Chapter 1

To ensure everyone in the company had a work-life balance, I decided to introduce flexible hours so employees could plan their time more freely.

"From now on, there will no longer be any regular working hours. The company will calculate the total working hours at the end of every month, and employees only need to complete the required working hours stipulated."

When this was announced, everyone cheered.

As they quietened, I continued, "If there is an emergency project required to be completed, employees may apply for extra hours, and they will be compensated accordingly.

"If the working hours do not meet the requirement, employees' salaries will be deducted in accordance with the missed hours."

At this point, the new rule was officially established.

Employees who had to fetch their children to school, senior employees who hated the rush hours, and younger employees who had trouble waking up early in the morning cheered with excitement.

"You're the best, Mr. Samson."

"Mr. Samson is my idol. You've given us a great company to work at!"

"This is great! I never need to be stuck for an hour in traffic every time I come to work!"

"Being stuck in traffic is nothing! This is great for people who have difficulty waking up in the morning! Night owls like us can finally go back to our normal life!"

It made me happy to see everyone excited about this new policy. I knew everyone had their personal lives to tend to, and I did not want work to get in the way of them living their lives. As long as everyone got their jobs done, it would be a win-win situation for all of us.

A few months after the company introduced this policy, most of the employees displayed excellent attitudes and a healthy demeanor. The company's profits had increased as well.

Employees who increased their performance earned a higher income when they produced better results at work, while others who were able to balance their work and life enjoyed a better lifestyle.

However, at the end of the month, a Gen-Z employee called Eddie Lundly posted something online in the middle of the night.

It was a picture of the office at 3:00 am with the caption: [Implementing flexible hours is a trap capitalists use to take advantage of employees. By blurring the lines between fixed hours and flex-hours, we end up thinking about work for 24 hours!]

This ignited the response of many netizens, and I ended up trending negatively online in the early hours of the morning.

"Check the internet, Mr. Samson!" A call from our administration supervisor, Jenny Carter, woke me up from my dreams. It was 4:17 am.

I went online and found the fifth trending topic with the headline: [Flexible hours is the capitalist's new trap for employees.]

When I clicked into it, I saw that Eddie's 3:00 am picture had been shared by an influencer with three million followers with the caption: [Another labor-churning factory pretending to be humane. Working flexible hours means that employees need to work for 24 hours and be expected to be on call at any time.]

The comments section exploded.

[What a horrible boss. It looks great on the surface that his employees don't need to work regular hours, but in reality, he's making them work extra hours at 3:00 am.]

[He should be reported to the Department of Labor.]

[I've reported him.]

As I continued scrolling through the comments, I saw several hundred netizens had posted the same comments.

[I've reported him.]

[I've reported him.]

[I've reported him.]

Jenny told me over the phone, "Eddie posted screenshots of our group chat where you made a request to amend a client's proposal, but he only included the part of your request that showed the 2:00 am timestamp."

"What was the original request?"

"He didn't include the part where you texted 'if you're free tomorrow' and 'it's not urgent'. What he shared was 'help me take a look at this proposal', and the timestamp recorded it at 2:03 am."

I was silent for a few seconds. "Did you pull out the information on his total work hours this month?"

"Yes, I did," Jenny replied in a low voice. "As of today, Eddie's actual work hours are only 62% of our standard working hours. He isn't in the office most of the time, which is why he stays late all the time to finish his work."

"So, that's the reason he posted the picture of himself working late at the office at 3:00 am."

"That's right."

I put my phone down and massaged my temple.

Eddie was absent from work most of the time, and when his work hours did not meet the required standard, he started to work overtime day and night. When he failed to complete his hours and work, he started to seek sympathy online.

When the morning came, the situation did not improve.

Celia Tomlinson, who worked at the company's front desk, came up to me looking troubled. "Mr. Samson, four groups of reporters are waiting for you downstairs. There is also a newsfluencer conducting a live stream with his phone at the entrance."

"I'm not seeing them."

"Also, we received a call from the Department of Labor. They received mass complaints about our company and have requested our cooperation to assist in their investigation.

My phone buzzed the moment I entered my office. It was a text from one of our company's managers, Charlie Jenkins.

[Mr. Samson, I think you should respond to the accusations. The online sentiment is damaging the company's reputation. I've been in this industry for decades and have never experienced anything like this before. If you need my help to handle this, I'm at your disposal.]

Before I could reply, I received a text from Mike Loeb.

[Mr. Samson, my department has three running projects with Ascott Limited, and they're concerned about the company's current predicament. My mentor, Charlie Jenkins, has a good relationship with them. How about getting his help to get in touch with them?]

Something did not feel right about both of these texts.

Charlie had been with the company for eight years, and his area of expertise was delegating his work to his subordinates. Mike was his mentee whom he had trained personally.

When Mike's mother was seriously ill and had to be hospitalized, the company's flexible hours policy allowed him to accompany his mother at the hospital every morning, and he would return to the office in the afternoon.

He had held my hand tightly when the flexible hours policy was announced, declaring, "Mr. Samson, I will always work for you."

Something did not feel right when Charlie and Mike started singing the same tune, and I found out the reason 30 minutes later.

Jenny looked pale when she entered my office again. "You should check the internet, Mr. Samson."

Charlie and Mike had posted something online, respectively.

The first post came from Charlie.

[As a senior employee who has been with the company for eight years, it's only right that I speak out for fairness. Working flexible hours sounds great, but in reality, all it brings to the employees is pressure. Would you dare to ignore your boss when he texts you in the middle of the night?

[If you don't reply to him, he might make your life difficult in the office. If you reply to him, it would take up your personal time. I don't want to offend anyone, but these are the facts.]

Mike's post followed.

[When my mother was hospitalized last year, I was grateful that the company allowed me flexible hours to arrange my time. However, being grateful doesn't mean that there aren't any issues with the system.

[Most of my colleagues have been unhappy about this, but no one has dared to say anything. Eddie exposed the truth behind the flexible hours and said what the rest of us were too afraid to voice.]

Both posts had tagged the same post that blew up.

"What should we do, Mr. Samson?"

I put my phone down on the table. "When is the Department of Labor visiting us?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"All right." I stood up. "Let them come."

"What about Charlie Jenkins and Mike Loeb?"

"Let them be. Let them run their mouths for now."

I looked out of the window and saw a newsfluencer with his phone still raised in the air to capture the company's logo.

My phone buzzed again. This time, it was an email from Joe Cross.

Joe was a potential partner crucial to our project, and he was still observing us as a company. The email only had one sentence: [I'm watching this very closely, Mr. Samson.]