Chapter 5 Office Automation

  Su Cheng came to the Petroleum Department with great enthusiasm. After explaining his intention at the gate, he walked into the office building smoothly.

  This is a building with a majestic exterior and a thick interior, with faint signs of decoration. The stairs and corridors have not undergone major changes. Only when entering the personnel labor office on the third floor can you see the not-so-smooth floor and blue paint, which is considered simple by Su City's standards.

  A minor clerk in the personnel department, with a natural air of arrogance on his face. When he heard that Su Cheng was from Peking University, he slightly smiled and said: "Director Liu is attending a meeting, he specifically instructed me to ask you to wait for a moment, would you like some tea?"

  "Plain water is fine."

  The clerk poured him a glass of boiled water and went back to his own business.

  Su Cheng lazily lifted her legs, waiting with ease. The personnel department was powerful, and the allocated office was also good, directly facing the lush green trees in the backyard, with a unique view.

  The only thing that's a bit annoying is that the big office is too noisy. Four or five staff members are crowded around two computers, and next to them, there are several old men moving documents...

  Computer? Su Cheng suddenly had an idea, in 1987 China, this was a rare thing.

  Taking advantage of the commotion, Su Cheng squeezed forward and leaned against a small clerk's shoulder to take a look inside.

  On the Japanese brand computer, there was a big "286" logo on it. The monitor's butt was big and long, but the screen for display was small and square. At this time, what was being used was the familiar Excel in Suzhou.

  However, looking at the annoyed expressions of those clerks around, it's clear that this software is not user-friendly.

  Two computers, two people reading out numbers, two people typing, and three others standing by: "Oh no, the name is wrong again."

  "It's too hard to deal with."

  "Minister Ma also said that it's necessary to print out files, in the past hand-drawn ones were better..."

  After listening for a while, Su Cheng understood. The Petroleum Department was promoting office automation, requiring electronic reports, documents, and emails with new technologies. But looking around at the staff, he knew that almost all of them were from the movement era, the older ones were old athletes, the younger ones only learned sports, they were good at criticizing and struggling, writing something was just so-so, playing with technology was completely clueless.

  The Excel spreadsheet was messed up by them, and it's already a mess. The personnel department has a large workload for reporting, and there is a strict time limit, so I got frustrated and scolded in a moment.

  Su Cheng looked at it for a while, cleared his throat and said: "The problem of consistency between subsidiary company names and department names can be solved using data validity function."

  "What? What?"

  Su Cheng squeezed in, grasped the long-unseen mouse, felt a wave of emotion for a moment, and then started operating directly.

  "After a while, looking at their documents again, he said: 'I see that you have quite a bit of the same data, these can be put together.'"

  "How can they be put together? They are not connected." The little fatty on the seat, with eyes shining, quickly tried it out. Unfortunately, he only knew how to use the mouse and keyboard to select horizontal or vertical cells.

  Su Cheng suddenly understood that these staff members simply did not know how to use Excel.

  In comparison, he spent two years with electronic spreadsheets at Petroleum University, so he said: "Non-continuous cells can also input the same data, let me demonstrate."

  Su Cheng snatched the mouse from the little hand of the person in front of him and started operating it.

  Within seconds, dozens of data from different locations were fed in.

  The task is expected to be completed, and a group of clerks suddenly became excited. Someone shouted: "Ah, there's a master, we're saved."

  The usually calm gentlemen finally lost their composure and swarmed in, surrounding the computer where Su was sitting, asking him questions one after another.

  Excel was still in its infancy at that time, but it had already taken shape. After getting familiar with Excel in Suzhou, solving their basic problems became a breeze.

  Before he knew it, a loud cough sounded from behind him. Liu Zongchang's stern voice rang out: "What are you all surrounding and staring at? What does it look like?"

  The old man was pitifully begging at the Peking University admissions office, but back in the Petroleum Department, he still had a majestic image.

  Su Cheng smiled secretly and stood up, shouting: "Director Liu, I'm reporting for duty today."

  "Suzhou." Liu's expression slightly cleared up, and he asked: "What are you doing?"

  When they saw each other, someone stood up and laughed: "Director, Comrade Su Cheng is a computer expert, teaching us to use electronic spreadsheet software."

  Liu Shouzhang raised an eyebrow and asked in a very official tone, "Su Cheng, you're a Chinese major student, how did you become a computer expert?"

  Su Cheng humbly said: "I came into contact with it in school and understand a bit."

  "It's not that I understand a bit, Su is much more capable than Japanese technicians. Director Liu, with his help, our report today has a chance to be completed." The crowd lifted the flower sedan chair, and with the eyes of the personnel department, it was easy to see Director Liu's tendency, and with one word and one phrase, they had already made Su Cheng into one of the few computer experts in the world who possessed ancestral secret recipes.

  As for computers and ancestral relationships, no one cares about this topic.

  Su Cheng is a high-educated talent who was recruited back by Liu Shizhang. The better he performs, the more it proves Liu Shizhang's vision.

  Then, Director Cai turned back into an old man's image, laughing happily with yellow teeth, and said: "Alright, Little Han will go to Su City to handle the procedures. Little Su, you can help them first."

  Su Cheng responded with a sound and then busied himself in the office.

  Liu also stayed in the office, watching him operate the computer with great interest.

  For people of this era, computers are incredibly magical machines, far more magical than TVs and photocopiers. But even TVs and photocopiers, most people haven't seen them before. Even the mouse, which is now a common thing for modern people, was not standard equipment on 286 computers. The personnel department's Japanese brand computer used Windows 2.0, so they installed two mice, while other departments were still using DOS systems and didn't even have a mouse.

  Apart from recent graduates, ordinary clerks in central government ministries are mostly around 30 years old, have been to the mountains and countryside, may have attended worker-peasant-soldier universities, but uniquely have not received systematic education. Faced with a large amount of English and inaccurate Chinese terminology translation, it is inevitable that they will be at a loss.

  It's just that among high and middle-level cadres of Liu's age, there are many solid old university students who can gain some insights after careful consideration.

  Director Han has completed the formalities and came to Liu Zong and Su Cheng, smiling and asking: "Director, which department did Little Su send?"

  Liu asked without turning his head: "Little Su, which department do you want to go to?"

  Everyone cast sidelong glances at him.

  Being able to choose where to go is definitely not ordinary treatment.

  Su Cheng said with a smile: "I am a brick of the revolution, wherever it is needed, I will move there. However, I hope to go to the oil field and do practical work."

  After all, petroleum engineering is what he understands.

  Liu didn't take it seriously, thinking to himself, "You're a student from the Chinese Department of Peking University, what can you do in an oil field?" He hesitated for a moment, recalling Su's behavior earlier, and said, "Alright, you'll stay in the personnel department for now. Help everyone with the forms over the next couple of days, get familiar with the environment here, and then we'll make a decision."

  This was an unprecedented favor, and everyone looked at each other in surprise, then seemed to understand and made their own judgments. After Liu Zong walked away, they all swarmed forward to flatter him.

  The little fatty who was sitting in front of the computer also didn't dare to show weakness and said to Su Cheng: "Su brother, take me as your apprentice."