"So what if he's upset? He hogged everything. Every project that came through the design department, he'd show his face at the site for five minutes, slap his name on it, and pocket all the credit and the cash. Who does that?"
"Exactly. Meanwhile Kenneth, the new intern, was still at the site at midnight drafting plans. Not like Ronnie, who just sat at his desk all day warming his chair until the cushion fell apart."
Winston Chavez raised his voice deliberately, his tone dripping with spite:
"Isn't he supposed to be some hotshot mid-level designer? Thinks he's above the director, figured the project couldn't survive without him. Bet he never dreamed he'd get voted off. That's hilarious."
"Big deal, mid-level designer. Kenneth has a master's degree, and his father works at the Housing Authority. Getting his senior certification would be a cakewalk for him. His drafts are better than Ronnie's. He could pick up Ronnie's workload without breaking a sweat."
"I think so too. Kenneth's got the talent and the work ethic. He deserves to lead this project."
"Unlike certain people. No real skill, just good at stealing credit. Getting cut was inevitable."
"If I were him, I'd take the hint and leave before they push me out."
Those vicious mouths, every last one of them, spitting out their petty satisfaction and their twisted lies one syllable at a time.
Not a single person remembered how I'd spent the last nine years pulling all-nighters over design plans, sleeping in construction trailers on-site to keep the schedules on track.
These people came from every department: interior finishing, marketing, engineering, materials.
Which one of them hadn't come to me begging for help at some point?
Last week, the finishing team botched their measurements. They dragged me out of bed at two in the morning to renegotiate the design specs with the client.
Yesterday, marketing had a difficult client they couldn't close. I pulled an all-nighter and put together eight separate proposals to land the deal for them.
All they saw was the $8 million commission on a $40 million design contract. None of them saw me crawling through construction sites every day, caked in mud like a stray dog.
The guy they called incompetent, the "glory hog," the one who "hogged all the credit" — I was the one holding up more than half the company's revenue, making sure they had salaries to collect and bonuses to spend.