Making A PowerPoint Power Move
I’ve just been offered a new job in another company, so I am a few days from handing in my two-week notice at my current office. I am very excited to leave, mostly due to my boss, who is lazy, incompetent, and effectively sabotages those who work for him to make him look good and earn promotions and bonuses. I have decided that in these final weeks, I will set the record straight.
Our entire department is crammed into the glass-walled conference room while my boss is giving a slick PowerPoint to the executive team. The project he’s presenting? Mine. My data, my analysis, my late nights. He didn’t tweak a thing, just slapped his name on it and added a fancier title slide.
Did he even double-check what he’s presenting? We’re about to find out.
Boss: “As you’ll see on this next chart, our projections for Q3—”
He clicks to the slide. A clean bar graph appears… titled “[Boss]’s Bold Vision™ (Compiled Entirely by [Boss], Obviously)” in Comic Sans.
He stutters and skips to the next slide.
Boss: “Uh, right. So, this model here breaks down client retention by—”
New Slide: A table of numbers labeled “Data harvested from the sacred forests of [Boss]’s wisdom.| Also in Comic Sans. A subtle watermark in the corner reads “Hi, I’m the real author. :) “
The execs shift in their seats. My Boss’s smile tightens. He clicks again.
The forecast model pops up with a title that simply says: “Definitely not stolen from a junior analyst named [My Name].”
There’s a long silence. One VP raises an eyebrow. My boss fumbles for words, but before he can speak, the final slide auto-plays. It’s a stock photo of a man shrugging beneath the text: “When you steal someone’s work and still don’t understand it.”
I close my notebook, stand, and say with a polite smile:
Me: “Let me know if you’d like the version with real answers and fewer adjectives.”
Some of the executive team thought it was hilarious. Some considered my behavior unprofessional and something I should have discussed with my boss in private. Some of my coworkers said I was being petty and should have spoken to HR. I just told them I’ll be gone in a few weeks, and I was tired of [Boss] always getting away with it.
