Chapter 2

Three years of my blood, sweat, and tears… Nearly one million dollars of personal subsidies every year… But it'd all been reduced to being "heartless" and "desperate for money".

Susan shoved her phone toward me, her hand shaking.

"Ms. Clarke! The internal company chat has blown up! Everyone's reposting Cecily's video, and some people are even… Some are even saying they're going to report us to the Department of Labor and the Department of Revenue!"

She paused, her voice dropping even lower. "And also… the cafeteria's Chef Pollard just sent word through someone. He asked if we plan to lay off his team and said that several suppliers have been calling about overdue payments…"

My phone rang again. It was the project director from our biggest client, Stellar Group.

His tone was extremely serious. "Ms. Clarke. I've seen the trending news about your company. Our company cares deeply about the reputation and stability of our partners. The board… has expressed serious concern about your current employee relations and the public backlash."

This was a major contract our marketing department had pursued for a whole year, with over five million dollars in annual profit. The profit from this single deal would directly determine the year-end bonuses for everyone in the company.

I took a deep breath, knuckles whitening from how tightly I clenched my fists.

My mind went back to the day of Cecily's final interview two months ago. As the final-round interviewer, the last question I asked her was, "Why did you choose our company?"

Her eyes had sparkled then, full of excitement and hope.

"Ms. Clarke! I've watched all your interviews! I especially resonate with what you said about how a company should be the strongest support for its employees! Especially the cafeteria here—it's practically a legend in the industry! It's my dream to work here!"

Strongest support? Legend?

I also recalled that in recent employee feedback sessions, there was always one longtime employee, nearly ten years in, leading the complaints. His name was Jeremy Stinson, from the technical department.

"Aren't our company's benefits a bit too excessive? Eating like this every day—how much does this cafeteria cost daily?

"Ms. Clarke is still too young and doesn't know how to manage money. How much company profit is wasted here?"

And every single time, Cecily just happened to be sitting next to him, nodding furiously.

I laughed bitterly.

Had I done too well these past three years that they had come to take everything for granted? Did they assume I was a pushover—someone they could push around at will?

I opened my laptop and pulled up the administrative department's financial records for the past three years.

The award-winning chef team had an annual salary of 1.6 million dollars. Daily procurement costs for premium ingredients were around 12.5 thousand dollars. And then there were the costs of afternoon snacks for the employees, holiday benefits, and so on.

After deducting the company-approved basic meal subsidies, I personally had to subsidize the cafeteria by approximately 935 thousand dollars every year.

I closed the laptop, and calmness returned to my gaze.

Since all they could see was that "four dollars", then I'd just show them what would be left in their bowls without my subsidy.

I began drafting a new announcement.

At 9:30 am, I hadn't even left my office when the door was suddenly shoved open from the outside.

Cecily and Jeremy walked in one after the other. Cecily wore the smug expression of a victor, her back straight as her gaze swept over me appraisingly, while Jeremy had a hypocritical smile plastered on his face.

He spoke first, "Ms. Clarke, don't take it personally. Cecily's just outspoken and blunt. She doesn't have any bad intentions. She just felt that the sudden price hike hurt everyone's feelings, so she wanted to speak up for us longtime employees."

Cecily no longer pretended to hide anything. She shoved her phone screen right in front of my face, showing me the skyrocketing video stats.

"Have you seen this, Ms. Clarke? The whole internet is talking about our company."