is really gone...” A female worker in the crowd suddenly burst into tears. “Ethan!

Didn’t you say the boss was acting?” “You owe me money!” “I was only working five days, and I was going to use that money to pay for a whole year of my kid’s tutoring!” The fifty workers completely lost their minds, blaming and accusing one another, and the factory turned into a total mess.

Ethan held up the phone he was streaming with, his face turning green and white. But he clenched his teeth and refused to admit he was wrong.

He spun around suddenly and glared at me viciously. “Everyone calm down! Have some backbone!” “So what if he outsourced the order?” “We’re fulltime employees.

We signed labor contracts!” He shoved the camera almost into my face. “Boss, you think you win just because you dumped the order on someone else?” “I’m telling you, labor law says that as long as we’re in the factory.” “If you don’t assign us any work, you still have to pay us our base wages!” Mike scrambled up from the floor like he had found a lifeline. “Yeah, exactly!” “We don’t want five times pay anymore, but you have to pay the four thousand a month base salary!” “If you dare fire us, you’ll have to pay us N+1 severance!” “Fifty people, that’s more than a million dollars!” The more Ethan talked, the more confident he became.

He shouted into the livestream. “Everyone online is watching.” “Boss Hill, you gave the profit to someone else.

Let’s see what money you have left to support us.” “We’ll just sit in the factory every day and play on our phones.” “If you dare short us even one cent of wages, we’ll report you to the labor bureau until you go bankrupt.”

I looked at Ethan’s shameless face. I didn’t feel even a trace of anger. In fact, I found it pretty funny.

I reached up and straightened my suit tie. “Ethan, you’re just a fresh intern, and you sure know a lot of legal terms.” “Since you know labor law, did you actually look into the rules about a shutdown and suspension of production?” Ethan froze for a second, his eyes darting away. “Don’t try to bluff and scare people here.” “Paying wages is only natural.” I turned and walked to the bulletin board in the factory, then yanked down a redletter notice that had just been posted yesterday.

I held up the notice and walked step by step toward Ethan. “Open your eyes and look carefully.” “The factory has already been shut down for half a month because there were no orders.” “According to the relevant laws, if a business stops production for more than one wage payment cycle.” “And the employees have not provided normal labor.” “The company only needs to pay living expenses at eighty percent of the local minimum wage.” I slapped the notice hard against Ethan’s chest. “Our city’s minimum wage is two thousand.” “Eighty percent is sixteen hundred.” Ethan’s pupils widened instantly, his face full of disbelief. “That’s bullshit!” I ignored him, picked up the microphone, and looked at the greedy employees below. “I now formally announce the second decision.” “Because the entire factory’s order has already been outsourced.” “Starting today, the whole factory is entering an indefinite shutdown and suspension of production.” “You really don’t have to come to work anymore.

You can just stay home and play on your phones every day.” “But I’ll only pay each of you sixteen hundred a month as the minimum living allowance.” “As long as you can hold out, we can keep this going forever.” The factory fell silent again.

Sixteen hundred. In a city where even a bowl of noodles cost fifteen dollars, that wasn’t even enough to cover rent.

Mike’s legs went weak, and he collapsed to his knees again. “Sixteen hundred?

My mortgage is three thousand a month!” “Boss, I was wrong, I was really wrong!” “I’ll go work right now, I’ll work for my normal wage, I don’t want five times pay anymore!” A few old employees also got redeyed with panic and rushed up, trying to grab my clothes. “Boss, please take the order back.” “Our whole families are counting on this money to eat!” Ethan completely lost it.

He stepped in front of the old employees like a mad dog. “None of you are allowed to beg him!” “Do any of you have any backbone?” “Boss Hill, this is maliciously forcing employees to resign.

You’re exploiting legal loopholes to dodge compensation!” He held up the phone still livestreaming, his voice hysterical. “Brothers in the livestream, tens of thousands of you saw this person’s true colors, right?” “Everyone hurry up and screenrecord this live.” “I’m going to ruin him in this city!” “I’m going to get the authorities to shut down his factory!” Watching him jump around like a lunatic, I gave a cold laugh.

I slowly pulled a yellow file folder out of my briefcase behind me. “Sure, don’t you dare end the livestream.” “Perfect, so many people online are watching.” “Because what I’m about to show you next needs the public to witness it.” I looked at Ethan’s face as it changed color in an instant. “You really think I didn’t fire you because I couldn’t afford the N+1 severance?”