Graduating the CEOChapter 1

Hearing those words from my CEO, a man who clearly wasn't operating on the same planet as the rest of us, made a muscle in my jaw twitch.

One in the morning. In a few hours, I’d have to get up and do it all over again. Not even a damn robot could keep this pace. My body was screaming for rest. Figuring the worst he could do was chew me out tomorrow, I ignored him, rolled over, and fell back into a dead sleep.

I didn't wake up until nine. Nine glorious, uninterrupted AM.

I dragged myself out of bed, my eyes burning from staring at a screen all day, every day. That dreaded number, 40, was creeping up on me, and I could feel it in my bones. Eight hours of sleep wasn't a luxury anymore; it was a bare minimum I rarely got.

I grabbed a granola bar, chugged some coffee, and headed to the office.

I work for a tech company in Austin. Our official hours are a "flexible" 10 AM to 10 PM.

"Leo, you finally made it," Brenda from accounting whispered as I passed her desk, her eyes wide. "Watch your back today. Sterling went on a rampage this morning. Heads were rolling."

I nodded, trying to look concerned, but I wasn't too worried. I was an old-timer here, over a decade with the company. A new-money CEO, parachuted in to "optimize efficiency," could yell at me, but he couldn't just get rid of me. Or so I thought.

The moment I sat down, Sterling appeared at my cubicle. "Leo. My office. Now."

My stomach dropped. This felt different.

"Leo," he began, not even waiting for me to sit. "You're a veteran here. How can you have such a complete lack of professional commitment, of ownership?"

He got straight to the point. "You left around ten, which means you were home by one. Factoring in your commute, you put in, what, an hour and a half of overtime? Let's round down to one, generously. Take away time for breaks, zoning out, water cooler chat... that basically means you did zero overtime. That's not the kind of dedication we expect. The board and I are very disappointed."

I felt a surge of adrenaline. "Mr. Sterling, that's not fair," I stammered. "I was exhausted yesterday. We're in the middle of renovating our house, and on top of that, I'm just… I'm not 25 anymore. I can't pull all-nighters like I used to. But I swear, yesterday was a one-off. You can check my keycard logs. I’m usually one of the last ones to leave. I see the sunrise over the highway more than I see my own wife."

"Tired?" He let out a cold, humorless laugh. "You're tired? Who isn't tired? It's one in the morning, and you're going home to sleep? After a measly twelve-hour day?"

He leaned forward, his voice dropping. "If you can't handle the pace, Leo, maybe it's time to step aside and make room for someone who can. Someone hungry. You could use the rest, right?"

"Wait... what?" I asked, my blood running cold.