Chapter Text
Alex Martin, soon to be senior social media manager for the San Jose Dolphins, stood in front of their desk as they packed up their personal items. They had worked with the Centaurs for about five years, starting out as an intern before peaking as a social media manager.
During their time with the franchise, they saw quite a bit of change within the office. Their previous boss left. Harris Drover, their fellow co-worker, got promoted to take over the position. (Never mind that Harris had even less experience than me, Alex cynically thought.) Then, Drover got demoted to the same position Alex was promoted to when he became director, causing massive confusion. And then of course, there was the new Director and direct boss, Amanda Johansson.
That both Alex and Harris shared the same job title was initially awkward. Eventually, Amanda sorted everyone out so even though technically Harris was still a social media manager, he really only focused on content creation. Alex continued doing more than what their job entailed but was at least was able to hold onto their title and salary.
The additional hires did make the work load better though, compared to what it was like when Harris was director.
On a personal note, Alex had also transformed over the years. Four years ago, they finally came out as nonbinary, changed their name socially and legally, and had gotten top surgery. The nervous and anxious intern that they were that first day at the franchise was now extremely comfortable in their skin, assertive, and surviving on spite and coffee.
***
Alex had already been doing more work than their job title required when Amanda was hired. During Harris’ reign as director, they ended up with most of his tasks, carrying the department on their shoulders; Harris spent most of his time with his boyfriend and the hockey team instead of actually doing his fucking job.
When Harris was demoted back to being a peon, Alex initially felt a sigh of relief. I’ll have free time again, thank god, they thought. I’ll be able to sleep in.
Alas, that was not meant to be. They were in Amanda’s office, listening to their new boss for their first meeting.
“Alex, I wanted to see if you are willing to take on more responsibility alongside your current duties. Your work load will be bigger than what a typical social media manager would be. If you don’t want to, that’s fine but I want to clarify what I expect from you either way,” Amanda briskly started.
Alex was somewhat surprised. They didn’t expect anyone to ask them if they could take on more work; in the past, they just did it because no one else would do it.
Initially, they were tempted to say no. I was fantasizing that I could actually sleep and have a social life again. Plus, I really can’t work mad hours again. Ugh.
Alex cleared their throat. “When Harris was director, I had to do a lot of things that were outside of my job description. Basically, I was doing the work that wasn’t being done in addition to what I was actually hired for. Now that he’s not in charge anymore, I fully expected to be able to have more time to complete my own tasks. I honestly don’t have the energy to do even more and I really want to be able to sleep,” they added apologetically.
Amanda stared at them. “About that,” she started. “You will not be doing my job. Not like before.”
She paused, before continuing. “I’ll be blunt. What I’m asking is if you want to take the lead within the department under me. I saw how much you were doing before I came on board. I like your work. I feel that you would be a good senior social media manager. Work directly with me as well as manage everyone else in this department. We’re already hiring more people so that should relieve some of your workload. Right now, I can’t officially give you that position, and our budget’s mostly used up because of the new hires, but I’d like to do a trial period and see if you’re up for it. And if it works out? You’ll get the title and the commiserate salary.”
Alex cocked their head as they thought. Hm. If I say yes, I’ll be overworking and the Centaurs will get my free labor yet again and I won’t have the job title nor the higher pay. But that’ll be temporary, hopefully. And I guess if worst gets to worst, I can put that experience on my resume and get a job away from Ottawa, which I really wanted to leave anyway.
Fuck it. If the Centaurs don’t give me the lead position officially after six months, then I’ll look for another job. The experience will help a lot, at least. And sleep is overrated anyway.
Alex smiled at Amanda and said, “Thank you for the opportunity. I accept. What else would I be doing?”
***
After that discussion, Alex had gotten a defined list of tasks that Amanda expected them to do. However, it ended up that a lot of Alex’s time involved Harris. Rather, it was to make sure he was doing his actual job, as well as ensuring his posts didn’t feature his boyfriend. I’m essentially having to babysit him to do his fucking job.
Still, they were glad they decided to take on the unofficial position. Part of that involved Alex working very closely with Amanda. They learned, bit by bit, how to strategize and implement the overall image of the team amongst other things; Amanda repeatedly gushed that Alex was her right hand person. This is actually fun. And maybe someday I’ll actually be able to be a director like Amanda. That’d be cool and something to work towards.
After six months of this, Alex asked Amanda if they could officially get the promotion and higher job pay. She nodded in reply.
“Thanks for reminding me, I’ve been meaning to,” she started. “I’ll talk with HR and get it going.”
A month went by. Alex asked Amanda about the promotion again as they walked out of her office together. She frowned as she thought.
“Alex, I started the process when we talked about it last but I haven’t gotten anything back from them. I’ll talk to them again.” Amanda smiled then and looked apologetic. “I’m really sorry,” she started. “I honestly forgot to stay on top of it, what with the season underway. Still, you really deserve to have this. Tell you what,” she pulled out her cell phone. “Let me talk to them now and see what’s up. I’ve also been pushing for back pay.” Alex nodded, satisfied and walked away. Amanda will take care of it.
A week later, Amanda asked to meet with Alex in her office. She looked livid and regretful.
“Alex, I am so, so sorry,” she started. “The higher ups refused your promotion. The official reason why is because our department had hit our budget.”
In a lower, angrier tone, she continued. “Also, their reasoning is that they don’t understand why you deserve the title and higher pay, since you’ve been doing the job with the current position you’re in right now. I fought for you but they refused. I am so sorry.”
Alex was incredibly angry and upset. So they’re okay with Harris Drover being paid for being a social media manager even though he actually does the lesser paid position of content editing? And they can’t fucking give me a piddly salary boost and a measly new title? What the hell?
Amanda, seeming to read Alex’s thoughts, said, “As your boss, I would recommend you trying again in June when the budget will most likely increase.”
She added, angry, “As your friend, you should find another place that will treat you better and pay what you deserve. I have doubts they’ll promote you.” Amanda looked at them in the eyes. “You can probably guess why. I have an Enby nibling so I get it.”
They stated louder, “I heard that San Jose will have an opening for a Senior Social Manager soon. Their staff is excellent, and I can vouch for them. They’re starting to look for someone now and I can give you an in with them if you’re interested.”
She added firmly, “And I will give you the best recommendation I can regardless of where you’d apply. Put me down as a reference. You need to go work for a place that’ll value you and you’re not getting that here.”
***
So. After all of the rigaromole, Alex was going to San Jose; Amanda followed through and the job was theirs, based on her glowing recommendation and successful interviews. Today was their last day with the Centaurs. After a surprisingly tearful exit interview with Amanda, some laid back “good byes” and “good lucks” from the others in the department, they had a lunch meeting with Harris.
And then I’m free!
Harris was only a casual coworker to them. Alex felt somewhat indifferent, not only because he kept misgendering them despite it being years now, but also because they really didn’t care about Troy Barrett, Harris’ favorite topic. Harris himself seemed to have mixed feelings for Alex; I basically became his boss which he doesn’t seem to like. Plus, he seems truly baffled that being nonbinary is an actual thing.
Still, Alex took everything as it were — it’s only a job, after all — and they wanted to end their work relationship on a high note. We did start pretty much at the same time, so I guess I’m feeling a bit nostalgic or something.
“I wanted to say congratulations! Are you looking forward to living in California?” Harris asked after they wrapped up their final projects and were almost done with their meals.
Alex smiled. “Yep! I’ve been wanting to get out of Ottawa for a while so this will be good for me.” They added with a frown, “Even though the US is awful to the trans community, at least California still has laws that’ll protect us.”
They shrugged. “If it gets worse, I’ll move back to Canada. I’m taking the job mostly because I want the promotion and the extra salary on my resume. I’m not going to give up my Canadian citizenship, so I have options.”
Harris looked puzzled. “Oh. I thought you were going because you wanted to move to the US. If it’s more because of the job promotion, can’t you get that with the Centaurs?”
Alex stared blankly at him. Does Harris realize that it wasn’t a matter of just asking for a promotion? That this sort of thing involves a lot of office politicking and optics and background shenanigans?
Wait. Does he realize what happened when he was demoted?
Does he actually know that the Centaurs want him to quit?
Alex cleared their throat. “Harris, you do know that Amanda tried really hard for me to get a promotion, right? As well as a raise? And upper management refused both? That you can’t just ask for something like that and expect to get it. Right?”
Harris looked more confused. “But the Centaurs gave me the Director position. I didn’t even ask for it. They’ve always been so good to me. So I thought that they’d be able to give you something that wasn’t as much of a bump up.”
Good to him? The Centaurs? What planet is he on? No, he truly doesn’t understand what happened.
Alex sighed. “Harris, no. It doesn’t work that way. You were actually incredibly lucky.” They hesitantly asked, “Do you understand that the Centaurs wanted you to leave when they demoted you? That they will never promote you as long as you’re working for them? That they still want you to quit and they’ll probably lower your salary, if not your title, at your next yearly eval?”
Harris looked gobsmacked. “What? No. No way. The Centaurs would never do this to me. They’re a good place with good people.”
Okay, we’re doing this. Alex sighed again.
They calmly said, “Upper management offered you the director position because for whatever reason, HR wanted to hire internally. With that in mind, it was going to be either you or me because we were the most qualified in our department, although to be blunt, neither of us should have gotten it at all since we were still way too inexperienced.”
Alex pursed their lips. “You were the better option for them since you had were officially a social media manager while I was just a content editor despite the fact that we were sharing duties together and doing the same tasks.”
They took a breath. Let’s address the elephant in the room. “They also chose you because you’re a cis white male. Plus, you’re gay and the Centaurs have been trying really, really hard to look like they’re queer-friendly, especially with Scott Hunter publicly rebuking the MLH for being homophobic, as well as the added revenue we get from the female and queer market who are now our fans. There was no way they were going to hire me: I’m nonbinary, a gender that even the trans community has difficulty accepting sometimes. I’m too controversial to be accepted in an official managerial position apparently, since they refused a promotion that Amanda fought hard for. I’m too odd for hockey in general. Frankly, you give much better optics than the I do. That’s why you got the position instead of me.“
Even though I ended up being far more competent than Harris, they thought bitterly.
They continued. “You lost the director position because of several things. First, you spent a lot of your time hanging out with your boyfriend. You were also making out with him. Thoroughly. At your work place. In public areas. You’ve got to know that that behavior is completely unacceptable and extremely unprofessional, not to mention an HR nightmare. I think you get away with it even now because you’re gay; if it were a straight couple showing the amount of PDA you do, they would be fired on the spot. Also, HR is really incompetent which worked out for you. Anyway — It is a really, really bad look for you, Harris.” Alex lifted their eyebrow at them. Yes, I am judging you so hard.
They added, “You also weren’t doing your job. I was doing it because you were too busy doing whatever you felt like doing like ogling your boyfriend, going to the games as a Troy Barrett cheerleader, and posting whatever you felt like posting whether it was related to the Centaurs or not. I had to go over analytics and assess the data. I had to interact with fans during live games, since you rarely did that even when you were at the actual matches. I had to write out the overall campaigns and strategies to send to upper management. I had to not only create but also edit whatever you posted when they deviated too much from the general themes the powers that be wanted to present to the public. And that’s just some of what you neglected to do.”
They steadily continued, “And you were showing favoritism to Troy Barrett especially in your posts, regardless of whether or not they matched the image that upper management wanted us to convey. And frankly, what you should have been doing was having someone in a higher position, not me, giving you oversight and approval when it came to anything regarding Barrett because of your personal relationship. Frankly, they should have had someone else post about Barrett, not you. HR should have done this, but again, they didn’t.”
Alex expanded further. “The franchise wanted you to quit because they didn’t want to go through the bother of firing you for incompetence. It takes a lot of time and paperwork and documentation and effort to show that you were not capable of doing your job, which you should know. For whatever reason — again to your benefit — HR wasn’t on top of this so they couldn’t fire you without risking a lawsuit of wrongful termination. They also didn’t want to lay you off and have to pay you a severance; and oh my god, the optics for the Centaurs. They’re supposed to be the gayest team in the league, but if they laid off one of the few gay people on staff, plus with you being the boyfriend of the King of the Gays, Troy Barrett — that would have looked so, so bad for them. Plus, that would impact the sales from the female and queer fanbase.”
They concluded, “They wanted you to quit, Harris. That would have been easiest for everyone. That’s why they demoted you back down to a social media manager because most people would rather leave than take a demotion.”
Alex shook their head. “And seriously? Unless you want to stay in this department forever, and be demoted even further, and be the first person they’ll lay off if there are ever any budget shortages, I’d look for another job. This is a dead end place for you. They will never, ever give you anything better.”
Harris sat stunned, silent throughout Alex’s lecture. At least he’s willing to listen to me. Seriously. How does he not know any of this? And if he didn’t, how come no one else told him? And why couldn’t he figure this out himself?
They gently said, “You are a smart guy and you seem to be able to read people and situations pretty well, but it’s almost like you have these blinders on when it comes to the Centaurs.”
”They are a business. They are not this queer idyllic happy family where it’s all sunshine and rainbows or whatever you’re trying to make them out to be. There bottom line is to make money.”
”Frankly, if you don’t get with the program, it’s going to hurt you the most while the Centaurs won’t care what happens to you. They don’t care now. And honestly, you should already know all of this without me saying anything. You were a director. You were part of upper management and had to have seen this. You should know all of this.”
Alex stood up, leaving a few dollars as tip on the table. “Well, I need to go, but good luck in whatever you decide to do,” they said amiably.
Harris shook his head and looked up at them. “Oh, you too!” He replied by rote, dazed by what he heard.
As they approached the door of the restaurant to leave, they looked back. Harris still sat, unmoving, looking like he was about to cry. Alex sighed. I really didn’t want to do this but he really should have known all of this. They shook their heads. Thank god I’ll never have to work with him ever again, at least.
They were beyond ready to leave the Centaurs behind.