As an IT manager, Chen Sizhu was once the main employee in the company's factory construction and a sharp knife in digital construction.
Once, she devoted all her energy to promoting the 0-to-1 establishment of the new company's IT work. Staying through countless all-nighters, resolving countless crises, dragging projects that were on the verge of delay every time back to the main line, and landing them on time are definitely the mainstay of the company.
But the workplace is never a pure land of distribution according to work. The fruits of hard work have become the capital for leadership's advancement; all the hard work has only resulted in indifference and injustice.
What is even more suffocating is that the industry downturn has swept everything, and the company has fallen into a vicious circle of national involution. Everyone is working overtime. The worse the economy is, the more employees have to worry about. They need people but no one, and they need money but no money. However, employees must be held to the highest standards in everything. There is no growth, no breakthrough, and no future. Everyone is spinning in circles, unable to get out.
I want to leave, but there is no better place to go; I want to stay, but I am unwilling to get nothing in return, leaving only suffocating internal friction.
The once enthusiastic workplace elites are now trapped in the Sifang office building, watching their ideals being flattened by reality, their efforts being unfairly undermined, and unable to even find a way out.
When injustice meets the cold winter, and perseverance meets confusion, how can Chen Sizhu break through this dilemma and find a way out for himself and the exhausted professionals?
Purpose: This novel uses the workplace experience of IT manager Chen Sizhu as a microcosm, focusing on the plight of doers in the cold winter of the industry. She was once a hero in building the factory and a sharp knife in digitalization. She worked hard but was ignored and the results were misappropriated. In a downward environment, corporate involution has intensified, power and responsibilities have become imbalanced, and employees have fallen into a suffocating internal friction of "having no choice but to stay and not wanting to leave". The novel not only tells personal experiences, but also exposes the truth about injustice and inefficiency in the workplace, and pays tribute to every workplace person who works silently but is not treated well. In the context of the great times, everyone is the dust of the times, drifting with the wind. Everyone wants to desperately grab their own life-saving straw and guard their bottom line, but they find that their destiny is never completely in their own hands. The final discussion: When efforts are not seen and ideals are flattened by reality, how should ordinary people keep themselves and find their own breakthrough and salvation in the predicament.