Chapter 1

Early in the morning, someone from my company's Human Resources messaged me. They informed me that my team was being disbanded and that my team members would be reassigned to other groups.

Before I could even process that, the HR staff member secretly let slip another detail. The person being promoted to manager this time was another team lead from our department, Megan Osborn.

Megan's team had the worst performance in the entire department. She was only good at sucking up to others. She would spend her days buying drinks or bringing desserts into our superiors' offices.

I instantly felt my temper flare.

I had worked diligently at this company for five years, having joined just two months after the company was founded.

I was proficient in every functional department's operations and often trained other departments. I was also the one who handled most of the business dealings with headquarters.

My team also had the best performance in the entire company.

And now, they were telling me the person being promoted was the one who performed the worst? Also, my team was being disbanded?

Shortly after, the official email was sent to the company-wide mailing list. My team members all looked at me with obvious concern.

I closed my laptop and stormed into the manager's office.

"Mr. Hale, why is my team being disbanded?"

I was in a bad mood, so I didn't bother beating around the bush and got straight to the point.

Jacob Hale looked up at me with a somewhat impatient expression.

"Ivy, the company's been overstaffed lately, so we made some adjustments," he said. "Your team was the smallest, and after discussing it, management decided dissolving your group was the most cost-effective option."

I was absolutely floored. This was the first time I'd ever heard such a ridiculous reason for disbanding a team!

Besides, didn't the company know why my team had so few members?

I never withheld anything and worked hard to train my team—some for business roles, while others moved on to management.

Several of them had already been promoted in recent months.

Last month, Cindy Sutton was even selected as a team lead, putting her on the same level as me now.

"Mr. Hale, my team has fewer people because several were promoted recently. We haven't received any new hires; that's why the number is low."

Was it wrong for me to train my staff well? So everyone should just slack off and spend their day chatting over tea instead?

"But your team does have the fewest people, doesn't it?" Jacob retorted.

I tried hard to suppress my anger and attempted to reason with him. "But even with the fewest people, my team has the best performance in the company!"

I had produced the best results with the fewest people. Wasn't that proof of my capability?

Upon seeing that I wasn't backing down, Jacob's tone turned cold. "Ivy, this is the company's decision. You just need to comply."

I knew further discussion was pointless.

Jacob had never liked me anyway. I had offended him several times while standing up for my team. It wasn't the first time he had deliberately found fault with me during weekly meetings.

"So if my team is disbanded, what about me as the team lead?" I asked.

Jacob smiled, barely hiding his contempt. "If the team is disbanded, naturally, you'll return to being a regular employee. How about this? Since you usually work hard, I'll let you choose which team lead you want to work under."

"So, this is a demotion?" I shot back.

How laughable! The top performer got demoted, while the worst performer got promoted.

He was even letting me "choose".

This was utterly ruthless. It was even worse than just discarding someone after they were no longer useful.

I took a deep breath and told myself to stay calm. "Mr. Hale, you said it yourself that I usually work hard. Is this how the company treats its employees? It's too disheartening!"

"Ivy Benson, I said that so you wouldn't be humiliated. I haven't even brought up how you slack off during work hours. Wouldn't it be better to leave with some dignity?"

As he spoke, Jacob pulled up some photos on his computer.