"Claude, let me make something clear. You know what 'pay for performance' means? All your department does is write a little code and fix the occasional bug. What kind of contribution is that? The fact that I'm giving you people $8.80 each is me being generous."
Write a little code? Fix the occasional bug?
All those late nights. All that brainpower poured into every line. And to him, it was worthless—just like that.
My face burned. I yanked the badge from around my neck and threw it onto his desk.
"That's not what you said when you begged us to pull all-nighters for your precious business growth!"
"You called us the backbone of the operation. Said without us, all the deals in the world wouldn't mean a damn thing because nothing would actually work."
"But now that it's time to share the rewards, suddenly we're the most useless department?"
"You want to burn the bridge after crossing it? We're not going to stand for that!"
I kicked over the trash can and stormed out, slamming the door behind me.
The moment I stepped out, all the rubberneckers ducked back behind their monitors.
Let them stare. I didn't care.
All I could think about was how I was going to face my team.