Almighty Coach

The HR manager knocked on the door and went inside the room. He found himself smiling as soon as he saw the person that was sitting at the head of the table. "Director Zhao, I heard that you came back from the business trip. How was it?"

"Not bad. I finished all the errands," Director Zhao said, giving him a look that asked him to have a seat.

The manager was pretty cautious in front of Zhao, trying to give him nothing but respect. Although his position was as just as important as Director Zhao’s, his words meant less than his. The training department was the most powerful one in the sports school.

On top of that, the vice principal, who was also in charge of HR, had just retired. Some said that Director Zhao would get promoted to replace the retired vice president. The HR manager had to give his respect to the future vice president and affiliated leader of the HR office, if for no other reason that to leave the future leader with a good impression of him.

The HR manager cleared his throat and changed his tone to report the work. "The summer training classes will begin soon. We already hired 30 coaching assistants to help us, but we need your help allocating them into different classes. I brought you their information." The HR manager took out the file from his briefcase and gave it to Director Zhao.

"It’s no big deal. Just do it according to the number of students in each class." Although Director Zhao had said it casually, his expression showed that he was very satisfied with how the HR manager was speaking. Director Zhao had already started to enjoy this feeling of being treated like a vice president, even if it had not happened yet.

He took the file and flipped through a few pages of the new assistants’ information. A name stood out to him.

"Dai Li?" Director Zhao frowned a little bit as his eyes glanced at the sheet.

"Dai Li is a college student who just graduated this year. He majored in sports training and he even has a teaching qualification certificate. He ranked first on the written test, and his results for the fitness test were above average too. I think he is an outstanding young person, and I heard that he had some working experience coaching a class of 30 students for the high school PE entrance exam," the HR manager said, introducing him immediately.

"That’s him! How dare he come here. There are hundreds of ways leading to heaven, but unfortunately you chose the one to hell!" Director Zhao thought to himself. He raised his head the next second and said, "No, we can’t hire this Da Li!"

"No?" The HR manager was confused by what Director Zhao had said.

Zhao began giving his explanation. "A sports training major student with excellent grades and a teaching qualification certificate. People like him will definitely take the exam to become a permanent employee instead of simply being a contract employee for our sports school. We won’t be able to keep him anyway. It’s better to let him go now to find a better position!"

"So, you mean...?" the HR manager asked with uncertainty.

"Since we wouldn’t be able to keep him anyway, we are better off not wasting our time and energy recruiting him. Think about it—we try our best to help him develop into an excellent coach, then lose him. Isn’t that kind of a waste? We can use those same resources to develop someone who will stay. The best action for the future of our school is to develop talents and keep them," Director Zhao said.

"Bullshxt!" the HR manager thought to himself. He could already tell that Dai Li must have offended the director, so he had come up with this excuse to keep Dai Li away. However, the director’s excuse was not smooth enough that everybody would be fooled.

Although the HR manager knew Director Zhao was just abusing his authority to take personal revenge, he had no reason to defend a temporary contract employee who was still in his trial period without any background, and go against the future vice principal. He nodded and said, "I got it. I’ll fire him right away!"

...

"I didn’t pass the trial period? I’m fired? Why? What did I do wrong?" Dai Li asked, confused.

These past few days he had worked really hard. He hadn’t done everything perfectly, but he was definitely not the worst among the new assistants. There were a bunch of people who were clearly worse than him. And considering his advantages in degree and major, Dai Li never thought that he would be the first one to be kicked out.

The HR manager sighed slightly and looked at Dai Li pitifully. "This was a decision made by our leader. I’m just following his instructions. I told you before that I would be able to fire any of you during the trial period. I’ll give you a memo. Go to the finance section to get your salary for the days you’ve worked."

"Decision from the leader?" Dai Li felt even more lost. He had only been here for a few days. He didn’t even know who the leader was. How could he have offended the leader of the sports school?

Dai Li was a stubborn person—he needed to get to the bottom of this. He didn’t want to leave without even knowing why. He called Professor Qinghua Sun, hoping he could help him to figure out the reason he had been fired.

Qinghua Sun was also surprised that the person he had recommended was fired for no reason. He asked around about it, and later Dai Li received a call from him the same afternoon.

"Did you offend Director Zhao?" Qinghua Sun asked directly.

"Director Zhao? Zhao who?" Dai Li asked.

"Director Zhao of the training department. He was the one who decided you needed to be fired," Qinghua Sun said.

Dai Li tried to remember, but still couldn’t think of anything related to this Director Zhao. He said, "I really don’t know this Director Zhao. I’ve only been here a few days. I haven’t even been to the training department. How could I have offended him?"

"Think more carefully. This Shouren Zhao was not just some unrelated person in our school. I heard that he is going to be promoted during the second half of the year and become one of the leaders of the school!" Qinghua Sun said.

"I really have no idea what I did that offended him...wait, what’s his name again?" A thought suddenly popped into Dai Li’s head.

"Shouren Zhao," Qinghua Sun repeated.

"Does he have a relative called Shouliang Zhao? The one who works as a coach for the municipal sports team?" Dai Li asked immediately.

"Well now that you mention it, I think so. He does have a younger brother on the municipal sports team who teaches standing long jump. But I don’t know his name exactly," Qinghua Sun said.

"Then that’s him! I guess I can never get rid of this Shouliang Zhao." Dai Li had finally realized what happened. The director had fired him to get revenge for his younger brother.