I disagree with you on this, tbh. There is development in the work department without a doubt, we start this update with him messing everything up with his team and by the end of the update it's not all solved, but steps have been taken and are working in order to consider that progress, and probably one way quicker than would happen irl.
There is also romantic development, with the whole teaching scene and the park conversation and so on, it's just a slow one since things in a believable surronding requires time to build those relations, specially with such an MC and such a set of structural differences.
And finally, the update is what, three days? Intelligence isn't changed in three days, usually won't change in three months, and for many not even in three years. He has been honing his skills slowly, showing more confidence, looking for solutions to problems, and so on. Sure, he still makes mistakes, it's a basic part of human experience that you can't take away, but he's slowly finding new ways to solve them. For example, the rating program was his idea. And if we're talking about emotional intelligence, there are plenty of occasions to prove how he's been advancing on that front as well, like his bonding and speech to Matt.
So, I do believe the plot has advanced in this update in all fronts, it just advances in a detailed and slow pace that makes it believable and interesting at the same time.
I wasn't referring to this last update specifically, rather to the whole VN in its current stage, also I personally have absolutely no issue with the pacing in his interactions with Alice.
VNs can be tricky to write/handle, some go full blown "this is you, the player" others are the opposite (e.g. kinetic novels), Corporate Culture is more of a kinetic novel than a choice based VN at the moment, yes the choices are there, but don't really change anything major, but we do still have to "play"/read them from the MC's perspective.
I really like this VN, the setting is the main attraction for me, having spent 15 years in the same corporate environment and to be honest (believe it or not) went through something very similar myself, start at a low level, hit the swamp of "who gives a f about this, I'll just do my lil task and go home", the external motivator wasn't a teenagerial love attraction, but close enough, and the "sponsor" wasn't a love interest either, just someone who believed in me and wanted me to grow.
I know in real life doesn't take days to achieve these kind of changes, it takes weeks, and the months and then years (or a LOT of ass kissing/become friend with a C suite), but we are still looking at a Visual Novel, time can be skipped (if needed), or alternatively if that's not a trick the author wants to utilize there needs to be constant and faster growth/development because... we don't have 24hrs/day per 365 days/year and XX years/lifetime to spend on a visual novel.
I liked the first interaction with MC's new team, showing how he's not ready for that position, I liked his second interaction too showing how despite external help he still can't deal with a team of 3, but then the story needs to move onwards because the story ius already (by choice) proceeding very cautiously on the "love" side of things, instead we get the:
"I won't tell you how I know him and why he'll do what I ask him to, but the IT genius will develop a new algorithm that will allow you to easily evaluate your team (of 3-4 lol), but you won't understand how it works"
This is of course all very personal opinion, but there is no growth there, because he's not learning anything from his mistakes, experiencing a story through the eyes of a loser or an idiot can be fun, but only for so much, especially if it has nothing to do with a sexual kink and the other aspects of the story are proceeding very slowly too.
