The Peter Principle - May/June Contest

[LtBroccoli]

Teaser: It was almost 30 years ago that Jennifer was raped in college by Tyler. Now, she's in a position to finally extract some revenge. What should she do?
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The author of this story has read and accepted the rules for posting stories. They guarantee that the following story depicts none of the themes listed in the Forbidden Content section of the rules.

The following story is a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. It depicts nonconsensual sexual acts between adults. It is in no way meant to be understood as an endorsement of nonconsensual sex in real life. Any similarities of the characters in the story to real people are purely coincidental.
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Title: The Peter Principle
Author: Lt. Broccoli
Chapter Tags: No sex
Content Warnings: Revenge, Blackout, College, Corporate World
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This story was written for the May/June contest. It features settings from the Harbor City Universe.
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The Peter Principle

Jennifer Simmons hadn’t thought of Tyler Johansen for years. She’d put all that behind her. Years of therapy, drinking, and fighting her demons eventually led her to peace and happiness. It had been almost 30 years since that night in college when she went to Kappa Rho with her friends and woke up naked in Tyler Johansen’s bed. She didn’t know who he was, where she was, or how she got there. She was black out drunk at best, drugged at worst. Jennifer woke up with a massive hangover, her clothes covered in sick, and her puss sore and sticky from sex. The fallout from that night followed her for the rest of her time at Harbor City University. The catcalling, the slut shaming, it didn’t end until she dropped out and moved across the country. But the insults didn’t cover up the truth.

Tyler raped her.

She was too drunk to even pretend to consent. She’d passed out after only a couple drinks, and she tested positive for some kind of barbiturates, but the asshole cop was more interested in busting her for drinking underage than investigating a rape case. Even when a few more girls came out talking about being drugged and raped at Kappa Rho, the campus cops didn’t do a damn thing. “Boys will be boys” apparently means letting upperclassmen rape freshmen girls with no repercussions.

But that was the 90’s. About 30 years ago. A lot has changed in culture and college since then. Not saying that men like Tyler don’t exist, but at least there’s a pretense that their behavior isn’t tolerated.

Jennifer looked to the photo frame on her desk of her family from a few years ago at her daugher Kaycie’s college graduation. Her daughter graduated Magna Cum Laude, and her younger brother graduates in a few months. Her wonderful husband has been her rock for over 25 years, and helped her grow and heal from her ordeal. The photo sat amongst a collection of various plaques and awards commemorating her excellence at her job. The nameplate said “Jennifer Simmons, Director of Corporate Acquisitions” embossed in brass. It had an old company logo on it. Her new, official one for Pharma hung on the outside of her office.

She looked over the roster one more time. A list of names, positions, and links to internal resumes and LinkedIn profiles. This was the latest in a long line of companies that Pharma or one of its subsidiaries acquired. Jennifer was known around the office in hushed tones as the Grim Reaper. It was her job to finalize the decisions made by her subordinates or overrule them, but when it came down to it, she decided who was hired and fired. She’d determine whether or not someone’s skills made them a good asset for the company, or if they would be downsized for redundancy. It was an ugly job but she was good at it. Over the years, she’s laid off thousands of employees, vendors, and contractors around the globe. Today was just another Tuesday for her.

Until she saw Tyler Johansen in the list.

Jennifer verified that via his profile and his LinkedIn page that this was indeed the man that raped her all those years ago. Just like so many smarmy assholes, he made a comfortable living doing sales for Tamartan Inc. He led their sales team year over year for the last five years. His HR file wasn’t very interesting. He had a couple complaints of inappropriate behavior over the years, but they all went nowhere or ended with him issuing an apology and attending the mandatory sexual harassment courses. The company looked the other way as long as he brought in the heavy hitters. His contacts in the industry helped put Tamartan on the map. Every woman that ever complained was out the door in 6 months, either out of the company or transferred out of the sales department.

Her underlings had recommended that he and his staff be retained for the foreseeable future. Normally, she’d agree. Keeping the customer relationships during mergers is important to make sure they don’t go elsewhere. Even as her blood boiled at the thought of letting him stay, she knew that the smart play was to let him and his team stay on for a year then judge them on how they’ve done.

Jennifer searched through everything she had and could find on Tyler and his team. She hated giving this asshole a soft landing, but everything pointed to them being great salesmen. They brought in great numbers quarter after quarter and expanded the business ten fold in the last 2 years. It was this growth that piqued Pharma’s interest.

She grunted to herself under her breath in frustration. Tyler was good at what he did. Too good to fire. So good in fact that if she let him go, the new clients and his team would raise a stink as to why he was let go and why she signed off on his release. A little bit of investigation would bring up her past, and she didn’t want her trauma brought to daylight.

Nothing seemed to point to a solution. One way or another, she’d have to keep him on or face a shitstorm. If she released him, the Board of Directors would ask why their top sales team was let go. The sales team would get swooped up in a heartbeat by their competitors and most of their clients would follow them.

Jennifer stewed in her office for a moment until one of her underlings messaged her on Teams. It was a stupid request about whether or not it’s racist or sexist to let go of Tamartan’s Head of Inclusivity when they already have an Inclusivity office. She shook her head in frustration before typing out a reply.

But it was that interruption that inspired Jennifer to come up with the solution to her problem. After going through Tyler’s profile, she saw that he avoided responsibility like the plague. No leadership positions, no management experience, no mentoring, nothing. He was as selfish as was he was talented.

If she couldn’t fire him, she’d promote him. She remembered the Peter Principle. It’s the idea in business that people will eventually rise to their level of incompetence. She was hoping that Tyler had at least one level of incompetence left.

Jennifer created a new org chart for this incoming team, and put Tyler at the top, along with a new position and title of Senior Sales Manager for the incoming team. She knew that this job wasn’t sales, it was management. It wasn’t shaking hands with clients and getting drunk on company time, it was approving expense reports and assigning and leading training sessions. Gone were the days of living out of his carry-on from city to city, now it was time to settle down and plant roots.

But where? Where could she put him? She seriously thought about places like Nome, Alaska or Battle Creek, Michigan or some tree stump in Eastern Oregon, but she realized that giving Tyler enough rope to hang himself only works if there’s someone there to make sure he swings. Ultimately she landed on Harbor City. His hometown that he’s avoided since college, the city she’s made a life for herself and her family. She knows the corporate culture well enough that Tyler will be gnashing his teeth to get out and go nuts. He’s a walking HR complaint, a sexual harassment claim waiting to happen. Behavior he could get away with on the road won’t fly in the office, and someone will take offense to him. She’ll even assign him an assistant, probably a cute young thing that he won’t help but make the moves on. By her estimation, he’ll be in trouble within 6 months and out the door within a year, disgraced and embarrassed. Meanwhile his clients will be handed off to other salespeople and those relationships torn away from him.

Jennifer put the orders together. Effective immediately, Tyler Johansen’s offer was changed from Salesperson to Senior Sales Manager, and his senior staff were all given a bump in pay and titles as well. The offer is dependent on him moving to Harbor City, and it’s a take-it-or-leave-it offer. If he declines, word will get out about him turning this plum deal down. Once he signs, she’ll make sure to send this to the Internal Transfer team and have the dumbest idiot on staff handle his move. She wants Tyler frustrated by the time he steps foot in the office. Speaking of offices, instead of putting him with the rest of the sales team in HQ to start, he’ll be housed in the Inclusivity Department, right between the bull dyke manager of finance and the angry black assistant director of marketing. Combine that with the trans lead of internal communication down the hall, he’s walking into a minefield and doesn’t know it.

A few minutes of work as she modified the offers for Tyler and his staff. All of them would stay in Chicago while Tyler’s offer required him to move to Harbor City. The team all got raises and his right hand man would be the new Sales Lead with a hefty pay raise, but only if Tyler accepted his offer. Jennifer figured this would cut any loyalty that might exist between them, and those staying behind would continue to pump those clients for all they’re worth while Tyler settles in to a new city. By the time Tyler would be in any position to swing back around to Chicago for more than a cup of coffee, his guys will no longer be his guys. He’ll be alone in a new city with no friends and surrounded by people he can’t stand.

All she had to do was sit back and wait for the fireworks.




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Jennifer figured it wouldn’t take six months before Tyler was shown the door. She was wrong. It took a year and a day. His new position came with a sizable signing bonus which would require repayment if he didn’t serve a year. She hoped he would get shitcanned sooner but to his credit, he kept his mouth shut about his neighbors until Pride Month and he ran his mouth at happy hour and it got back to the newly promoted and now angrier black marketing director who gossiped with the bull dyke. That got him in a little bit of hot water, but not as much as the shitstorm after he slept with his assistant. Tyler had bitched about everything from his move to not finding a good deep dish pizza to how much he missed his old team. It’s one thing to fuck an assistant on a business trip, but getting caught getting a blowjob on a Zoom call was too much to ignore. The assistant claimed Tyler forced her into a sexual relationship while he put out his feelers for a new job. Turns out she was playing the system to get a legal settlement and they would leave and split it. Pharma gave him the choice to either quit or be fired. He chose to leave of his own accord. After a few reference calls rescinded offers for better positions, Tyler landed a Director of Sales position with a pharmaceutical company in New Mexico for half the pay and twice the work.


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[Shocker]

Now that was nicely done and properly vindictive. I have to read all stories first before I can give out ratings for the contest.

[RapeU]

Vindictive indeed. Is the full story of Tyler in the Pharma story? I'm woefully behind on that one. If not, I'd read the full installment of how Tyler fucked up and probably ended up raping someone along the way

[LtBroccoli]

Vindictive indeed. Is the full story of Tyler in the Pharma story? I'm woefully behind on that one. If not, I'd read the full installment of how Tyler fucked up and probably ended up raping someone along the way

Nope, these people are new. Although when I get back to writing some new chapters of Pharma there might be room for him, even if it's just a little bit.

[Shocker]

Vindictive indeed. Is the full story of Tyler in the Pharma story? I'm woefully behind on that one. If not, I'd read the full installment of how Tyler fucked up and probably ended up raping someone along the way

Nope, these people are new. Although when I get back to writing some new chapters of Pharma there might be room for him, even if it's just a little bit.

I'm sure you find a niche or crevice to shove him in to.

[AdmiralPiet]

I like the idea very much, but two points of critique:

At first I missed the last paragraph when I sent this to kindle. I only read it now. I considered "All she had to do was sit back and wait for the fireworks." to be a very good ending. The epilogue felt a bit bolted on and put this down a notch for me.

The other thing: I think it goes overboard on the re-org. She is worried that firing him will dig up her past and it will alienate clients and his team.
The way she did it: Promote, take him out of the team, destroy the connections by putting him alone in the other city, even contemplating some backwater in Alaska, and go so far as to personally assign him his office ...
The team might be happy because of the pay raise, but for the clients he is gone either way, and promoting them all and doing all this stuff might cast a worse light on her then simply firing him would have. How would she explain to the board why she took it upon herself to do all this?

I think it would have better been played subtle: Promote him from sales person, to department head and thereby shifting his work from sales to manging while still be connected to sales and clients, and maybe just innocently suggest a certain female employee to be his assistant. Outwardly nothing suspicious to it, but Jennifer might know in secret that said assistant fits perfectly and will get him into hot water.

I will keep from rating until I have read all stories