So Done With 3 Years of Free Labor
For three years, I worked for my coworkers for free—designing, covering for their mistakes, cleaning up their messes. They used my work to get promoted, to win awards, even to run side jobs on the sly, and I never took a cent for any of it.
Then I single-handedly landed the hardest client project the company had ever taken on and walked away with a hundred-thousand-dollar bonus. That was the day everyone lost their minds.
The same people who'd leeched off me the hardest led the charge, cornering me at my desk and tearing into me in front of the whole office.
"The whole concept for that project was a team effort. What gives you the right to keep the bonus for yourself?"
"Your work has alw