Hank, a college graduate, was employed at Kwok Lap Enterprise after a successful interview process. At first, he was excited to start work, due to its potential for growth, a stable paycheck and the opportunity to move up the career ladder. However, it did not take long for him to realize that the reality was much different from what he had expected.
Edgar, Hank's boss, was a tyrant, to say the least. Despite only being in the middle management, he carried himself around as if he owned the entire company. Not only that, he took liberties that he was not supposed to. There were things that made people question how much authority he had. For example, he refused to pay overtime, and yet expected employees to clock in 60 hours per week, if not more. If anyone were to complain, he would laugh in their face, and even told them, "Oh, come on. You should be thanking me for the extra hours. In fact, you all should be grateful you even have jobs."
"But we're not getting paid for the extra hours, Edgar," Hank said. "Shouldn't we be getting overtime pay? Isn't it illegal to not be given overtime pay?" However, Edgar simply smirked.
"And who exactly are you going to complain to?" he said. "Go ahead, quit if you want to. See if you can find anything better. Just be glad you're getting hours. It's my choice to award you overtime pay, which none of you imbeciles have earned."
"But we're working ourselves to death," Hank tried to reason, but it was of no use.
"Well, the second you lazy bums start dropping dead, then I'll start to care," Edgar smirked. He manipulated the employees by making use of the fact that they needed the job, and due to reasons such as family responsibilities, they put up with Edgar's tyranny. Day after day, week after week, they let him overwork them, berate them and treat them like a nobody. However, Edgar's cruelty extended beyond just working hours. He was good at humiliating people. If someone was a minute late, he would call them out in front of the entire office. One day, Hank arrived a minute late at the office because his usual train arrived late. When he arrived, he was met by Edgar's disapproving look.
"Look who finally decided to show up. Should we all bow in respect?" he said in a sarcastic tone.
"But I'm literally only a minute late. I'm sorry, I didn't know it was that bad," Hank apologized, but before he knew it, Edgar gave him a resounding slap that echoed throughout the office.
"It is bad," he said. "I can't believe you are so stupid that you don't understand how it isn't bad. I expect you to be here 15 minutes at the very least before the start of your shift. And Hank Chan Chi-kin, since you're a minute late, you may as well be an hour late. For that, you'll work 3 hours for free." Upon hearing this, Hank was shocked.
"What are you doing? Get to work before I make you work 6 hours free," Edgar ordered. Hank had no choice but to comply.
One day, a co-worker, Maybelline had to leave work early due to a family emergency. Despite having told Edgar about it, he refused to let her go early, so she left when he was not looking. The next day, Edgar plastered notes all over the office which said "Only losers leave early", and he included a photo of her on the bottom of it. Not only that, he would constantly accuse Maybelline of faking the family emergency because she was lazy and wanted to get home to watch TV. He was relentless in making up emabarrassing reasons on why she had left that day. Unable to put up with Edgar's constant accusations, Maybelline quit the following week.
Another time, Edgar made Tom, a senior co-worker do push-ups in front of everyone because he yawned during a meeting that was held late in the day. The employees had been working for 14 hours straight, and so, they were exhausted and feeling burnt out. The fact that Tom was struggling to do the push-ups not only made him feel embarrassed, but the employees felt incredibly awkward just by stading there and being forced to watch as Tom struggled to do them.
"If you've got the energy to yawn, you've got the energy to exercise. Give me 20 more," Edgar ordered. Hank tried to intercede on Tom's behalf, but to no avail. Edgar made him do the push-ups alongside Tom. He threatened to fire both of them unless they gave him the correct number of push-ups.
As days went by, Edgar's tyranny escalated. He was known to have gone through the staff fridge and helped himself to other people's food. As such, people would constantly find their food half-eaten or missing, sometimes in the trash can too. Finally one day, one of the employees Clifford got fed up with this. He laced a cake with some laxatives and left it in the fridge, and as expected, it went missing. Edgar spent that entire afternoon constantly rushing off to the toilet, barely making it in time to avoid having an accident. It was clear that he was in incredible agony.
The next day, Edgar came into the office and found out who had tampered with his food, and when he did, he shoved Clifford down a flight of stairs. Fortuantely, a janitor happened to be cleaning the area, and held him in time, preventing further accidents. Clifford suffered a leg fracture, but he refused to go to the authorities, fearing Edgar's wrath. According to the employees, working under Edgar was much worse than imprisonment, and yet no one could figure a way to escape it.
One night, after yet another gruelling 14 hours shift, Hank returned home, ready to drop. His roommate Gareth took one look at him and frowned.
"Buddy, you looked terrible. What's going on at work?" he asked, concerned. Hank told him everything about how he and the other colleagues were suffering under Edgar's tyranny.
"That's illegal, you know. He's supposed to pay you for the extra hours," Gareth said.
"Yeah, but it's not like we can do anything. He's the boss. It's not like we have proof," Hank replied.
"Are you sure about that?" Gareth asked.
"Well, yeah," Hank replied. "Anyone that speaks out against him will get attacked." He then went on to mention details of Edgar's cruelty.
"That's insane," Gareth said in shock. "I mean, why are you putting up with that? Well, I think I may be able to help though." Hearing this, Hank's eyes lit up. Gareth was second to none in computers, and was a bit of a hacker in his free time. He grinned and cracked his knuckles before turning to his laptop. Hank watched as Gareth worked, logging into the server of Kwok Lap Enterprise, pulling up files, breaking through firewalls. Suddenly, his eyes widened.
"Hank," Gareth said, his hand over his mouth. "You're not just being screwed out of your overtime pay. The company's been paying it, but Edgar's been siphoning it for himself. He's been taking the money and marking the records as if you all received it. But there is a lot more than that. Anyway, is Edgar married?" Hank could not believe his ears.
"Are you serious?" he asked. "There's evidence for that? And yes he is. Why?"
"As serious as a heart attack and I asked, because Edgar has been using his work computer to chat with all kinds of women, and he has been using company money to pay for motel rooms with them. And looking at some of his conversations, it appears that some of them are even underaged " Gareth revealed.
"There's no way that all the evidence is there. Is Edgar really that stupid?" Hank remarked.
"It appears so," Gareth replied. "Edgar is indeed stupid enough to leave a paper trail. He's been stealing tens of thousands of dollars from you guys and the company as well, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars, to be honest. And it looks like he's been using the company as cover for being a child predator. This guy is all kinds of awful." Hearing this, Hank's stomach twisted in rage and disgust. Edgar needed to be stopped. He was not only a jerk, but a criminal as well. He asked Gareth to print out every bit of evidence gathered, to which the latter agreed.
The next day, Hank stormed up to the top floor where the board members of the company had their offices. Being Edgar's immediate bosses, Hank felt that they needed to know what had been going on. He then slipped the documents into an envelope and slid them under doors to their offices. Then he waited. Edgar was in a foul mood the entire morning, snapping at everyone, barking orders, but around noon, something changed. His phone rang. He answered it, and within seconds, his face turned pale. Then, the office doors burst open, with several police officers entering, follwed by Edgar's immediate boss. Edgar stood frozen, with his eyes darting around as if searching for an escape.
"Edgar, we need to have a word. Now," said his immediate boss.
"This...this is ridiculous. What's going on?" he stuttered in between words.
"We have evidence of payroll fraud and theft, along with evidence that you have engaged in immoral acts with dozens of young girls. You need to come with us," said a police officer.
"But I would never do any of that. You can't prove anything," Edgar argued. Seeing that he had no options and that the police were not going to believe him, he bolted. He shoved past his desk, ran out of the office and sprinted towards the stairwell. He was in such a panic that he tripped, tumbling down a full flight of stairs. A sickening crunch could be heard as Edgar hit the bottom, groaning in agony. The officers caught up, handcuffed him and hauled him away. For weeks, the office buzzed with new revelations. Not only had Edgar been stealing overtime pay and petty cash, but he had also kept the names of former employees on the payroll after they quit, pocketing their salaries. He had siphoned thousands upon thousands of dollars. As bad as all that was, once he was arrested, people began to come forward and tell how he had done things to them. Among them were many girls who were mostly 17 years of age, but some were as young as 15. Their testimonies were the coffin nail that truly did him in. The moment his victims came forward, Edgar's wife filed for divorce. It turned out that he had physically abused her as well. She was awarded not only all of his money, but all of his belongings as well. As for his legal punishment, Edgar was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He was also fired from the company. To add insult to injury, it was heard that due to the fall down the flight of stairs, Edgar broke his leg so badly that he would never be able to walk without being in constant pain and the use of a walking stick, which in prison was going to be a challenge. As such, he was forced to use a wheelchair most of the time. But that did not earn him any sympathy. As soon as his fellow inmates found out the grounds of his arrest, they constantly beat him up. He spent just as much time in the prison yard as he did in the infirmary. Back at work though, with Edgar gone, the company hired a new boss named Darren, who actually valued the employees and treated them with compassion and encouragement. Darren would tell employees that family come first, and should anyone need to leave because of an appointment or a family emergency, he would understand. On top of that, if the employees wanted to work overtime, he would ensure that they were compensated accordingly, but that it was not mandatory. Morale in the office skyrocketed, especially after Maybelline was rehired by Darren. People laughed again. Lunch breaks were enjoyable and best of all, the employees were paid what they were owed. The company, embarrassed by how badly the employees had been mistreated, paid them back double of what Edgar had stolen. Some employees used it to pay off debts, others took long overdue vacations. Hank used part of his money to pay for Gareth's overseas trip with his parents. He also offered Gareth a job with the company after his holiday to thank him for exposing the black sheep.
