Chapter 2 — When I Stop Being Invisible

At noon, Lam Vi sent a message.

“Sister To, can you talk for a moment?”

“I'm listening.”

“Boss Ha wants to invite you back.”

"Condition?"

“He said… come back and discuss.”

"What are we talking about? My position has been 'optimized', where should I sit?"

This time, Lam Vi took a long time to answer.

"Originally, it was Deputy General Chu's intention to fire you. But now boss Ha knows your workload... he was very surprised. It's just... Deputy General Chu still thinks that these tasks can be divided up for the departments to do on their own."

“Then divide.”

"...It can't be divided. All departments say there is a shortage of people, no one is willing to accept it."

I laughed softly.

"Lin Vi, twelve years ago when they put every single thing on my head, no one found it unreasonable. Now when you tell them to divide it up, does it seem like it's too much?"

The other party no longer responded. Three o'clock in the afternoon. Recruitment app with notifications. Thuy Hoa Consulting Company. Position: Administrative Director. Annual salary: 350,000 yuan. Sender: Tham Dich.

"Hello Ms. To Van, we have been paying attention to you for a long time. Is it convenient for us to talk a bit?"

I opened the company profile. Top 20 management consulting industries. Growth for three consecutive years. The scale is less than 50 people, but the customers are all medium and large businesses. Administrative director. And I—on my CV—am just a professional. An expert... was invited to interview for the position of director. I replied:

“Convenient. When?”

“Tomorrow morning at 10, okay?”

In the evening, I rearranged all the documents for the interview. To Niem was sitting next to him doing homework and suddenly looked up.

“Mom, did you find a job?”

“There's an interview.”

“What position, mom?”

“Administrative Director.”

The child's pen stopped.

“Mom… you were only a specialist before?”

“Jump straight to become director?”

“People invited.”

It was silent for a while. Then asked very quietly.

“Mom… back in Hang Vien, did they always force you?”

I don't answer. The girl bowed her head and continued working. A moment later, he said, his voice calm but sharp as a knife:

“Then… they were worth it.”

Thuy Hoa Consulting Company is located in an office building in the western area. Compared to Hang Vien's building, it is newer, but much smaller in scale. The space is designed neatly and sharply, everything is very decisive. The receptionist led me into the meeting room. Tham Dich is younger than I thought. About thirty years old, wears glasses, speaks quickly and succinctly.

"Miss To, let me introduce first. I am one of the co-founders of Thuy Hoa."

I sat down and looked straight at him.

“Boss Tham, tell me frankly, how did you find me?”

He smiled, without beating around the bush.

"Last year, we did a management diagnostic for Hang Vien. During the survey, we discovered something very interesting."

He paused for a moment then continued:

"Hang Vien's eight departments have a large amount of process documents, forms, SOPs... all of which have a strangely unified style. Obviously created by the same person."

I said nothing.

"At that time, we asked Hang Vien internally, but no one could answer. Finally, a long-time employee told us - the person who did these things was To Van, from the administrative department."

He pushed a file towards me.

"Miss To, the customer complaint classification system you built, we have brought back for research. The logic is extremely clear. Your supplier evaluation system It's also very methodical, even surpassing the plans of some professional consulting companies."

I glanced at the file. Exactly what I used to do.

“I just do it in my free time, there's nothing technical about it.”

Tham Dich looked at me, his eyes serious.

“You call it that there is no technical content?”

He paused for a moment, his voice lowered.

“Co To and Hang Vien have a complete operational support system. The core builder is her. But her position is only that of an administrative specialist.”

“Do you know what that means?”

I asked again.

“What does it mean?”

“It means that for the past twelve years, Hang Vien used the salary of a specialist... to buy the performance of an Operations Director.”

I raised my glass of water and took a sip.

“Miss To, I'll be frank — I'm not inviting you to be the Administrative Director.”

I put the cup down.

“So what position?”

“Operating partner. Partnership director in charge of operations.”

The atmosphere in the meeting room was silent for a few seconds.

“Let me show you something.”

He opened his laptop and pulled out a plan.

“This is a new business segment we are preparing to deploy: building an operating system for small and medium-sized enterprises. What you used to do at Hang Vien, we want to package into products and supply them to companies ranging in size from fifty to three hundred people."

I glanced at the planning frame. He clearly did a lot of research.

“Fix salary plus profit sharing percentage. The first year guarantees an income of forty thousand. After this segment becomes profitable, the profit will be divided according to the profit ratio."

Forty thousand. In Hang Vien, my annual salary is fourteen thousand.

“Boss Tham, I need more time to think.”

"Of course. No need to rush.”

Leaving Thuy Hoa, I stood in front of the office building. The sunlight is very beautiful. The phone rings. I don't catch it. The bell rang again. It's still him. I answered the phone.

“Sister To, something happened.”

“What?”

“Boss Ha wants to review Deputy General Chu in the meeting, asking the departments to list and demonstrate their workload. But Deputy General Chu said... these things should have been done by the departments themselves, without the need for an administrative expert to override their authority."

He paused for a moment then continued:

"His exact words were - To Van's biggest problem at the company was getting involved too deeply and not understanding her position clearly."

I leaned my back against the wall and listened quietly.

“What happens after that?”

“Ms. Trieu from marketing stood up. She said that the event schedule she often does, this month no one dares to touch it. Next week's press conference to launch a new product almost coincided with the sales conference."

“She said, if that is called overstepping authority... then she welcomes you to continue overriding authority.”

“What did Boss Ha say?”

“Don't say anything. But Vice President Zhou's face... is very unsightly."

I hung up. Standing in the sunlight, I suddenly thought of a question. The past twelve years… Since when did I become such a substitute for everyone? When I got home, I carefully read the cooperation agreement that Tham Dich sent. The terms are very clear. Guaranteed hard salary of forty thousand a year. When the profit of this business exceeds two million, I receive a 15% share. Title: operating partner. Have the right to participate in decision making. I called Tham Dich.

“Boss Tham, I have a few questions.”

“Miss To, just say it.”

“First, title Where is this operating partner… located in the corporate structure?”

“On par with me. Directly participate in all business decisions.”

“Second, who bears the startup capital for the new segment?”

“The company bears the full responsibility. You don't need to spend any money. What she brings is ability and experience.”

I stopped for a moment.

“Based on what do you believe this segment will be successful?”

There was light laughter on the other end of the line.

“Miss Su, in China there are more than forty million small and medium-sized enterprises. Among them, 80% do not have a systematic operating system."

He spoke more slowly, each word clearer.

“The fact that you alone carry the work of eight departments in Hengyuan… is not because you are too special.”

“It's because what you do... is inherently what every business needs.”

“It's just that Hang Vien doesn't understand how much money it's worth.”

I thought silently.

“I need three more days to think.”

When I hung up, I saw that there were three unread messages on my phone. The first news was from Tran Loi: "Ms. To, the two projects in the technical department actually have overlapping schedules. Today the partner sent a letter of questioning, boss Ha was so angry that he got angry." The second news is from Ms. Luu: "Since the day I left, the reconciliation of financial books has started to get messy. This month's reports are all late, Mr. Vuong is so worried that his blood pressure has skyrocketed." The third news came from an unknown number.