I wrote a long, honest review of my boss’s presentation and sent it to my best friend. Except I sent it to the team group chat. It included the phrase “forty slides of nothing in a blazer”. I watched it say “Read by 9”. My boss replied with a thumbs-up. Nobody has mentioned it since. That was eight months ago. I wasn’t in the new team photo. It was taken on a day I was off.
That thumbs-up wasn't approval. It was a man signing off your career with one finger.