Are There Books Like Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond The Management Track?

Kevien Vachirawit, the handsome playboy who has broken the hearts of many women who chased him just for the chance to have a one-night stand with him, feels his life is turned upside down like a roller coaster when he meets someone who has saved him from an incident. Too bad the person just thought of Kevien as a nice friend, nothing more. Kevien, who always got what he wanted, couldn't give up so easily, because he knew, only to that person he could give his heart whole. The playboy have to work hard to win his crush's heart.

At the company's annual gala, the CEO announced that this year's top sales performer would receive a two-million-dollar year-end bonus. I was the top performer. However, my manager called me into his office the very next day and explained that the company was cutting costs and improving efficiency. As a result, my bonus had to be reduced. I initially assumed everyone's bonus was being cut. Then, I found out I was the only one getting shortchanged. Even worse, they handed my position to a useless coworker who could barely do the job. I understood everything immediately. 'So this is how it is. You're tossing me aside after you got what you wanted from me.' Fine. I stopped putting in any effort from that day forward. I clocked in, did the bare minimum, and watched the company slowly fall apart. Sales began to drop month after month. Even the major clients I had already secured began withdrawing their investments. That was when the CEO finally panicked. He showed up at my front door, begging me to fix things. I kicked the door open and looked down at him. "You think a garbage company like yours deserves my help?"

Irene Ang is doing everything she can just to survive. Alone in life, with no family to lean on, she’s nearly breaking her back working just to avoid the shouts and scoldings of her perfectionist boss. But it isn’t just work that’s making her life difficult. After years of playing the fool and enduring so much, she caught her boyfriend with another woman. At the very party she had organized herself. Yet in the middle of her chaotic life, there is her boss, Tirso Gotiangco, a CEO, billionaire, cold, calculated, and intimidating. A man who doesn’t care about feelings, only results. As long as you’re productive, you’re useful. If you fail, you will truly hear the most painful words from him. And to him, Irene is a liability. Weak. Someone who doesn’t belong in the world they live in. They don’t get along. They never have. But with every night they spend together because of overtime, during presentations, and in elevators that suddenly feel too small when they're together… something is slowly changing. Irene learns to stand up for herself. And Tirso? Maybe he isn’t as heartless as everyone thinks. He’s powerful and untouchable. She’s hurting and trying to rebuild herself. Until one mistake changes everything, one night, one almost-kiss, one decision that could destroy both their careers. Irene promised herself she would never love again. But what if the man she despises… is the same one who would fight to the death to protect her? “She’s under my wing now. If you want her gone, you’ll have to go through me first.”

SYNOPSIS: For five years, Evelyn Hart was Sebastian Vale’s perfect executive assistant. She handled his meetings, his schedules, his private calls, and even the women he forgot to send flowers to after spending the night with them. Everyone in Vale Corporation knew one thing: Sebastian trusted Evelyn more than anyone. What nobody knew was that Evelyn had secretly loved him for years. Until the night she overheard him laugh at the idea of ever touching a woman like her. “Reliable employees make terrible lovers,” he said casually. “Too emotional. Too attached.” That same night, Evelyn submitted her resignation. No tears. No confrontation. No explanation. Then she disappeared. Three months later, Sebastian sees her again at an elite business summit in Paris—not as his assistant, but as the youngest CEO of a billion-dollar AI startup competing directly against his company. And standing beside her is a dangerous billionaire investor rumored to be obsessed with her. For the first time in his life, Sebastian realizes something terrifying: The woman who once waited for him… no longer looks at him at all.

I had been managing the company’s warehouse software for five years. Then the new manager came to me out of the blue, saying I didn’t understand frontline operations and that I was being fired. Looking at the five-thousand-dollar severance, I just nodded. “Fine.” He patted my shoulder after seeing me so compliant and started lecturing. “Young people should be out on the line, moving boxes! What’s the use of sitting in the office staring at data every day? “We’re a logistics company. Strength is what matters, not a tech geek like you!” I glanced at the high-end gaming computer in his office and obediently replied, “Yes, Mr. Fuller. Lesson received.” Maybe I had been too comfortable these past few years, and he thought I was dispensable. So, I handed over my ID badge and casually deleted all my personal login keys from my computer. Little did he know that the entire warehouse logistics, inventory management, and route planning software had been coded by me. I had let the company use it for free simply because the place was close to home and the work was easy. Now that I was gone, the system running on my personal cloud server was naturally inaccessible. Tens of thousands of items in the warehouse ground to a halt. As for any commercial software that could replace my system, a year’s subscription would cost exactly one thousand times my severance.

My boss, Grant Conner, tells me that since the company has doubled its sales performance this year, he'll make sure to reward me nicely. I'm filled with anticipation, thinking that perhaps it's time he's giving me a raise. When everyone's having dinner at the year-end party, they are all discussing how much they'll get for the year-end bonus. "Allow me to toast to you, Shania!" Clare Randall, an intern who has joined the company for a month, shakily stands up to her feet while holding a full glass of red wine. Her cheeks were flushed. She was clearly drunk. "I feel so lucky, Shania! I'm just a fresh grad who doesn't know anything at all, and yet my boss has given me a six-thousand-dollar base salary! On top of that, I even get to learn from a wonderful mentor like you…" My hand trembles violently at Clare's words, almost resulting in me spilling juice all over the table. I've been working at this company for five years, and yet I've never received a raise before. But Clare's salary is twice my salary even though she's just joined!