The Customary Two Weeks (1917)

Harry Burnhart, who has inherited the Eclipse Tool Company, leaves the running of the company to efficiency expert Carl Vibert. When Vibert gives Pop Grinell, the company's oldest employee, two weeks' notice because he is slowing down on the job, the firm's advertising manager, George Extell, appeals to Burnhart to reinstate Pop. For his efforts, George himself is dismissed. Bidding farewell to his sweetheart Muriel Clemm, George heads West where he secures a job in a competitor's tool company, soon becoming the star salesman. His success leads Burnhart to offer him complete charge of the Eclipse Tool Company, and the salesman returns triumphantly to exact revenge on Vibert by giving him "the customary two weeks." However, his conscience gets the better of him and George relents, rehires Vibert and marries Muriel.