Gemotions

The news arrived in a casual email, buried amongst the usual office memos. It was a simple mention of salary adjustments, and it was enough to make Michael’s blood boil. That kid, the one he had trained, was now making more than him.

He felt a sudden, sharp pain in his chest, a sensation of being physically compressed. He crumpled the email, the paper crackling in his grip. The office, usually a place of familiarity, now seemed to press in on him.

He began to subtly undermine the new hire’s work, pointing out minor errors, nitpicking details. He found himself critiquing their ideas in team meetings, his tone sharp and dismissive.

He avoided all social interaction with the junior colleague, retreating into the confines of his own workspace. The silence in the office was deafening, the air thick with a tension he himself had created. He worked late, the only sounds the tapping of his keyboard and the hollow echo of his own thoughts.