Midway through my presentation, my manager slammed her hand on the table and said, “This is a disaster. Sit down before you embarrass us more.”
People gasped. Some even whispered.
My face burned, but I kept packing my notes slowly. She thought she had crushed me. She had no idea the client had just texted: Step outside.
Your manager is about to get a surprise…
The sound of Aurora Winters’s palm hitting the conference table was so sharp and loud it felt like it could’ve carried into the hallway. The room went dead silent in the way a room only does when fourteen people all realize they’re witnessing something they’ll talk about later. I was still standing at the front mid-sentence, explaining demographic clustering patterns to the Meridian Group client, with half of Silverton Analytics leadership sitting along the wall like judges.
My slide glowed behind me—eleven weeks of research distilled into charts, algorithms, and insights that could secure a $14 million contract. Then Aurora stood. “This is a disaster,” she said, rising from her chair with practiced control.
“Sit down before you embarrass us more.”
Fourteen people seemed to stop breathing. The VP of operations looked away like he couldn’t bear to watch. Marcus Brennan from accounting leaned toward his neighbor and whispered something that made them both grimace.
This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. People were actually making decisions based on this.
Aurora continued, her tone dripping with manufactured concern. “Hannah, I don’t know where you learned market segmentation, but this methodology is fundamentally broken.”
My face went hot. My hands started trembling.
Two years at this company. Countless overnight sessions. A 94% client retention rate.
Three saved accounts everyone said were unsalvageable. None of it mattered, not in this moment—not with Aurora circling toward the projection screen, gesturing at my charts like they were evidence at a crime scene. “The demographic clustering ignores generational spending disparities,” she said smoothly.
“The predictive models use outdated regression analysis. I apologize that this reached presentation stage.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket once, twice, three times in rapid succession. The room was waiting for me to break down, to apologize, to confirm Aurora’s narrative that I wasn’t ready for this level of work.
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