Please Settle This,
I spent three weeks building a forecasting model for our department. Nights, a weekend, one very long Sunday where I forgot to eat lunch until 4 pm. It was the best thing I have made in my career.
My coworker Ben helped for about two days, mostly formatting the slides. Ben is charming. Ben is good in meetings. Ben is the kind of guy the VP remembers the name of.
Thursday was the presentation to leadership. Ben asked if he could "walk them through it, since you hate public speaking." Which is true, I do. So I said okay. I figured he would say it was my model.
He did not. For twenty minutes, it was "I built," "I found," "my model." The VP said, "Ben, this is exactly the kind of thinking we need more of." Ben said, "Thanks, it was a lot of late nights."
They were MY late nights, Ben.
I did not say anything in the meeting. I froze. But afterward, in the team chat, with everyone in it, I wrote: "Great presentation! Just so everyone knows, I built the model over the last few weeks, happy to answer any questions about it."
Ben messaged me privately within a minute: "Wow. You could have just talked to me. You embarrassed me in front of the whole team."
Half my team sent me heart emojis privately. The other half have been strangely polite to me ever since. And the VP has not said a word to me either way.
Am I wrong for calling it out in the group chat? Or was it the only way anyone would ever know?
Signed,
Ghost Writer
Letters are written by NowSettled from the disputes people search for. Names and details are made up.
