Short story: A new spirit

Nam was certain he wouldn't be able to finish on time. The company had thousands of workers, divided into several workshops, with overlapping shifts. Suddenly being asked to create a detailed plan for a summer festival for the workers' children was simply impossible. And then there was the matter of a detailed budget estimate. It had to be done urgently, and submitted this afternoon. Sighing and frowning, Nam firmly believed that only his company's union chairman was the most difficult person. Nowhere else was like this. From the HR desk, Vinh glanced over and chuckled. It was only early morning, and the union desks were already complaining. With the economy tough, everything was streamlined; having work was a blessing.

Our company specializes in manufacturing work safety clothing for export to Japan. Since the pandemic, orders have been scarce, and prices have remained stagnant. We've negotiated numerous orders, but our Japanese partners haven't agreed to increase wages. With the economy recovering, we're grateful that both sides are willing to take a small loss to keep our factories running. In reality, some workers have quit when their income started to decline. But many others are holding on, sighing with frustration. Switching from one company to another doesn't really change anything; it's the general situation. Starting a new job now means losing many benefits. Not every company guarantees timely salaries and bonuses. Not to mention birthday benefits like our company provides. Furthermore, we receive money from the union for illnesses and other family events, like funerals or weddings.

Just across the street, at a crossroads, the bra underwire company also collaborates with Japan. Last year, their 13th-month bonus was only half their basic salary, and even with the union's extra Lunar New Year gifts, it was still less than what we get here. They don't have birthday celebrations either. And they don't even give bonuses to workers' children who excel in school. It's impossible to compare. If you're always looking for something better elsewhere, you won't last more than a few months, let alone ten years. And go ask around at work; if you want to get promoted, you have to be dedicated and have a long tenure. Ms. Loan, the HR manager, spoke like a wake-up call to her colleagues.

After reorganizing departments and workshops, the company decided to merge the human resources and union departments. The large office, located in the newly built office building, was divided into two rows of desks. The left side was for human resources, the right for the union. Each department head sat at the head of the row. The director said that, after much consideration, giving each department a separate office was wasteful; after all, human resources and the union had many related tasks, so combining them into one large office was in line with the merger and streamlining policy. The director smiled broadly after saying this. The employees from the two departments, who previously sat on different floors and had to scramble to find each other when needed, no longer needed that. Now, they could easily access necessary information within a few steps of the shared office.

"Why don't you try going over to the Marketing department and asking An? Just last week at the weekly meeting, we heard that kid completed the quarterly plan in just half a day," Loan suggested. The others glanced towards the front of the room. A quarterly plan done in half a day? Their eyes widened in disbelief. Loan, however, remained resolute, nodding emphatically. "Oh my goodness, we spend all day typing documents in Word or creating spreadsheets in Excel. The technical and marketing departments are much more adept at adopting technology than we are. Go over there and learn from them!"

But Nam wasn't close to An. The company had thousands of employees; even lunchtime had to be divided into three shifts for the cafeteria to serve everyone. Or the annual outings or year-end parties were just departmental get-togethers for a brief moment of fun before everyone went back to work. They rarely had the chance to chat and become close. Before he could finish his thoughts, Vinh excitedly exclaimed, "I know An very well! His brother works in the import-export department, and he's my best friend!" Then Vinh ran up, grabbed Nam by the collar, and dragged him downstairs, across the internal corridor, into the office building opposite.

The sun was high in the sky. The June sun cast a golden glow on the deserted courtyard where the old crape myrtle tree stood, its blossoms ablaze with vibrant red flowers.

***

Less than two hours later, Nam and Vinh's voices could be heard boisterously outside the office door. Of course, the two boys appeared with radiant smiles. Their achievement was a completed plan for a summer festival for the company's employees' children, spanning over ten pages. It was amazing! We'd always heard about AI and thought that office workers like us wouldn't need to touch it, only those in engineering or technology departments would. Turns out, it really is amazing.

That's Vinh, the most mischievous kid in the General Affairs department.
Loan also looked up. The whole room turned its attention to the two boys who had just returned from the Marketing department. They had to be trusted, because normally a plan would take at least a day to complete. But they'd just scurried off, and before lunchtime they were back, beaming with excitement, as if they'd discovered a secret or at least achieved a great victory. But Loan knew Vinh's words too well; she'd have to reduce the amount by half to believe him. Only Nam, the honest boy from the Mekong Delta, was more trustworthy. Loan looked at Nam, as if asking a question. But Nam nodded in confirmation, "That's great, sister! We really need to upgrade ourselves. It's truly amazing. We just need to type in all the requirements, then sit and wait, and the screen will slowly display them. The more detailed the command, the more detailed it becomes for us." Even the budget estimate, it integrates market prices and provides an overall cost, with an error rate of only 5 percent. And that's not all, I asked it to design games for children. In less than 10 minutes, it listed a dozen summer activities. It even designed invitation cards, banners, and could create a program script according to my requirements. Wow, why didn't I know about AI sooner! That was Nam's exclamation after all the stories he told about AI.

Loan approached the two boys and picked up the plan to read. She flipped through the pages, scrutinizing each sentence, then pondered thoughtfully. "So, it writes the text and calculates the costs at the same time?" The two boys nodded in agreement without hesitation. The whole room buzzed with excitement. "If we apply it to the paperwork and advisory work of our General Affairs department, it will save a lot of time," a few girls whispered. Another suggested they go over there and ask them for more guidance. Just as the question was uttered, Vinh whispered, "Quiet, ladies! I've whispered something in An's ear, asking him to come over this afternoon to install an AI program for our department and teach us how to use it. You'll see, I told you it's amazing. It can take over our workload, save us time, and allow us to tackle even more tasks. And only I can teach it! Other departments are vying to have it taught!" It's not easy to get it to come to me as soon as possible.

As soon as Vinh finished speaking, the women in the room burst into applause and laughter. Anything that benefits the work is something to celebrate. Instead of spending a whole day like before, now it only takes two hours – that's fantastic! Lunch today, we'll definitely eat quickly, no nap, and set up the tables and chairs waiting for Professor An! Someone's voice, mixed with laughter, filled the room with excitement!

***

The union chairman was taken aback when he received the detailed and complete plan. It even included banner designs and a program script. "What? We were so busy this morning, and now it's only early afternoon and we have to present it?" Nam was still bewildered, not knowing how to explain, when Loan, from the next table, came over and said, "You don't know, it's AI. An from Marketing just came over and showed us the basics. It turns out you just type your requests into the chatbox and it automatically does it for you. Really, no more typing away like before. There are many AIs, but overall, they're fast, saving a lot of human effort and time. For example, later when you're drafting union documents or disseminating information, just type the command into chatGPT, and it will create the document according to your request. You just make a few adjustments to make it suitable. This takes about 15 minutes." If you asked me to write a document outlining the benefits of joining a trade union, I'd probably spend an entire afternoon racking my brains trying to come up with the right words. But this guy, he provides excellent, comprehensive information and produces a result in just 10 minutes. Because he integrates data from numerous sources, you can find all the relevant regulations in less than a minute.

"That's what I think, we should expand this to the whole company, sir! At the very least, we should learn from the young people, especially in this digital age," Ms. Loan concluded. The union chairman looked thoughtful, then held the summer plan for children and examined it for a long time.

***

The AI ​​training course was quickly approved and organized under the direction of the Director. The union took charge of organizing it, and each workshop and department had to send representatives. The goal was to learn how to use ChatGPT for drafting, analyzing, and answering questions; how to use Canva AI for quick and efficient image creation for communication; or, most simply, how to use Zalo OA with BotStar to automatically send messages to union members and check on workers… There were so many benefits. The class list was updated in the company's general chat group. After some hesitation, the union chairman decided to name the course "New Spirit." Naturally, the chairman was the student ID number 001.

"Even though I'm old, I still have to learn AI to… well, to manage you mischievous little devils," he said, laughing. His smile was full of "new spirit." Outside, the sun was still shining, the cherry blossoms were still red, only the spirit had begun anew since the AI ​​class started.