I Weaponized the Rules

Connor Grady's promotion to lead engineer has been posted for three months, worth more than 200 thousand dollars in salary and equity. Then, during the announcement meeting, his colleague Michael Jones reports him: at 1:31 pm, one minute past the lunch break, Connor was still napping. Their boss, Patrick Larkin, revokes the promotion on the spot to establish his authority, and Connor's attendance record is marked as a half-day absence.

Connor does not argue. He stops napping and spends his lunch hours reading the employee handbook, all 87 pages of it, while Michael mocks him and colleagues whisper that memorizing the rules will never earn him a raise. Eight days later, chaos breaks out across the office: over 100 employees crowd the hallway outside HR, frantic, and Michael looks shaken too. Patrick storms up to Connor demanding to know what he did.

Sipping his coffee, Connor answers that he is only complying with orders and helping enforce company policy.