Offer To The CEO

Tuesday, continued …

Hou Yi looked at a clock and he realised that his next meeting with senior staff to allocate work to be addressed while he was away was in five minutes. He wondered how he was going to get through all of this.

Thinking to himself Hou Yi realised that he could not wait for their formal wedding ceremony on Saturday to see Anna walking down the aisle towards him. It was getting through this work with the added complication of the issues surrounding Lu Jingho and its impacts on Hou Enterprises was something he did not need. He was just glad that Assistant Wang and his family would be with him on this trip which would allow matters only he could deal with to be addressed.

Hou Yi, kept working through the paperwork, until there was a knock on his door, with Assistant Wang showing six senior staff members, four males and two females into his office. Once they were settled down on the chairs in front of his desk, Hou Yi spoke "Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you. I know with what has happened with Lu Corporation has clearly thrown issues at us that we have to address …"

"CEO Hou, I can only speak for all of us, you need to relax. We can see that you are tense, and we all knew that there would be ten days that you would not be here in the office. You need to trust us, as that is why you have employed all of us."

"Miss Lang, you all know I trust you to do your job, hence why you all have your own areas of responsibility within the company. This meeting was going to simply be to remind all of you that if there is something that you feel uncomfortable with, I am only a phone call away, and that my wife and I intend to be back in country by Tuesday night."

"CEO Hou I am speaking for everyone here. You should take more time for a break with Madam Hou. We can handle matters."

"Just let me speak. There are several reasons why this is only short. Firstly, while I trust you to deal with the immediate fallout from the matters involving Lu Corporation, there is a court case at the end of next week where I need to be present, as one of the victims of Hou Corporation. Lu Jingho attempted to illegally hack company systems, as well as attempting to blackmail myself and the company. I have to be here to deal with that. Additionally, in approximately six months' time I will be taking a month's leave, and I need the time more then, than now."

Looking around the table only the one executive had the guts to speak again, after having put what together what she hoped was the right conclusion "Are you telling is CEO Hou that Madam Hou is pregnant?"

There as a surprised look from the other executives in the room, wondering how their colleague was willing to make such a leap in imagination. They hoped that that was the right conclusion as they did not want to see the consequences if she was wrong.

Looking around at the senior executives in his office, Hou YI realized that there was only one of them that had some semblance of being able to read the unspoken messages. That might jeopardise his longer-term plan about promotions to lessen the work on him somewhat when Anna gave birth and their baby was young. He wondered how they would take the challenge that he was about to throw at them.

"Miss Lang, I see you are quicker on your feet and can think laterally. You are correct, my wife is pregnant, and my intention is to take a leave of absence both prior to and for a couple of weeks after she give's birth to our child. Later in my wife's pregnancy, and once my wife has given birth my intention is to limit company travel until my wife and our children can accompany us."

"Over the next four months each of you will be watched closely to see your performance. As you are aware there are four deputy Vice-CEO's and the intention is that there will be at least two more appointed here in headquarters. You are all being considered for the position. The reason for this is that we want to share out the workload for senior executives in the company more."

"Additionally, with the issues not facing the company both from our ongoing expansions and the problems caused with the criminal case involving Lu Jingho as it appears, he used Lu Corporation assets to target Hou Enterprises we need to become a more adaptable company. So, none of you are blindsided, the main monitoring of your performance will be by myself, Vice -CEO Ji and the deputy Vice-CEO's during that time."