Chapter 2

How did I end up with the title of "Worst Employee"? It all started last March.

That month, BrightCore Solutions rolled out a new performance evaluation system.

The old system was pretty straightforward. The managers would score you based on your work. Jaden, my manager, was a bit biased, but overall, he was reasonable. He usually gave me a B or B+.

The new system was different. It added "360-degree feedback" and "cross-department collaboration scores."

The 360-degree feedback meant your coworkers got to judge you.

So, who did I have around me?

Maddie. She'd ask me to help her fix bugs every single day. After I finished, she'd say, "You're a lifesaver."

But then she'd write in her review: [Caroline could work on her communication and team spirit.]

And Laith Finch, another developer on my team. He and Maddie were hometown buddies, super tight. His review was: [Caroline has an okay attitude, but doesn't take much initiative. Needs to be more involved with the team.]

Ryan Cole from the team next door. I'd talked to him maybe ten times, tops. His review was: [Don't really know her, but she doesn't seem all that active.]

The cross-department collaboration score was a total joke. How did they come up with it? Basically, it measured how well you teamed up with people from other departments.

I was the sysadmin. My job was to keep the system running. When everything worked, nobody noticed me. But the second something broke, everyone piled on me.

So, my cross-department collaboration score was always dead last.

Because nobody remembered the times when I helped them out. The only thing anyone remembered was those five minutes of chaos when everything crashed.

Maddie was a whole different story. She'd grab coffee with the product team every day, gossip with the marketing folks, and have lunch with the sales crew.

Her cross-department collaboration score was 95, while mine was 61.

One day, I couldn't take it anymore and went to talk to Jaden. "Mr. Larsen, I really think this evaluation system isn't fair to sysadmins. My job is basically invisible unless—"

Jaden cut me off. "Caroline, I get where you're coming from. But the evaluation system is company-wide, and I can't change it. You need to reach out to other departments more."

Maddie again.

Jaden continued, "Maybe you can learn it from Maddie. She got a 95 on cross-department collaboration. You know why? Because she knows how to communicate."

I wanted to tell him that it was because I was the one picking up all her slack, so she got to spend her days chatting and making friends.

But I didn't.

"Got it," I said, nodding.

Back at my desk, a notification flashed across my screen: [Database sync delay.]

I let out a long sigh and started troubleshooting.

Just another day at the office for me.

System alerts didn't give a damn about my mood.

By September, the mid-year reviews were out.

Maddie got an A.

Laith got a B+.

And me? I got a C.

C meant I was scraping by, and I seriously needed to step up my game.

Twenty-three people in the tech department, and guess who was the only one stuck with a C?

Yeah, that was me.

Jaden pulled me aside. "Caroline, your mid-year review isn't looking too hot. I think you should come up with an improvement plan."

"What exactly am I doing wrong?" I asked.

"Communication. Initiative. And... It's hard to measure what you've actually accomplished. Take Maddie, for example. She proposed three optimization plans. And you? Can you walk me through what you've done these past six months?"

What had I actually done?

Over the past six months, I resolved 643 system alerts. I got dragged out of bed in the middle of the night 19 times. Once, the database nearly failed to switch over, so I monitored it nonstop for 28 hours to keep everything from crashing.

During a company-wide holiday, when everyone else was off for a week, the system broke down at 2 AM on the third day. The client data export feature crashed. I had to remotely troubleshoot from home until 6 AM.

No one knew it, because as soon as the system was back up, everything went back to normal.

Once things were back to normal, nobody remembered someone was up at 2 AM saving it from disaster.

"I was mostly the one keeping things running behind the scenes," I said.

"Sysadmin work is the groundwork," Jaden said. "What the company really wants is someone who brings in real value. You can't stick to the basics all the time."

He thought so, huh?

Fine.

"Got it," I said.

Back at my desk, another alert pinged across my screen.

Once I dealt with it, I pulled up a job board.

That night, I updated my resume.