Chapter 2

I vaguely remembered Savannah.

My company was in a traditional industry, and the mindset was pretty conservative.

Recently, my fiance, Jeremy Saxton, had urged me to hire a few young employees, saying they could lead the company into new business directions. I took his advice and let him handle everything. One of them, Savannah, was a newly hired management trainee.

Not only had I offered her a monthly salary of 10,000 dollars with 15 months' pay by year's end, but I'd also mapped out her future promotion path. I never expected her to be this extreme.

"What about the other veteran employees?" I asked.

Rachel sighed and showed me another chat window. It turned out Savannah had spun up a separate group, which she'd been spamming since last night.

"Everyone, don't go in tomorrow. Listen to me. The company won't dare do anything to you! It's a public holiday, anyway. Even if you don't go back, the company has no right to dock a single cent!

"As for triple pay and compensated time-off, that's just the boss dangling carrots. Take it with a grain of salt—no, a jar of salt!"

I scrolled down, and my heart skipped a beat.

Jeremy's profile photo appeared in the chat history. "I think Sav makes a good point. She studied law—she wouldn't mislead anyone.

"And this is on Ms. Sadler. She suddenly demanded that everyone switch their rest days without even considering whether people were okay with it. You don't have to listen to her. Don't worry—if anything happens, I'll take the heat."

Jeremy and I had been together for five years, and he was now my fiance. How could he say something like that?

I had planned to go ahead with marrying him after this shipment went out and having him help manage the company. But now, he was saying things like that behind my back.

What chilled me even more were the employees. The company has never treated them poorly. For Thanksgiving, we even gave each person a 3,000-dollar bonus. Yet they actually believed the lies Savannah and Jeremy were spinning.

They turned their backs on the company at this difficult time.

Rachel studied my expression, hesitant to speak.

Before I could respond, a few uniformed people walked in. The officer in the lead pulled out a complaint and said briskly, "Hello, we're from the labor inspection department. We received a report that your company is illegally adjusting rest days. We need to ask about the situation."

I stared at the document. Right there was a screenshot of the notice I'd sent yesterday.

In the warehouse, several workers looked over anxiously. The equipment was still soaking in water. If we didn't act soon, they would be completely ruined.

Someone online suddenly commented, "I heard Sadler Group's warehouse is in the area hardest hit by the floods. Could the overtime be to bring people back to help save the goods?"

Savannah saw that comment and scoffed. "What does her damaged warehouse have to do with me? Do I own it? As the person benefiting from the company profits, shouldn't she have had measures in place before the flood?

"Now, she wants everyone to help her clean up the mess. Is she giving out the company's shares to all of us? I'm telling you—this is what happens when you're too gullible. You're getting brainwashed by these evil capitalists!"

Most people praised her.

"As expected from Gen Z—she really sees through everything. I think her boss is manipulative!"

"Agreed. She's squeezing every last drop of usefulness from her employees. Do you think someone that stingy would resell the parts that were soaked?"

"Oh, God. Don't tell me she's making employees fish out waterlogged parts so she can put them back on the market!"

"Those are auto parts! If something fails, people could die!"

"What an unscrupulous company! Hurry up and go under!"

If Savannah was just venting about working overtime and the adjusted rest days, I could understand that. But smearing the company's reputation was a different matter.

I closed my eyes for a second, then turned to Rachel. "Immediately send out a notice canceling today's overtime."

She was taken aback. She glanced at the wrecked warehouse. "But…"

I continued, "Then, issue an additional notice. All employee holidays will strictly follow statutory rules from now on. So, the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays will go from a month's paid leave to seven days per the legal standard!"

Rachel stared at me in disbelief. But soon, she nodded.

The moment the first notice went out, Savannah smiled triumphantly into the camera. "The boss canceled overtime! Looks like my report worked. She brought this on herself!

"I refuse to help an employer harm others. Don't worry, babes. There's no way I'll give in to her! This is just an employer-employee relationship, anyway. Everything will be handled strictly according to the contract and the law."

She even posted a smug, snarky message on her Instagram story. "I'm Gen Z, and I say no to gaslighting! This is just a tiny lesson for my boss!"

The next second, the new WhatsApp group chat she'd created exploded.