"What? How can you cancel our benefits? I haven't even paid for my son's private tutoring this month!"

"I haven't taken my menstrual leave yet. I was counting on it to get a break for some fresh air this month!"

"How am I supposed to pay my car loan if I no longer have the additional thousand dollars in family support allowance?"

By then, I'd walked out of the conference room. I wasn't the least bit interested in seeing their reactions.

Roxy rushed into my office immediately. Her face was pale.

"This is retaliation, Ms. Emerson! We only asked for gender equality in the workplace—not a blanket cut to all the benefits!"

"I think a blanket policy is the fairest way to ensure equality," I responded evenly. "What's the matter? You have a problem with that?"

Gritting her teeth, Roxy stormed back out of my office.

Ingrid didn't look all too good either. "Ms. Emerson, I got my period today. I'm not feeling well. I need to take the afternoon off to go home and get some rest."

In the past, no matter how busy things were at the office, I would've approved her leave request immediately.

Truth be told, I knew she used those two paid days off to visit her long-distance boyfriend.

I'd set up the paid menstrual leave benefit to help the female employees anyway, so I never interfered with how Ingrid used her days off.

However, that was no longer the case now.

Nodding, I said matter-of-factly, "You can take the rest of the day off. Just make sure you complete the leave application like the rest of the male employees. Your pay will also be docked, just like theirs."

Ingrid's lips parted. In the end, she could only bite her lower lip in reluctance and reply, "Got it, Ms. Emerson."

A couple of days later, a shipment of new printers that the company had purchased arrived.

Unsurprisingly, Roxy came to my office once more to grumble.

"Ms. Emerson, the men have no sense of chivalry at all! They only moved the printers for their own offices. None of them is willing to help the women. How are we supposed to do it ourselves?"

In the past, I would've arranged for a few male employees to help and give them a couple of movie tickets or gift cards afterward.

Whenever that happened, Roxy would make snide remarks, both openly and behind my back. She would say I was deliberately giving the male employees special treatment—that I was playing favorites.

Looking at her now, I calmly stated, "The company now operates on absolute gender equality. I believe the female employees are more than capable of moving a printer by themselves. Also, in the future, please don't come to me with such minor issues."

Roxy was left speechless. Since she knew I wasn't going to budge, she turned around and snapped at the women waiting outside the office. She said, "Ms. Emerson said to move the printers yourselves!"

The female employees weren't the only ones feeling the burn. Even the male employees, who thought they could just hang back and reap the rewards as well, started to voice their dissatisfaction.

"Ms. Emerson, aren't we all supposed to be part of the same team? Lucy is also in the sales and marketing department, and she's always been a good negotiator. All I did was ask her to spend a few minutes talking to my client, but she refused to help me! Isn't she being a bit too cold-hearted?"

"Like I said, the company is prioritizing gender equality now. I won't interfere in these matters," I replied curtly.

After getting this month's KPI numbers, I went back to my office. I knew that during this period, many of the employees had it out for me. They'd collectively decided to slack off, hoping to use that as leverage against me.

Unfortunately for them, I didn't care at all.

If the performance targets weren't met, no one would be able to keep their job.

As the end of the year approached, everyone panicked after receiving their salaries.

"Why did I only get a little over four grand this month? That won't be enough for me to cover my mortgage payment!"

"And I've got credit card debt to pay off! If I don't pay it, it'll be considered overdue next month."

Roxy's fingers clenched around her pay slip. She rallied everyone, saying, "Let's call the company headquarters right now! That hag must've failed to meet the profit target and used our money to cover her own ass!"

Within a couple of days, the company headquarters sent down a male executive, Justin Sawyer, to conduct an inspection.

Everyone assumed I was about to be replaced. They threw themselves into their work, trying to boost their sales performance—just to leave a good impression on Justin.

Thus, at the company's year-end summary meeting, Roxy, as the employee representative, walked up to the stage with a smug expression.

She pulled up a company-wide performance report onto the projector screen. Her voice was brimming with excitement.

"Please take a look at this, Mr. Sawyer. Under your leadership, in just two weeks, our department's performance grew exponentially. This fully proves how important a capable male leader is to a team!" Roxy declared.

Then, with a shift in her tone, she began to point fingers at me. "In contrast, a certain female senior executive only knows how to pander to men. She has no leadership ability whatsoever and is completely unfit to sit in that position."

A chorus of agreeing voices rippled through the crowd.

Roxy proceeded to take out a joint petition before making an emotional appeal.

"Mr. Sawyer, Ms. Emerson is utterly inhumane. Not only does she suppress female employees from going on work assignments and getting promotions, she even forces employees who are close to giving birth to work overtime at their desks! She nearly caused the death of a mother and her unborn child!

"Just to meet her own performance targets, she has withheld the employees' wages, too. We have parents to support and children to look after. We have mortgages and car loans to repay. The money is our lifeline!"

Then, she produced another document and handed it to Justin. After shooting me a taunting smile, she raised her voice and added, "Most importantly, she embezzled funds from the female employees' benefits to fund male employees who are her sugar babies!"

Roxy threw one accusation after another at me, each more vicious than the last.

Justin's two male assistants eyed me with contempt and derision. "She looks like a respectable professional, but who knows? Maybe she herself was a sugar baby who climbed her way up by getting in bed with a man."

"I've always said that women are too emotional, even when it comes to work. They will never be able to achieve much success."

I glanced at the so-called evidence Roxy had presented before looking at Zach.

A few months ago, he told me his wife had given birth prematurely. The baby had to be put in an incubator, which cost thousands of dollars each day. He asked if I could give him an advance of three months' salary.

No one apart from him knew about it.

And now he was really hoping that once Justin took over, he'd be granted paternity leave, huh?

Smirking, I didn't bother defending myself.

Justin gathered each document Roxy had handed over. "I'll report everything you've raised to the company headquarters."

Turning to me, he said, "Ms. Emerson, it seems your employees aren't exactly on your side."

Roxy rolled her eyes. "Who in their right mind would support a boss like her?"

Following that meeting, I found myself at the center of controversy. Everyone had already dropped all pretense of civility with me. The male employees went to great lengths to keep their distance from me.

"Watch out. Don't let her set her sights on you, or your reputation's screwed."

Ingrid rushed into my office immediately. Without saying a word, she began packing up all the documents on my desk.

"You're about to be out of a job anyway, Ms. Emerson. I'll take these documents regarding the company's core project to Mr. Sawyer. After all, I'll be his assistant from now on. You don't have the authority to order me around anymore."

I nodded. Nothing here was worth holding onto.

That afternoon, as expected, I received a call from the board of directors back at the company headquarters.

The moment Ingrid heard about it, she ran out to the main office area and told everyone.

"A male boss like Mr. Sawyer is definitely easy to talk to. From now on, whenever I use my leave, I'm sure my pay won't be docked!"

Roxy's voice rang out the loudest, and her chin was high. She couldn't hide her delight.

"The hag, Nicole Emerson, is finally gone! From now on, we'll be getting the thousand dollars in family support allowance again. Who knows? Mr. Sawyer might even show more care for the female employees and raise it to two thousand. We won't have to suffer from humiliation under that hag anymore!"

The entire office was immersed in the joy of victory.

At that moment, Justin walked in and cleared his throat. "From this moment on, the Harvington branch will officially be under my management."

Enthusiastic applause rang out from all sides.

"Mr. Sawyer, with you leading us, we're definitely going to achieve great things!"

However, the next words out of his mouth fell over them like a bucket of icy water.

"Thank you, everyone. In my eyes, there's no distinction between men and women—only those who are capable and those who are not. The system Ms. Emerson implemented only fostered laziness.

"From now on, all leave benefits are canceled, and base salary is uniformly reduced to three thousand dollars a month.

"Given the company's current low revenue, starting tomorrow, we will implement a bottom-rank termination system. At the end of this month, whoever ranks the lowest in performance—regardless of gender—will be dismissed from the company with immediate effect."