Old Times...

She read the news story on her phone and immediately clicked through searching for more information. After finding all she could find about it she sat and stared out the window. Was she shocked? Yes. But why was she shocked? It wasn't really all that shocking. Not based on what she knew. But it was still shocking. After all people are supposed to change.

She thought about countless meetings; sitting in boardrooms going over budgets and plans and new ideas. She used to joke that the way she knew she had a good idea was if he took credit for it. It wasn't as funny as she tried to make it out to be. But honestly? At that time she was mostly okay with it. She bought in to the whole partnership belief. They were partners. What benefitted him, benefitted her. They were going to run the place. Unstoppable. And because he was more senior, because he was the rising star, well it made sense for him to give the big ideas. She didn't stop to consider that the reason he was the rising star was because of her ideas, she was truly happy to see him do well.

It was a different time.

She was a different person.

It was hard to explain to her own daughter now. How these things were just normal back then. You took it for granted that you would be harrassed. You didn't even think of it as harrassment. It was just part of going to work. You were either someone who got along, or someone who was a pain in the ass and was fired as soon as they could. Or worse, relegated to some backroom filing away your day.

She got along.

And really she was fine with it. If you don't know any better you can't imagine anything different.

And she did love him.

Oh yes, there was that part as well.

Sure, he was technically her boss, but that didn't matter. How were people who worked 70 hours a week supposed to find time to date outside of work anyway? And it's not like she got hired because they were dating, or that she even got any special treatment because of it. Hadn't she been skipped over in the promotion cycle because "Well, Craig has a family he needs to take care of, and you and I are a team and take care of each other, right?" And when she had the opportunity to transfer to the office in Houston hadn't she turned it down, even though it was a promotion, because he didn't know what he would do without her? So it hadn't helped her career. But she hadn't minded. She loved him. They were partners. They were a team.

Until the day they weren't. There hadn't been any warning for her. There really hadn't been. She had re-examined everything in her head obsessively for months. Trying to see where it had started. She never did figure it out. But it didn't matter. It had happened. Things changed.

They had been in a meeting going over a plan for the next quarter and he presented a new idea. It was a really good idea. She had been impressed and a little surprised that he hadn't mentioned it to her. Usually they went over new plans together, so he could bounce ideas off of her, really hear her ideas and take them as his own. But this? This was good, not great, she was already thinking of ways to improve it, but it was new. And she was impressed. Right up to the point where she saw the new girl smile. That smile. She knew that smile. That smile said, "This is my idea that everyone loves. But it's okay that he's presenting it because we are a team."

And then it wasn't okay.

She polished her resume, turned in her notice and left by the end of the week.

Sure, she could have taken a transfer, she could have even ignored it all and just kept working, but she was too mad. Not mad at him. Not even mad at the new girl. She was mad at herself. She had given him her good ideas, her plans, her ambition. She had just turned it over to him and let him coast to the top, and now he would use someone else's talent to keep going. He was who he was, but she wasn't the same anymore.

It was the best thing she ever did. She went to work for a very small company that was trying something new. Diversity hiring. Not just men and women balanced teams but different ethnicities, different education backgrounds. It was very cutting edge at the time. Early 90s cutting edge. They thought they were changing the world. And maybe they were. Maybe they were starting to at least. The company was bought out by a bigger company, there was a very nice bonus for all of the original crew. They did very well. But corporate America wasn't quite ready for the diversity their company brought. So most of them left and started again.

Now what they tried was normal. Now what they used to put up with was not. The changes were subtle in some areas, seismic in others. They told their stories when the Me Too generation started telling theirs. Her daughter was disappointed in her at first. That she put up with things that nobody should ever put up with. Then she started to understand that they all put up with it, that sometimes they didn't even feel they were putting up with things, that they didn't realize it could be, should be, better. Now they did. They all grew up and changed.

Except for those like him. He was fired from his company. Toxic work environment. Boy's Club atmosphere.

She shrugged. He'd be fine. Thirty years at the top of food chain had left him with enough money to retire early anyway. A tarnished reputation maybe, but not among his peers. They all missed the old days, when it was just the way things were.

She considered calling him and offering a few suggestions for how to spend his retirement, he could even take credit for them all, just for old times sake.

She smiled that smile and got ready for work.