Performance Partnerships Novels & Stories

I've founded a company that doesn't encourage overtime shifts, pays everyone on time, and doesn't impose performance evaluations on the employees at all. My employees are free to bring their pets to work. All of their applications for leave will be approved immediately. Heck, they have unlimited leave as well. I originally think that my employees will like me a lot thanks to these benefits. But I never expect my company to be featured on the Internet one day. It even gets labeled as a sweatshop, much to my shock. "Guys, I can't believe I got hired by a sweatshop company. The boss is extremely stingy who pays us low wages while pretending to be a nice guy this whole time!" My company is then shown in the video. The narrator's voice has been edited, so I can't tell whose voice it is. As I stare at the tranquil office scene in real-time, I find myself falling into deep thought. Meanwhile, the video is still going on. "Let me tell you how evil my boss is. Every other company tends to distribute gifts during the holidays that like food and luxury items. But my boss doesn't bother giving us any of the gifts. He uses the excuse that our company is a very flexible and humane company, so we don't do any gift-giving at all. As if! "He also claims that we don't have to undergo any performance evaluation. In other words, that means our wages aren't transparent at all. Maybe he's been secretly docking our pay behind our backs this whole time! "Being paid thousands of dollars for this job is already bad enough! To make things worse, I'm forced to listen to my boss boast about everything in the world! Do I look like I have that much time on my hands to listen to him blabber? I'm not his mom, for crying out loud!" Everyone in the comment section doesn't hesitate to lash out at me. "Holy shit, I can't believe such soul-sucking companies still exist! Poor you!" "Why are you still staying in that stupid company? Hurry up and leave! If I were you, I wouldn't be able to stay there for a minute longer!" "That's right! That boss of yours is an evil capitalist! He deserves to die!"

Due to my outstanding performance, Mdm. Hall granted me flexible working hours. After a full night of entertaining clients, I had barely fallen asleep when a colleague’s call jolted me awake. “It’s already 9:30 a.m.! How could you be late again?” I patiently explained that I had worked late signing contracts last night. So, I would not be coming into the office this morning. However, my colleague scoffed. “Don’t think that being the top salesperson gives you free rein to skip work! “The heiress, Ms. Hall, is visiting the office for the first time today! “If you upset her, you’d better watch out. She’ll have you fired!” I pushed through my headache and searched my memory. The heiress he mentioned was Cadence Hall. If I was not mistaken, she was the woman who had been desperate to marry into my family.

Crystal Santiago was a woman of dual identities. By day, she was a waitress, known for her kind heart and sweet smile. By night, she became Jae, a stripper renowned for her looks and skill. Wherever she went, men would flock to her, completely under her spell. Her long, black hair cascaded over her bare shoulders, framing her seductive red lips and piercing blue eyes. She had the allure of a siren, and it was all too easy for her to trap men in her gaze. But beneath the surface, she was a sweet, down-to-earth girl. Crystal's life was going smoothly until the day she met him. He was powerful, ruthless, and dangerous. He ruled the city with an iron fist, and no one dared to cross them. He approached Crystal one night after her performance, his eyes filled with greed and lust. "You're mine now," he said, his voices dripping with malice. "You belong to me”.

I had been married to James Tennant for seven years. In that time, he had already kept twenty-nine mistresses, like pretty little canaries in gilded cages. Now, I saw the thirtieth one in our bedroom, young and draped in nothing but a bath towel, lounging across our bed. I turned to him and asked coldly, “Can’t get enough out there, huh? Did you really have to bring her home?” The girl deliberately tugged her towel lower, her pale skin showing as she sneered, “Mr. Tennant says you’re like a dead corpse in bed! He wanted me to teach you how to please a man.” That night, I was forced to watch their little performance right in front of me. The next morning, James was furious at my indifference, resenting me for not reacting. However, he seemed to forget that our marriage was nothing but a contract, and in just one week, that contract would expire.

During Black Friday, the intelligent system I develop helps the company run highly targeted ads and brings in 30 million dollars in revenue. But when I apply for the project bonus, the director rejects it. "The system is just an auxiliary tool. The performance belongs to the sales department." I hold back my frustration and pull up the system logs. "88% of the orders come from the system's targeted pushes. According to company policy, I should receive a 0.5% commission." The director glances at me, twirling his pen. "If the sales commission doesn't go to the sales department, should it go to you? And your lousy system exceeds the API limit and racks up extra fees. You still owe us a hundred thousand dollars. We'll deduct that from your salary." Three days before Christmas sales are set to begin, the system completely shuts down because of API restrictions. Late at night, the director calls me. I stare at my computer screen. "Since the system is just an auxiliary tool, why don't you start with manual targeting?"

"Kylie, this year's annual bonus is evaluated based on two factors: performance and peer reviews. "Since your team never participates in company social events, your coworkers all gave you poor ratings. That's why this is your year-end bonus." Around me, the male employees were receiving bonuses in the tens of thousands. And yet, the women I led—developers who had worked for over ten years and built every core system the company relied on—each received nothing more than a coffee gift card and a mug engraved with the company logo. I laughed out loud. Then I turned and walked into my office and submitted resignation requests for the entire technical team. The manager, Preston Alec, sneered. "Good riddance. AI can replace women like you who only know how to have children." A few days later, the very people who had mocked me were standing in front of me, begging me to come back. I smiled in return. "AI conquers everything, doesn't it?"

My wife, Emma Davies, and I have held our wedding and stayed together for five years. However, we still have not registered our marriage. Every time we plan to do it, her colleague, Keegan Estrada, somehow causes trouble. The first time, he cannot handle a document, so she eagerly stays at the company to help him. The second time, he has a fever. She hangs up and leaves without hesitation. The third time, he is undergoing his performance evaluation. She gets so anxious that she leaves me waiting at the City Hall for an entire day. This happens 15 times in total. Every time we are about to register our marriage, Keegan will always have something going on that disrupts it. I finally understand. I do not want to waste my time on Emma anymore. But when I walk away for real, she chases after me desperately to the point that she even disregards her own life.

When quiet, wounded Elena Hart is forced to live with her childhood bully after their parents suddenly marry, she thinks the worst thing she will face is the daily humiliation of seeing him again. But Jace Calloway, now Halden University’s golden basketball captain, is facing the collapse of his scholarship and future after his furious ex threatens to destroy him with a cheating scandal. To save himself, he blackmails Elena into becoming his fake fiancée for the season. What begins as a cruel arrangement under one roof turns into a war of control, lust, and revenge. Elena wants to survive him. Jace wants to use her. But the longer they fake devotion in public and tear at each other in private, the harder it becomes to tell what is performance and what is real. As his ex escalates, his team fractures, old bullying wounds reopen, and family secrets poison the house, Elena is forced to face the one thing more dangerous than Jace’s cruelty: the fact that the boy who once broke her now seems willing to burn everything for her.

As New Year's Day approaches, a new hire who has only been with the company for six months, who is a mama's girl, calls the police and tries to have me arrested. She suspects our company is some kind of a scam. But the truth is, the company exceeded its performance targets this year. That is why I prepared a million-dollar year-end bonus, a ten-day premium trip to Graceland, and equity grants for my employees. Yet, she waves around a video her mother sends her, claiming that high-paying jobs like the one I offered are all traps. Not only that, she slanders my company all over the internet. Netizens become outraged and call me a scammer disguised as an entrepreneur. Having become the target of public criticism, I simply issue a notice, saying, "The company will immediately begin transfer procedures, and all perks are canceled." As soon as the announcement comes out, my employees, who have just taken out loans to buy homes and just gotten their visas for the trip, are completely stunned.

"Your mission is to infiltrate the Dharma Sahib Mafia Empire and retrieve the fabled 'Kohinoor of Kali' - a diamond said to grant its owner control over the underground world. It's rumored to be hidden within the empire's stronghold, guarded by the ruthless mafia lord, Sahib himself," The other man in the room gawked at the man that just gave him orders. Will he be able to do this for the sake of Alexandra's freedom and his? ***** Alexandra Acosta got herself intertwined with a masked stripper at her best friend's birthday party. She was charmed by his performance and mistakenly took his mask off. And that became the biggest mistake she ever made. His life was being caged around a hidden organization she knew nothing about, which makes him live a dual-life. Involvement of Alexandra made everything go haywire when the leader of the organization wanted to make Alexandra a member. He wanted to protect her at all costs, falling for her along the way but of course, he had to pay the price for it.