I was busy informing several major clients through Slack, telling them that I would no longer work with Neoform.

Every major client responded, telling me that they were upset about this news. In fact, a few clients were asking where I would work as they wished to continue to work with me. Some even criticized Neoform for making such a short-sighted decision by letting me go.

Just then, I received an unexpected email.

[Dear Miss Helena Hawking,

Do you have any thoughts on joining our company?

Best regards,

The Oracle]

The sender was The Oracle, which was the archrival of Neoform. In fact, The Oracle was known as the rising star for the past few years because it developed rapidly. However, they were still inferior compared to us who had been leading the market for years.

Before I had time to reply, another email came to my inbox from the Oracle.

[Dear Miss Helena Hawking,

Please note that we will double the amount of your salary. Not only that, we offer many benefits. Furthermore, we offer the freedom to form your own team and lead it yourself.

Best regards,

The Oracle]

In the meantime, Violet was still talking about our traitorous former coworkers, “Helena, I still can’t believe how they could betray you like this! Look at Mark! He has been so careless, but you’ve helped him so many times.”

She then kept talking, “As for Jeremy, you helped his task which was writing the company’s quarterly report because he had to accompany his wife giving birth to their child. So, I just can’t believe …”

After the young woman finished speaking, she lowered her head again as she stared at me in confusion before she asked, “Helena, what will we do now?”

When I thought about the emails that were sent by the Oracle, I couldn’t help but smile as I patted Violet’s head and told her, “Just relax!”

“From now on, I’ll help you to get our new jobs!”

Unlike the Neoform, Oracle seemed sincere.

As soon as I responded to their email, their HR Department Leader immediately added my contact information. Not only that, the HR Department Leader quickly arranged for me to join their company as soon as possible.

I couldn’t help but be curious as I asked him, “Don’t you need an interview, Sir?”

To my surprise, the HR Department Leader simply replied, “Everyone knows about you, Miss Hawking. In fact, your performance in Neoform is enough for us to accept you instantly.”

On my first day as The Oracle’s employee, I already had my own office. It had large windows that spanned from the floor to the ceiling with a full set of office equipment. Most importantly, my new office had an immaculate thermostat that would be very helpful to navigate through hot summers and cold winters.

This was a huge contrast compared to my time at Neoform. Even after I worked extremely hard for around 10 years, I still had to sit next to a loose window. We had to deal with hot summers and cold winters by ourselves. Not only that, they didn’t even give me a company laptop. So, I had to bring my own laptop to work.

It made me remember the one time that my laptop had problems that couldn’t even be run, so I asked Jonathan to see if the company could give me a new laptop.

What did Jonathan say at the time?

“Well, electronic equipment is your property. Our company has no obligation to take care of that. If your laptop has a problem, that’s your problem! You need to solve it on your own!” he angrily shouted at me.

The man then continued, “If it causes a problem with your performance, that’s your fault!”

It turned out that the laptop eventually had severe problems that made it unusable any longer. So, I ended up giving up in anger as I spent a few months of my salary to buy a new laptop to work. When I told this story to my new colleagues in The Oracle jokingly, they seemed to be shocked to hear it.

“Gosh, Helena, how can you endure that?”

“If I were you, I would have just resigned a long time ago!”

Not to mention, the working environment in The Oracle seemed to be very healthy. When I was still working as Neoform’s employee, Jonathan preferred being praised ever since he became the CEO. To put it bluntly, whoever had managed to build a good relationship with him would be seen as performing well and their year-end bonuses were guaranteed.

It caused the environment in Neoform’s Sales Department to be very intense. In order to gain Jonathan’s favor, some greedy people would even stoop as low as making complaints against others in an attempt to make the CEO favor them more.

Hence, The Oracle, my new company, was very much the opposite. The assessment system here was transparent as we could see that the performance was seen as important compared to how good you were at flattering your supervisor. It was clear to me how the staff was treated by their performance instead of their ability to gain favor.

Even Violet told me herself, “Compared to Neoform, The Oracle is so contrasting.”

I was earning double my salary in Neoform as The Oracle’s employee, which made me work happily in my new company. Yet, I would never expect that I would meet Neoform again. This time, I met them as a competitor.