Long story short, I work in corporate America with some people who have been bullying me for a while. We have never socialized together outside of the office which should have been my first red flag.
My much-more-senior colleague convinced me to attend a networking event for people in our industry. Made a big deal out of how great an opportunity it was and “putting me on the list” so I didn’t have to buy a ticket to enter.
When I got there, she introduced me to no one and immediately I was trained on how to be a bar tender. For the first time in my life I bar tended an event, around 200 people, beers on tap and having to run crates full of dirty glassware through the dishwasher in the back. Directing people to the bathroom and the elevator and being asked about an event I literally haven’t even been explained yet where I am.
I did this for hours. I worked for hours for free. When they turned on the lights for “last call”, I found my colleague and asked, “is there anything else I can do?”
She just smiled and said “nope, thanks!”
I walked out and found the after party at the bar down the street and was able to network a little bit on my own.
The next day at work my coworker approached me to chat about a project we’re working on together and we never spoke about the event, the conning me into bartending, my aching feet or the fact that she duped her young broke coworker the night before. Fuck this city.