The Viral Video
I was organizing the Johnson file when Margie from Accounting hurried over to my desk, her face flushed with embarrassment. ‘Cathy, you need to see this,’ she whispered, holding out her phone like it contained something radioactive.
I squinted at the screen, adjusting my reading glasses. There I was in the background of Becca’s latest TikTok, hunched over my keyboard while she performed an exaggerated impression of someone typing with dramatic two-finger pecking motions.
‘This is how the office dinosaurs still type—with BOTH hands!’ she mocked, her voice dripping with condescension. ‘Like, hello? It’s 2023!’ My stomach clenched as I scrolled through the comments.
‘Omg my mom types like this too 💀,’ someone wrote. Another chimed in: ‘Boomer workers who can’t keep up should retire already lol.’ The video had over 15,000 likes and was still climbing.
People I’d never met were laughing at me, at my generation, at the work ethic that had kept this company running while Becca was still in diapers.
I handed the phone back to Margie, my hands trembling slightly. ‘I’m sure she didn’t mean any harm,’ I said automatically, the peacekeeper in me still making excuses.
But as I watched Becca across the office, filming yet another video while her claims pile sat untouched, something inside me hardened. This wasn’t just harmless fun anymore—it was workplace bullying dressed up as ‘content creation.
‘ And I knew exactly what I needed to do next.