Mandy laughed and shook her head.
“How can you possibly think this is funny?” Brianne asked with a frown. She had expected at least a little bit of sympathy from her best friend.
“I just don’t get how you can moan constantly about your job. Everyone has a bitch at work that they have to put up with. And everyone’s boss gets under their skin now and again. But most people don’t get to rub shoulders with the glitterati of Hollywood and most people don’t get paid a shit-ton of money to take their boss’ crap,” Mandy said. “Honestly, Bri, you act like you’re the only person to have it tough at work. My boss yelled at me a couple of days ago because there was something wrong in his report. A report he had written, not me. And I had to suck it up for my grand thirty-thousand-dollar-a-year salary. Remind me again of your salary.”
“I know I make a decent amount of money. I’m not doubting that,” Brianne reasoned, refusing to say the words “eighty thousand dollars” out loud and rub it in Mandy’s face. “But surely that doesn’t give anyone the right to berate me all day long.”
“In theory, no, it doesn’t. But that’s how the real world works, Bri. The guys at the top treat us like shit. And we suck it up until we climb the ladder,” Mandy said.
“There isn’t a ladder for me, though, is there? This is the best it’s going to get for me, and it’s hell on earth,” Brianne commented.
“There’s no ladder for you because you were one of the lucky ones. You skipped the rungs and started at the top,” Mandy said.
Brianne bristled slightly at Mandy’s words. She hated being described as lucky. She knew she had a job a lot of people would kill for, but that didn’t make her lucky. It meant she worked damned hard and was good at what she did. It was also kind of her legacy, but that didn’t mean she got to keep the job. It only meant she was given it in the first place.
She didn’t bother trying to point any of that out to Mandy, though. As much as Brianne loved Mandy, whenever they talked about work, there was always a slight friction between them. Mandy, with her office assistant job, believed Brianne should be grateful for the position she was in, and that meant she didn’t have a lot of time for Brianne’s complaints about her job. Brianne felt like Mandy didn’t really get it, but she had to wonder if maybe she would be the same if their roles were reversed and Mandy had the job she called her dream job and still found a reason to bitch and moan about it. She thought she’d still at least pretend to be a little bit sympathetic if it was the other way around.
Maybe she’s right, though, in some ways, Brianne thought to herself. Maybe I should just be grateful for the position I am in and stop moaning and just suck it up. Take the bad bits in order to get the good bits.
It was hard not to moan, though, when Valerie Steele was your boss. She was one of those women who was impossible to please. No matter what Brianne said or did, in Valerie’s eyes it was wrong, even when she did everything the way Valerie had instructed her to, which often meant a simple task took twice as long as it needed to. And then, of course, Brianne got berated again for making what was essentially a simple task take far too long. And Brianne had never had the courage to point out that everything only took so long because Valerie had to interfere and change her mind constantly about every damned thing.
“So, what you’re saying is that Valerie pays me enough money to entitle her to treat me like garbage and I should kiss her ass and thank her for doing it?” Brianne said, a little bit bitterly.
The words came out sounding a little harsher than she had meant them to—she’d meant it to come out like a joke rather than a bitter diatribe—but she really felt like that was what Mandy was saying. Mandy smiled at her and shook her head.
“Don’t be such a drama queen. You know that’s not what I’m saying,” Mandy replied. “All I’m saying is that in any job, you’re going to work with people you don’t like, and your boss is going to be an asshole at times. So suck it up and enjoy the good parts. Because most jobs don’t have so many good parts, and I don’t know anyone who has a job with as many perks as yours has.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Brianne said thoughtfully. “But I can’t help but think that the treatment I get isn’t worth it. I’m seriously thinking of quitting my job altogether if Valerie hasn’t calmed down a little bit. Maybe she’ll be different now that she’s landed a leading role and she has less to be bitter about.”
“Maybe she will,” Mandy said. “But even if she isn’t, seriously, Bri, think long and hard before you throw that job away, because there’s nothing out there that could even come close to it. I mean, think about it. You could come and work with me at the office. You would be getting less than half of your current salary, your medical insurance would be so bad it barely covers you for anything, you don’t get a company car or any sort of retirement plan or bonuses. And guess
