Chapter 4
477 Words
On the day of the presentation, the director called teams up one by one. Our group was scheduled second to last. While the earlier teams were presenting, Ivy was scrolling through her phone, Claire was touching up her makeup, and Viola was reading documentation for a different project. I sat in my seat, quietly transferring my PPT to a flash drive.
"Next up—Tessa, Ivy, Claire, and Viola."
I stood up. Ivy tugged at my sleeve, whispering, "Hey Tessa, can we just sit and listen? You're the one presenting anyway, right?"
I looked down at her and smiled. "Sure. You can just sit and listen."
She let out a sigh of relief and offered a sweet smile. "You're the reliable one."
I walked up to the podium and plugged my flash drive into the projector. I opened the PPT; the cover slide listed all four of our names. I took a deep breath and began.
Forty minutes. From start to finish, I was on my own, covering the technology stack, technical architecture, data flow, API documentation, and performance optimization. The director nodded frequently, while colleagues from other teams were taking notes and photos of the slides. Ivy stood to my left the entire time, smiling as if she’d actually contributed something.
The final slide: Project Summary. I finished the last sentence of the conclusion, my hand resting on the clicker.
Then I said, "Ryan, that concludes our technical architecture for the project."
"However—before I finish, I’d like to add a few details regarding the actual collaboration process on this project."
Ivy’s smile suddenly froze.
I clicked the remote. The next slide wasn't "Thank You." It was a full page of screenshots: Slack chat history, the task list, private messages, and the edit history of the shared document. The timeline was crystal clear; the division of labor was undeniable.
Colleagues in the audience started whispering. The director’s expression shifted from a smile to a frown.
I flipped through the pages one by one.
Ivy: You decide, I'm easy.
Claire: Whatever works.
Viola: Agreed.
The shared document edit history: Contributor Tessa, edit duration: 56 hours. The other three: 0 hours.
I stood on the stage, my voice calm.
"Ryan, I defined the division of labor for this project, I built the architecture, I wrote the proposal, and I’m the one presenting it.
"I tried reaching out to my teammates multiple times, as you can see in the chat logs.
"But up until the night before the review, these three hadn't typed a single word into the shared document.
"So, every word, every line of code, and every slide in this forty-minute presentation was completed entirely by me.
"I request that the year-end bonus for this project be calculated based on individual contributions.
"And that the actual participation level of the other three members be accurately reflected."
- Writer
