Chapter 2

After I snapped at Eileen without holding back that day, she held a grudge.

Not only did she dump the most draining grunt work and the nightmare clients on my desk, but she also intentionally withheld my top-performer bonus from last month and then acted like it was perfectly justified.

"Since I wasn't managing this team last month, those performance metrics don't apply anymore. The bonus is off the table."

It was obvious that she was making things tough for me. But in the workplace, the golden rule was to mind our own business. My colleagues were tearing her to shreds in our private group chat, but they'd still bow and scrape to her face, calling her "Ms. Shaffer" fawningly.

She seemed to enjoy that flattery.

Emboldened, she started turning her personal errands into tasks for the team and rushed to get them done as soon as possible.

"My son has a school art contest. Everyone, vote for Number 6. Get your friends and family to do it, too.

"My brother has a working quota to meet at his bank. Everyone needs to sign up for a credit card through him.

"My cousin's farm has recently had fresh produce. Who's buying?"

If anyone were to scroll through our work group chat, there was barely any actual work, just a never-ending list of demands and instructions from Eileen.

Then came the Thanksgiving holidays.

I was blissfully asleep at home when Eileen started calling everyone individually at 2:00 am. She wanted us to get up and give a video of her son a like.

Of the 32 people on our team, I was the only one who didn't reply with a thumbs-up emoji to confirm I'd done so. She started spamming my phone, and the ringing sounded like a death knell in the middle of the night.

I jolted awake. After glancing at the screen, I muttered a "psycho" under my breath and switched to silent mode.

For seven days, I didn't even bother to open the work group chat, so I missed all her passive-aggressive swipes at me.

"Young people these days have such bad attitudes. They can't even handle the simplest tasks."

When I showed up at the office after the holidays, acting as if nothing had happened, she lost it.

At the morning meeting, she turned it into a full-blown interrogation and called me out by name, questioning, "Why didn't you answer my calls during the Thanksgiving holidays? I had work for you."

I stared at her, looking genuinely confused. "You said it yourself that it was the holidays. That's my time off, so whether I answer the calls or not is my choice."

Eileen's face soured. "Keeping your phone on 24/7 is basic professional common sense. Don't you even know that?"

In the meeting room, my colleagues chimed in. They were the same people who had called Eileen a lunatic every other day in our private group chat, but now, they couldn't even wait to give me a scolding on her behalf.

"Exactly. I never silence my phone at night, just in case something comes up.

"I thought everyone knew that. Is Blaire Norton the only one who doesn't?

"Well, she just graduated. She's still stuck in that student mindset."

I rolled my eyes so hard I nearly saw the back of my skull.

Eileen's expression was gloomy as she tapped her folder on the table and said, "Look, Blaire. I know you're still adjusting to the workplace, and those are trivial issues.

"But have you ever considered what happens if a client calls at 2:00 am and you don't pick up? That could cost us a major partnership.

"To avoid that, you'll hand over all your client details to me after this meeting."