Arjun instead mentioned the salary would be five thousand rupees with a two year contract which stupefied Bhargav, he did not think Arjun would be stupid enough to give out more salary unnecessarily but since they were in middle of the interview he stayed put observing expressions on Srikanth's face and sufficed to say it was very entertaining.
It took a while for Srikanth to digest the counter offer fully after which he gave a jubilant smile and promised he would perform the job to the best of his abilities which satisfied Arjun who asked him to stay back in the agency as he had some more matters to discuss with is production manager but it was not the time to do so as they were still in middle of their interviews.
Arjun then informed the secretary at the agency to send back others who came for the same position as he didn't not want to waste more of their holiday time. This was something Arjun hated from his previous life where companies would still conduct the interviews even after they found the idle person for the job in the name of better possibilities.
Arjun rather preferred to spend more time on other stuff rather than searching for better options when he already found the right one.
Then came the interviews for the position of Quality control officer which was a very crucial position in Arjun's mind as any mismanagement in thus department would lead to devastating consequences. So he wanted someone experienced for this job but wondered how many would be willing to do so by moving so far away to a village.
This was something Arjun couldn't solve as most elderly did not want to move away from their comfortable city life and one major factor was their children attending far better private schools in the cities.
The first person to enter was Bhaskar Rao who did his B.Sc in microbiology almost twenty years ago which was quite the achievement during those times so Arjun was curios about the person as he was already impressed by the guy's track record.
When Bhaskar Rao entered the room and noticed a kid sitting in the main interviewer chair he was disturbed a lot. He felt being interviewed by a kid would be an insult to his career and said so on Arjun's face and made his way out.
Bhargav who was beside Arjun tried to console Arjun saying there would be such people but Arjun had already been expecting this. After all elders of these generation were very rigid in their minds and would not normally take advices from their younger ones. He could imagine how insulting it would have been for the guy to be interviewed by a ten year kid but this was something they had to deal with on their own.
If they came to know that their owner was a ten year old kid after they were hired to the position and could not accept it, it would be way more tougher problem to deal with so Arjun figured this would be for the better. At least this way people would be honest like Bhaskar and leave on their own if they were not okay with working for a kid unlike their new production manager who did not even for a second think about those issues.
Next who entered the room was a young woman in her early thirties, even though Arjun wanted to hire an older person he figured this would have to do as they only had two person who attended for the quality control officer interview and if this woman too was gone then they would have to wait for another week for a better option.
Vijaya Lakshmi who had done her B.Sc in Andhra Loyola college the same college Vinod was from was also surprised to find a young kid sitting at the main chair but since she was in urgent need of a job she did not pay much attention to it and took her seat at the table.
Hello Vijaya Lakshmi you can call me Arjun, i am your main interviewer and this here is Bhargav he's the accounts manager for our factory and will be occasionally questioning you Arjun introduced himself and Bhargav tot he lady.
Hello....siirr, Vijaya replied unsure on how to address a kid. She felt addressing him as sir was very uncomfortable thing to do.
No need for the honorifics you can call me Arjun
Hello Arjun, hope your day's going well so far. This time she was much more fluid in her vocab which impressed both Arjun and Bhargav as during these times it was rare to see such a confident women.
So here it says you used to work as a assistant lab manager at Raj chemicals for a couple years and took a gap of three years before you came to this interview, what happened?
Upon hearing this question her entire demeanor changed but she quickly got hold of herself and replied I had family matters to deal with Arjun.
Hmm... okay, do you know you'll have to live in a village to work in the factory as working up and down from the town is neigh impossible unless you own a car?
Yes Arjun i am okay with moving there if salary meets my expectations.
Good, can you tell me more about steps you need to take to make an environment sterile and conduct contamination experiments on a liquid.
Vijaya thought for a while and explained both processes in detail.
Arjun and Bhargav were both impressed by her explanation and Arjun moved onto some general knowledge ands IQ questions to check her intellectuality all of them were perfectly answered by her.
Arjun then asked when would she be able to join their factory if she was hired to which she replied in a couple of weeks.
Since the machines have not yet arrived and are yet to be assembled Arjun was fine with the timeline and enquired how much salary she was expecting.
Vijaya hesitatingly replied four thousand rupees which made both of them across the table stunned.
This was the same salary Srikanth was expecting and Quality control position which was lower than the production manager position quoting the same salary was difficult to digest for Bhargav. He was about to say something but Arjun raised his hand and explained their previous interview details to Vijaya and asked if she could reconsider her quotation.
Vijaya Lakshmi was adamant about the salary expectation and did not want to take a step back. Arjun felt there might be something else going on which she was not revealing as it was very suspicious for a women who was away from the field for over three years to come back and that too expecting such high salaries.
What Vijaya promised though was she would be willing to spend over ten hours at the factory if the need arises.
Arjun was satisfied with the promise and offered the same time period contract he made with Srikanth but with a salary of four thousand rupees per month.
Vijaya Lakshmi who was expecting to be rejected signed the contract teary eyed and thanked both of them profusely before leaving. Arjun handed her their factory address and asked her to arrive within two weeks which she agreed to and left.
Next interview was for the position of floor supervisors which had more applicants than the previous two positions as it was much more easy to be qualified for as the qualifications needed for it are either a Diploma or six to eight years of working experience on a factory floor which was the one most applicants had.
First four interviews for this position went on pretty normally but most of them did not meet Arjun's expectations as all of them were experienced and were very rigid in their work place policies and some even rejected the policies Arjun named as unsuitable for a factory environment.
Finally the fifth Applicant who was a recent graduate from the same Andhra Loyola college was much better as he was okay with the policies Arjun had handed him and even proposed a couple changes which were suitable for a friendly working environment.
Arjun was impressed by this guy and signed the contract on spot for the same two year time period but for a two thousand rupee salary which was considerably lesser from the other two positions but it made sense as it was a common position and easily replaceable.
Next came the Packaging Supervisor, Arjun was already getting tired by now and went through the applications again and chose a guy with over ten years of experience in a beverage factory and was looking for a promotion.
After the interview Arjun and Bhargav were satisfied by his forward thinking as he was much more accepting towards Arjun's policies and even mentioned he would have loved to work in such a place previously. They signed the contract for salary of eighteen hundred rupees per month and the interviews were finally done.