From Outcast Contract Worker to Chairman
"Alexia, don't take any of the company's holiday bonus boxes. You're not one of us—there's nothing for you."
My manager, Kevin Davis, delivered the notice coldly, as if he were commenting on the weather—routine, impersonal.
My hand stilled on the mouse.
"The rest of you, come with me. We're heading to the company gala to collect your million-dollar bonuses!"
My colleagues filed out in high spirits.
I watched their retreating backs and answered with a bitter, "Okay."
I was a contract worker. For seven years, I had always been the odd one out in the department.
Our ID badges said it all—blue for full-time employees, gray for me.
Time off was no different. Full-time employees had weekends; I got one day off a month.
As for pay and benefits, they enjoyed meal allowances, housing subsidies, team outings, afternoon snacks, holiday gifts, year-end bonuses… I received a fixed salary of three thousand dollars a month.
I sat down, opened my computer, and returned to the candlestick charts of my stocks.
They didn't know that I was the company's largest anonymous individual shareholder.
And they certainly didn't know that tonight, at the company gala, I would step onto the stage as the new Chairman—and my very first proposal would be to lay off their entire department.