Chapter 3

"Eddie, I'd like to speak to you."

I arrived at the company's front desk the next morning to see most of the employees looking tired and frazzled. They looked like they had been rushing to catch the earliest subway in the morning.

Jenny's eyes were red as she told the people around her, while clocking in, that her son had been crying in the morning because he did not want her to leave.

Jack Chorley was carrying a dark gray backpack on his back, with his hair looking like a mess. He must have rushed to the subway on his bicycle.

Eddie arrived at 8:59 am at the office. He even smiled at me. "Good morning, Mr. Samson."

"Come to my office."

He followed me into the office, but I did not let him take a seat. "About your post online…"

"Oh, that." He put down his backpack. "I was only telling the truth. The lights were on in the office at 3:00 am, and it was true that I was working."

"According to the attendance system, you weren't in the office most of the time this month."

"Well, it was flexible hours then. You were the one who set the rule that we weren't required to follow the regular work hours."

I said, "Your attendance isn't up to standard this month."

"That's because no one gave me any work. Isn't this a management problem?"

I looked at him as he looked back at me. The way he was looking at me made me feel uncomfortable. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew what he was saying.

"The screenshot you took of my text was missing some sentences."

"All I did was take a screenshot of the main point of the conversation." He tilted his head slightly. "You can't deny that it's true that you texted your employee at 2:00 am, can you, Mr. Samson? It doesn't matter how many times you tell me it's not urgent. Can an employee really pretend not to see any of his boss' texts?"

Eddie's answers sounded too well-prepared.

"Who taught you to say those words?"

He started looking a little shifty. "No one. Those are my words."

"An influencer called Workers' Alliance with three million followers shared your post. Do you know that influencer?"

"No, I don't. Anyone can share a post online."

I stopped asking questions and said, "You can go back to work."

Eddie walked out but suddenly stopped at the door. "I'll have to remind you, Mr. Samson, that everyone online is on my side. If you take any action on me, it will only blow things up even bigger."

He closed the door behind him, and Jenny dashed in from the conference room next door, trembling with anger. "That arrogant jerk! Mr. Samson, you should…"

"Let him be for now."

"Why?"

"Because he's right. Any action taken on him will only be seen as revenge on my part."

I returned to my computer and saw a new email in my inbox. It was a second email from Joe.

[Mr. Samson, I noticed that your company has a management issue when it comes to dealing with your employees, and there has been talk about major clients reevaluating their business relationship with your company.

[As an investor who is considering funding your company, we would like to assess this further. Please keep in touch.]

I read the email three times.

Joe and I had met twice, and he was a calm and collected man who always got straight to the point. Sending me that email was his way of informing me that the decision to invest in the company depended on how I managed the situation.

At 2:00 pm, an even bigger problem occurred. The representative of our biggest client, Saul Corman, called me.

"Mr. Samson, I saw the news about your company. It's not that I don't trust you, but our company has the policy of assessing our vendors' reputation. Now that your company is trending negatively online, we need to postpone signing the contract until all of this blows over."

"Mr. Corman…"

"Please don't make things difficult for me, Mr. Samson. I can't change the decision of my superiors."

He hung up after that.

The contract was worth ten million, and it was the company's core revenue for this quarter. I sat in my office to stare outside the window until it turned dark.

At 5:00 pm sharp, the electricity and the internet were cut off, and I could hear the noise of shuffling footsteps and complaints coming from the corridor.

Some employees did not manage to save their code in time, while others had their emails deleted while they were still drafting them.

"Mr. Samson, Mr. Jenkins called a few people to the pantry for a small meeting."

"What are they planning to discuss?"

"He said that it's just as well that things blew up this way, so that you can improve how you manage the company."

I laughed.

"What are you laughing about, Mr. Samson?"

"I'm laughing because he's forgetting something."

"What is it?"

"That he's just an employee."