Voted Out By Team, Lifted Up By Client

Synopsis

In our team of eight, seven people had voted against me. Jessica Lane slapped the tally sheet on the whiteboard and circled my name in red. She went over my name twice with the pen. "Emily, you're out. No objections, right?" she said, flashing a smile. It was the kind of smile that screamed, "Finally, mission accomplished." I glanced around the conference table. Grace Miller was absorbed in her phone, Tom Parker stared at the ceiling, and everyone else made a point of looking anywhere but at me. Not a single person met my gaze. It had been three years. I managed the most important client for our team, bringing in eight million dollars in annual contracts. That accounted for sixty percent of the team's total performance, all from me alone. And yet, they voted to eliminate the only person whose personal number the client had saved in their phone. I took off my employee badge and set it on the table. "No objections," I said.