The Price Of Being Invisible
Language: en
The $1,250.00 deduction. Success. I stared at the paycheck stub, reading the line item three times. The memo read: Dept. Retreat - Split Cost. But I never went. I didn't request time off; I wasn't even told it was happening. I opened my phone and scrolled through the department group chat. Nothing about a trip. Not a single notification. I switched to Instagram, where my feed was already saturated with colleagues’ posts. Blue skies, ocean waves, grilling, bonfires. The captions were all variations of the same saccharine sentiment— “The Department Family! Love these guys!” The family. I…