It was a relief!
Our team dynamic shifted.
Naomi started speaking up more in meetings. Joan didn’t cut her off anymore! Tyler took over a lead role on a sprint project, and when he brought up one of my ideas during planning, he credited me by name without missing a beat!
The weirdest thing was how quickly it all changed.
Joan still had her favorites.
Still worked the room. But she no longer tried to erase me in public.
And that small shift — that reclaiming of space — meant more to me than I expected!
I started volunteering to present more. I pitched a tool integration that saved us hours of manual reporting.
I stopped shrinking. Not because I had something to prove to Joan. But because I didn’t feel as if I had to prove I existed anymore.
A few weeks later, I bumped into David in the elevator.
“Hey, Brittany,” he said.
“Just wanted to say — great job in that last review. You handled yourself really well.”
“Thank you,” I said, smiling. “I just figured it was time.”
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