(Continued from the previous text)
The Set Shopping Center has finally opened.
We, the employees from both parties working at the Set Shopping Center, faced the excitement of working under the leadership of the Japanese department store and team, surrounded by products we had never seen before in the shopping center's two underground and four above-ground floors. It was indeed thrilling, and it took a long time for our emotions to settle down, as this was all a new experience.
As the team sent by the first party, our relationship with the operation of the shopping center was minimal. Although we worked in the same building as the shopping center, we could see various happenings in the shopping center every day.
There are a few things that I remember most vividly from that year.
Every day before the doors opened at nine in the morning, the floor leaders, supervisors, managers, and functional department staff had to line up in front of the main entrance on the first floor for a brief morning meeting. Before the meeting ended, everyone had to shout slogans loudly under the guidance of the Japanese store manager.
Since we, the first party personnel, were not required to participate, I was initially just curious and didn’t know what they were shouting. One time, I got closer and realized they were loudly reciting the store's training, and it was a particularly interesting passage:
Leader: "Look at the person in front of me～"
Everyone shouts in unison: "They are good people!"
Leader: "Look at the person on my left～"
Everyone shouts in unison: "They are good people!"
Leader: "Look at the person on my right～"
Everyone shouts in unison: "They are good people!"
Leader: "Look at the person behind me～"
Everyone shouts in unison: "They are good people!"
Leader (finally): "Why is that～"
Everyone shouts in unison: "Because I am a good person!"
In the early days of the shopping center's opening, to ensure smooth operations, the supervisors and above from our five functional departments took turns working night shifts. The purpose was to provide 24-hour support services. We were concerned about potential issues with water, electricity, or air conditioning in the shopping center, so we could promptly notify the engineering department to handle them.
During my shifts, I often wandered around the building, finding everything fresh and new. That’s how I discovered the scene of everyone shouting the store training before opening in the morning.
On the east side of the shopping center's first underground floor, there was an oddly shaped warm water swimming pool. Surrounded by large glass walls, it was not very big, and the water was quite shallow.
Foreigners often brought their children to swim in this pool while shopping; the pool's facilities were very good.
During my night shifts, I also went swimming there a few times after the shopping center closed for the night.
This small warm water swimming pool attracted countless shoppers' attention.
After I left the shopping center for Hainan, I heard that a customer had drowned in this small pool.
In the mid-1990s, the Set Plaza and Set Club were successively completed and opened. The shopping center's pool was then dismantled.
On the southeast side of the shopping center, there was a large freight elevator. The first floor served as the unloading platform, which was the busiest place on ordinary days. Even after the shopping center closed at night, this large freight elevator continued to operate. My office was also in the southeast corner, and there were always sounds of the elevator and employees chatting outside my office door.
Since I was from the human resources department of the first party, many employees in the shopping center recognized me, and the managers on each floor and the managers from the second party were also particularly familiar with me.
About half a year after the opening, the female section chief from the human resources department of the pharmaceutical company where I previously worked approached me for help in getting a discount for her daughter while shopping in the shopping center.
At that time, her daughter was one of the first flight attendants for Air China’s international flights. I had known her and her brother for seven or eight years when I worked at the pharmaceutical company; they were very young back then and often came to play in our office. The section chief's daughter had now grown up and was preparing to get married, and her boyfriend was from one of the most famous private enterprises in Beijing at that time. The couple had their eyes on a South African diamond ring at the Set Shopping Center, intending to buy it as the wedding ring for the bride, but the price was very expensive, around ninety thousand yuan. So, they thought of me working in the shopping center and came to ask for my help in getting a discount.
I immediately agreed to help find someone, although I wasn’t very confident, but helping others is my principle. So, I found Manager Qin on the fourth floor, who was responsible for selling imported jewelry and watches. We had a good relationship, and since it was my first request, he readily offered a minimum discount of 30%.
The section chief's daughter and her boyfriend were overjoyed to hear this news, and they immediately paid on the spot, saving thirty thousand yuan.
After they got married, they kept in touch with me; the gentleman's surname was Hu, and he was quite famous in Beijing at that time.
At that time, my busiest job was archiving files at the Beijing Talent Center. After the first batch of employees from the shopping center officially started working, the second party continued to conduct recruitment, leading to the second and third batches of employees in 1993.
The files of these fresh graduates were delivered to our human resources department by the individuals themselves after being accepted. I led Supervisor Chen and clerk Xiao Dai to issue acceptance letters, collect the files, and then go to the Beijing Talent Exchange Center for archiving.
The Beijing Talent Exchange Center is under the Beijing Human Resources Bureau and was established to adapt to the increased personnel flow after the reform and opening up. At that time, the office was located in two annexes of the Labor People's Cultural Palace.
In the summer of 1992, the scene of fresh graduates lining up to apply for jobs at the Set Shopping Center in the Beijing International Club became sensational news. Later, I went to the Beijing Talent Center to open an account and gradually went there to archive files for hundreds of hired graduates, and I also became a hot figure at the Beijing Talent Center.
Interestingly, I also ran into acquaintances there; Director Jin from the Human Resources Department of the former Beijing Pharmaceutical Corporation was re-employed there after retirement. She was my superior at the pharmaceutical company and was very familiar with me. She was a particularly kind and amiable elder sister, and she recommended me to the head of the talent center and several department directors, praising me for being particularly capable. She was very happy that I became the human resources manager at the Set Shopping Center.
My work at the Beijing Talent Center went very smoothly, and I became friends with the clerks handling the archiving procedures.
Through this, I also got to know colleagues from the National Talent Exchange Center.
During those two years, due to the recruitment and archiving of personnel at the shopping center, I established good cooperative relationships and personal credibility with the Beijing Talent Center, the National Talent Center, and various units in Chaoyang District, including social security.
（To be continued）