Office Chairs in 'The Song of Ordinary People'

In 'The Song of Ordinary People', the plot related to office chairs mainly revolves around the incident where Shen Lin, after joining Zhu Peidong's company, deals with three broken chairs, involving conflicts in workplace interpersonal relationships and administrative management. Details are as follows:

Cause and Handling of the Incident
After joining Zhu Peidong's company, Shen Lin was assigned to set up the conference room and found that three of the office chairs were damaged. The administrative staff, Peng Xinyi, asked her to contact the manufacturer for new chair deliveries, but the manufacturer required five days for delivery, which was too urgent to meet the demand. To quickly resolve the issue, Shen Lin took the initiative to purchase three second-hand chairs at an actual cost of 700 yuan (she spent 1000 yuan on the second-hand chairs and earned 300 yuan by selling the slightly damaged old chairs, resulting in a net expenditure of 700 yuan). Although this action addressed the immediate need, she did not follow the procedure by reporting to her direct supervisor, Peng Xinyi, but instead bypassed her and reported directly to the company's boss, Zhu Peidong.

Escalation of Workplace Conflicts
Zhu Peidong approved of Shen Lin's 'flexible handling' and publicly praised her cost-saving approach. However, this action directly affected the interests of Peng Xinyi, who was responsible for office supplies procurement. Previously, Peng Xinyi had engaged in wasteful spending during procurement. Shen Lin's 'low-cost solution' made Zhu Peidong aware of the irrationality of administrative expenses and indirectly criticized Peng Xinyi's work. Additionally, Zhu Peidong asked Shen Lin to further review the company's administrative expenses and identify other areas for optimization. This arrangement further intensified the conflict between Shen Lin and Peng Xinyi, with the latter believing that Shen Lin's actions were overstepping her authority and threatening her position.

Underlying Workplace Logic of the Incident
This plot reflects the conflict between procedural norms and flexible adaptability in the workplace, as well as the impact of bypassing direct supervisors on workplace relationships. Shen Lin's initial intention was to solve the problem efficiently, but her failure to follow the reporting procedure made her direct supervisor, Peng Xinyi, feel ignored. Zhu Peidong's praise, on the other hand, reflected the management's need for cost control and indirectly exposed issues in administrative management. This incident also highlights the challenge of balancing 'results orientation' and 'procedural justice' in the workplace, as well as the potential changes in power structures that can result from cross-level communication.