A few years ago I saw the top management 'drift away'. Less chat, less jokes. I knew I had done something wrong but looking back at my record I could not find any ground for this.
Fast forward to now and we're getting rid of old documents. There may or may not have sensitive data so rip the spiral binding and feed them to the shredder, a few pages at a time, and I see my name on the page.
I remember that meeting pretty well. It was with the top management and the consultants. It had been dragging on for three hours and the promised break had not materialised. We were now well into lunch break, which came as a surprise because these people never, ever, respect their own schedule despite being the Word of God on all things efficiency and productivity. They say ten minutes, it's thirty. They say an hour, there goes your morning. They say the morning, you might as well call someone to go pick up the kids in kindergarten because the only way you'll be out of the office before 5 is if there is a fire in the building.
I was aching for a pee and the consultants, the guy in particular (he has the most annoying voice), were yakking on and on about inconsequential things that our company does not need, because we are in dire need to fix the basics first and foremost, but the top management likes to pretend we're Space X and the consultants are only too happy to feed that fantasy.
Then the consultant asks me what I think of some hair-splitting matter or other and I jokingly reply that I think we're overdue for a coffee break.
And years later, on the page in front of me, there's “[My Name] wants to take a Coffee break when we only have 5 minutes left”. No other notes about that meeting, only that passive-aggressive jotdown.
So this is the beginning of the crack, I reckon. Me not being a team player when I'm bored, hungry, full to burst and treated like a cipher who doesn't have anything more important to do than sit in a meeting that has nothing to do with my work or my company.