A judgment-free zone…unless, of course, it really is you. Share your workplace dilemmas and get brutally honest feedback—are you the misunderstood hero or the office villain? Time to find out if you’re spilling the tea or slipping on it! 
Be brutally honest—are you the problem?
So my old manager decided that we needed more “face time” as a team, and scheduled a mandatory 7 AM meeting “for alignment.” Mind you, nobody asked for this. We all already start at 9.
I figured fine, whatever; show up, nod, survive.
I got there at exactly 7:00 AM with a Starbucks in one hand and a breakfast sandwich in the other. No laptop. No notebook. I sat down, started unwrapping my sandwich, and ate in complete, heavy silence while everyone else awkwardly shuffled papers and pretended to be awake.
About five minutes in, my manager asked if I had the meeting notes ready. I looked them dead in the eye and said,
“Mentally, yeah.”
They did not laugh.
No one laughed.
Okay, so.
We had this big team project due, and I thought the final version looked… rough. Like, typos, weird formatting, the kind of thing that makes your soul quietly leave your body.
No one else seemed concerned, and the project lead said, “Let’s just send it out as-is.”
Well. I panicked. I stayed late one night, quietly fixed everything, no major changes, just cleaning it up I and sent the polished version to the client directly.
The client loved it.
My team… did not. Apparently “going rogue” is frowned upon?? They said it made them look bad and I “undermined the process.” I honestly thought I was helping. But now I’m getting weird energy in meetings and I’m pretty sure I’m on someone’s passive-aggressive checklist.
Am I the problem?
I mean what did they expect it’s 7am.
I actually have a people pleasing problem, so I truly think that I am never the problem. Maybe it’s a lack of self reflection though, not sure.