Chapter 245 Trouble
Jonathan was too busy throughout the week as one of his shareholders tried to play with the stocks and ruin one of his shipments creating a notable hiccup.
The financial loss was insignificant, and he saved his reputation by apologizing and weaving off the charges to appease the client.
But it was clear that an internal clean-up was necessary.
He could not allow just anyone to mess with Smith Group.
Jonathan quickly assigned some tasks to Vincent that made it seem like he was too busy cleaning up the mess.NôvelDrama.Org content rights.
In the meantime, he got his private security and privacy team to dig up on everyone.
After he had sufficient evidence, Jonathan called for a board meeting.
He laid out everything he had found about the staff passing information to third parties, revised company security policies, and fired around 15 people for security breaches to set an example.
This move raised many eyebrows, and the press and gossipers clamored outside Smith Group for an exclusive interview.
Jonathan had his staff send away everyone.
Vincent posted a note on the Company’s official handle. And it was clear that was all they were going to say.
“To provide the best to our employees, customers, and partners alike, Smith Group conducted an impromptu check to see if there were any leaks or security breaches.
While we did not find any security breach, we did spot a few people who did not imbibe the company culture.
From dereliction of duty to uncertain loyalty to a few minor security protocol failures, there were many reasons which made us realize they might better fit other organizations.
As such, we had to let go of a dozen staff members.
Smith Group has provided a fair assessment of employees’ work and wishes them the best for the future.
The Smith Group-sponsored health insurance will remain effective until the end of the year.
Additionally, we have enforced a few strict security measures that will impact some of the ongoing processes.
Multiple workshops have been scheduled over the next four weeks to educate all our employees and partners.
We hope to provide the best and continue to improve as we grow.”
It was generally frowned upon if companies publicly announced why they fired someone. It could affect their entire future.
While there was no legal precedent, it was very uncalled for in the business world.
Jonathan took this harsh step to send a silent warning to all 2000+ employees of Smith Group.
If they turn into spies, the Smith Group will not tolerate them.
Given the shareholders’ problem, it was necessary.
Jonathan kept mum about the shareholders who caused all these issues.
He did not have enough proof to boot them out, so he sidestepped the issue. He hoped it would relax their vigilance.
True enough, it worked as expected.
Liliana told him some people had reached out to her to plan a coup since she had Smith Group shares.
She was the anonymous shareholder with high enough shares to be 3rd largest shareholder.
No one was sure exactly how many shares she held. But having her on their side would up anyone’s chances of winning.
Jonathan had been tracking them but had not thought they would dare to contact the mysterious shareholder.
If Liliana had sided with them, they would have caused severe problems for him.
Thankfully she was his wife and firmly on his side.
Liliana calmed him down and said she would play along to help him gather evidence.
They assigned one of Liliana’s assistants to take over those discussions to understand their end goal.
On the other hand, Lester had transferred all of Leon’s property to Leonardo.
The only thing left was to transfer those back to him.
But he had not thought of a good reason to do that.
Leonardo played along and signed everything Lester and Rose told him to sign.
Lydia came to the office to butter him up and tried to be discreet about sabotaging Liliana and Jonathan’s marriage.
Leonardo pretended that he could not understand Lydia. In the end, she said it out loud.
Then, he acted horrified by the idea of using unethical means to ruin someone’s marriage.
Moreover, he told her to be a better person and forgive Liliana for her capriciousness.
Internally he was seething.