Enter Becca
Becca arrived on a Monday morning with a latte in one hand and her phone in the other, already filming what she called her ‘first day vibes’ for her social media.
She wore a blazer that probably cost more than my monthly car payment and called me ‘bestie’ within the first hour.
‘OMG, Cathy, you’re literally going to be my work mom!’ she squealed, as if I’d won some sort of prize. I smiled politely and started showing her our claims processing system, but quickly noticed something strange: she wasn’t taking notes.
Instead, she was positioning her phone on her desk, adjusting the angle every few minutes. ‘Just documenting the corporate journey,’ she explained with a wink.
I tried to be patient—after all, different generations have different work styles, right? But by day three, I realized Becca wasn’t actually doing much work.
While I was processing claims, she was filming herself making exaggerated expressions or pouting into her camera for what she called her ‘corporate comedy’ TikTok channel.
‘It’s just content creation, Cathy—it’s basically marketing for the company!’ she insisted when I gently suggested she might want to learn how to file a basic claim. At first, I found it silly but harmless—just a young person being young.
Mr. Daniels seemed charmed by her energy, and I didn’t want to come across as the cranky old-timer who couldn’t adapt to modern workplace culture.
But then I started noticing how she’d position herself in meetings—always next to the decision-makers, always with a strategic comment that made her sound knowledgeable even though I knew she was clueless about our policies.
What I didn’t realize yet was that Becca wasn’t just creating content—she was creating her own fast track to the top, and I was unwittingly helping pave the way.