"Do you really want to kick me out? Are you sure you won't regret it?"

"You are nobody but just a lowly screw worker, why do you think you are indispensable to the company?"

At the welcome party of this new leader who had parachuted in, I had interrupted his passionate speech.

Hence, he held a grudge against me and found fault with me all the time.

After plotting for two months, he finally succeeded in forcing me to resign, on the grounds of my continuous absenteeism.

Later, my phone was ringing off the hook just because he tried to beg me to identify critical hidden dangers by checking out the data to ensure the safety of the chief who came to inspect.

——

Skin peeled in the burning summer sun.

My fieldwork colleagues and I returned to the office with sunburned faces.

Other members of the engineering department all stood up and applauded us.

It was all because the small team I led had found that the hidden danger in a road we had accurately located and drilled to verify this morning was a three-meter-deep hole.

Due to the heavy traffic on this stretch of road, there would be an immeasurable dangerous accident if the ground collapsed, so several chiefs in the region were alarmed.

To maximize the publicity for our company, the publicity department had immediately arranged for a live interview.

During the interview, I had given a detailed introduction to the possible causes of the problem and had provided some solutions, so the regional chiefs had praised me and our company's professional competence.

My young apprentice Sean stood in front of the air conditioner and lifted his clothes to fan himself.

He said with a smug grin, "The regional chiefs were all alarmed by the problem of the road and personally went to check it out. They highly praised our work and my mentor's capabilities."

I threw a bottle of mineral water to Sean and glanced at the office next door, signaling him to shut up.

The beam froze on his lips. He pouted and swayed back to his seat.

The next second, the door of the general manager's office next door opened. Will Wood, my immediate superior who had been parachuted in two months ago, walked out.

I reported to him with my computer.

"Mr. Wood, there have been many hidden dangers on Shuff Road in the Southern District due to the hurricane and the accumulated water. The problem we located this morning is only the biggest one I have found so far..."

Unexpectedly, Will interrupted me with a cold laugh.

"Engineer Lee, you don't need to participate in the subsequent inspection of Shuff Road. Go through the resignation procedures in the HR department now."

I was startled.

Almost everyone in the engineering department opened their eyes wide at the same time and fixed their gazes on me.

Sean sprang from his seat and rushed to me.

"Mr. Wood, my mentor has made great contributions to the company's success today. We don't accept her dismissal you unreasonably launch. Besides, no other one in the entire company can interpret data as accurately as she. Our future work will undoubtedly be greatly affected by her absence."

"Your work will only be affected in a good way. If you don't accept it, just leave with her!"

Will looked so serious that he didn't seem to be joking. Hearing what he said, other colleagues in the department could only remain silent with angry faces.

I gestured for Sean to stop him from speaking up for me and turned to stare at Will.

"Is it the company, or is it you, Mr. Wood, who wants to fire me?"

"I represent the company. Any decision I make is for our company's better development."

"For what reason?"

Will revealed a complacent look.

"I've checked your work logs over the years and found you didn't punch in for work for at least 12 working days among 22 working days per month. I have every reason to suspect that fieldwork is just an excuse for your absenteeism."

"What a joke! As a member of the fieldwork team, should I stay in the cool office and promise pie in the sky in meetings instead of working outdoors?"

Maybe Will had never thought that I, who had always been a dutiful subordinate, would be so sarcastic toward him, so he was speechless for a while.

In the early years, the punch machine meant nothing to the field team in the imperfect system of the company because of the team's unstable working time. We always left the office early and returned late, and working overtime until late at night was common. We could hardly punch in and out on time, so the company acquiesced in our omission of this procedure.

I lived quite far from the company, and thus sometimes I would go directly from home to the site for emergency missions to save time.

I would report it to the HR department in advance every time. The work log pictures uploaded every day could also prove it for me.

However, a week ago, the company's group chat for uploading work logs had suddenly been disbanded.

Right at this time, the HR manager, who had always been respectful to me, handed me a dismissal contract with a cold face.

She said with provocation, "Janice Lee, sign this agreement, and we part ways amicably."

I was so angry that I uttered a snorting laugh. So she had been waiting for me here. I couldn't help thinking, "Do they think I'm a meek pushover?"

"Do you really want to kick me out? Are you sure you won't regret it?"

Will let out an arrogant cold laugh as if he had heard a joke.

"You are nobody but just a lowly screw worker, why do you think you are indispensable to the company?"

Everyone knew Will had a grudge against me.

This story had begun when he parachuted into the company two months ago.

Will was the chairman's nephew. The publicity department had arranged a grand welcome party for him two days before he took office.

In the conference room, he was making a portentous speech about the company's development and how he would reform the company.

Unfortunately, I had received a sudden call from the Emergency Management Bureau reporting that the Seg Building was shaking violently, requiring urgent attention. We were asked to check the situation there with apparatus and assist relevant government departments.

I could only interrupt his passionate speech and go to the rescue with all the engineering team members.

Soon after, the publicity department and the technology department had also left. Only a few clerks had remained at the welcome party, looking at each other in bewilderment.

Later, I heard that Will's look had turned extremely nasty at that time.

An actor who loved to put on an act but had no audience was no different from a laughable clown.

From then on, he had been holding a deep prejudice against me and would often find fault with me in meetings.

He had also cut the salaries of the whole engineering department but had given me a 200-dollar raise, which was a disgusting way to sow discord between me and my colleagues.

Several veteran employees, who had been serving in the company for about the same time as me, couldn't stand Will's pettiness, pretense to being an expert, and obstructive interference in work. They had directly resigned in the belief that there would be no future in a career serving under such a leader.

My career growth was bound up with the company's development. I had thought that as long as I didn't confront Will, he would stop targeting me when he got bored with it.

But I had overestimated his tolerance.

Now I finally understood the reason why Will had waited for two months before firing me was that he had not only needed time to collect evidence against me to force me to resign but had also required the technology department to copy the analysis of data and graphics that I had devoted myself to for the past eight years.

He fed the analysis results to the AI program in an attempt to replace the engineering department with the AI program in the future.

Seeing that I didn't refute his words, Will made more sarcastic remarks, flaunting his possession of the AI program.

"The engineering department is redundant with its work inefficiency."

Sean slammed the table and snapped, "You arrogant idiot!

"Janice, I will go with you. I will quit this stupid job."

My fieldwork team colleagues all threw away their tools and raged, "With a salary of only five thousand dollars, we are required to reply to each message of his in about 30 group chats, or we'll be accused of disrespect. Does he ever deserve respect?"

"We can only get a meager salary but have to do a huge amount of work, and we even need to carry out the orders of this fool. He is just trash who has no idea that his opinions are only easy for him to say. I have long wanted to leave this place that has been screwed up by him."

Will was so angry that he was shuddering all over, pointing at us.

He roared resentfully, "You ill-bred bastards, get out of my face together! How great it is that I no longer need to inform you of your dismissal one by one!"

Not only did he oppress me, but he also belittled the achievements of our entire department and ignored our painstaking contributions, which deeply hurt our feelings.

I took the agreement over, skimmed through it, and tore it in half with a snorting laugh.

"If I really sign it, it will mean that I agree to terminate the labor contract. Then, I will become a real stupid dupe. Now that you want to kick us out, don't forget to pay us the compensation we deserve.

"You'd better take a closer look at the civil code. The company must pay us double the compensation for your unreasonable unilateral termination of the labor contract. I have worked in the company for eight years, so I suppose it's easy for you to calculate how much you need to compensate me."

Will and the HR manager were once again taken aback by my aggressiveness they had never seen. Their faces both darkened even more.

Will winked at Yolanda Cooper, the HR manager.

She began to threaten fiercely, "Janice Lee, you have frequently absented yourself from work and formed cliques without respect for company regulations. Our company has supported you for so many years. I suggest you be grateful.

"If you want to be employed in the other companies, you still have to get a resignation certificate from me. Don't forget that I can write whatever reason for your resignation I want. Consider your future first before you ask for compensation!"

This was a naked intimidation from the HR manager Yolanda.

I would not be scared away, but I was afraid of dragging my colleagues down.

"Bah, how dare you try to trap me for life with just a resignation certificate? In your dreams!"

"Do you think we only have nothing but our salary? I'd rather idle at home than be a doormat here."

"Just manufacture whatever you want. I can't wait to see what kind of reasons you can come up with!"

I couldn't help thinking with a snicker, "What bouncy young guys they are."

After the vain attempt to threaten these young men, Will furiously cast a fierce look at me.

He interposed sarcastically, "What about you? You're already in your thirties but still single. I don't believe you don't worry about your future."

I suppressed my laughter and cleared my throat before I replied to him.

"I do worry. If I don't work hard, I will have to inherit the 2,000 acres of grassland and about ten thousand cattle and sheep."

Will's mouth twitched. He said with an interesting expression, "Janice Lee, stop bragging about something you don't have."

There was no need for me to prove myself, but since we had already fallen out, I didn't need to care about his pride.

I just couldn't stand the way he bullied and looked down on others by flaunting his relations with the chairman.

I took out my phone calmly and made a video call to my dad. He was yelling orders at the sheepdogs to drive thousands of lambs back to the pen.

In the continuous baas, I had a brief chat with my dad about some domestic trivia that everyone could understand. Then, almost everyone looked at me with eyes sparkling with admiration.

Will turned livid.

He ordered through gritted teeth, "Yolanda, give them the resignation certificate and tell them to get out immediately!"

I thought with a cold snorting laugh, "He snaps so soon. Then how can he face what will happen later? Will he even cry in anxiety?"

I smiled and said nothing, packing up my belongings with my team members.

In the end, to my surprise, Will sent a man with glasses from the technology department, whom he had brought with him when he was parachuted in, to take over my work.

Flaunting Will's care for him, this man with glasses scornfully belittled the work I had done over the years.

"I don't know why you have to spend a whole day analyzing such simple data. No wonder Mr. Wood criticized you for being inefficient. I can finish analyzing them in minutes. Go away with your belongings quickly and don't get in my way here."

I didn't care about his ridicule.

I only said to him with a smile, "There are at least a dozen hidden dangers on Shuff Road. Good luck to you."

Yolanda soon sent over several resignation certificates, and the reasons given for my resignation were still frequent deliberate absenteeism, misconduct, and cliquey behavior.

My teammates' hands were quivering with rage when they received their resignation certificates. They left the company with their belongings in anger.

The members of the engineering department's fieldwork team had all left, leaving only a few employees who were in charge of business contacts in the office.

Of course, we couldn't just let this matter go, so we worked in cooperation with a due division of labor to learn about the arbitration procedures and sort out evidence to prove the unfair dismissal while looking for a reliable lawyer.

Sean took the initiative to take care of my work, took the evidence I provided, and asked me to rest at home and wait for good news.

After the hurricane a few days ago, I had been collecting data with my team members during the day and working overtime for data analysis until late at night. I was exhausted.

Now that I was allowed some rare free time, I needed a sound sleep to make up for my lack of rest these days.

I didn't wake up until noon the next day. There were several WhatsApp messages from Yvonne, who was in charge of data arrangement in the engineering department.

She first apologized to me for giving the data analysis of the projects I had worked on over the years to the technology department without my permission.

I said I understood her helplessness as an employee in the face of the leader's orders.

"Janice, Engineer Wonder identified more than a dozen potential danger spots on the road with the help of the AI program today. Mr. Wood then led a team there in person to locate the spots by drilling into the ground. However, not only did they fail to find any spots, but they also seriously damaged the road surface. Mr. Wood got infuriated and is still telling Engineer Wonder off."

Engineer Wonder was Jason Wonder, the programmer with glasses Will had been parachuted in with.

I responded with a smile, "As expected. But I feel sorry for those who sweated over the drilling."

Will and Jason thought they could easily identify hidden dangers by using AI technology.

What a pipe dream.

The graphic data generated by radar scanning were unique like fingerprints. No waveforms could be the same.

The interpretation of graphic data relied on rich experience and accurate analysis of radar waveforms rather than the rigid application of previous data and templates.

Just as I had exchanged a few words with Yvonne, I suddenly received a call from the Emergency Management Bureau. Because of our company's outstanding performance and good reputation, the bureau would habitually contact me whenever there was a task after several successful collaborations with our company.

It turned out that chiefs from the capital would come to inspect three weeks later. The inspection route had been arranged, but a part of it was the road that had been submerged during the hurricane a few days ago, including the high-risk Shuff Road, so an urgent repair was required to ensure safety.

When the one on the other end of the line learned that I had been fired from the company, he hung up the phone after an astonished "Oh" without saying anything more.

For such an urgent task, even our original team would have to work overtime, let alone Will, who lacked professional knowledge and experience.

Late that night, I noticed an unread friend request on WhatsApp.

"Janice, this is Jason Wonder. Accept my friend request. I need some data."

His bossy manner annoyed me.

I ignored his message, turned off the phone, and went to sleep.

I couldn't help but think, "Will considers himself capable enough, doesn't he? I'd like to see how he can pull through this crisis in such a short time."