“Come on, Aditi, you’ve got this,” Aditi mumbled to herself as she sat outside the conference room. A steady stream of colleagues had come and gone, each spending anywhere between five minutes to an hour with Du, justifying their existence in the company. Some came out relieved, others sad or angry, while some seemed simply defeated.
The company had not performed as well as hoped in the past couple of years, and now the layoffs which everyone had been dreaded were happening. Aditi knew that her job was on the line. She was too junior, small fry in such a large team. She needed to somehow convince Du to keep her, to demonstrate her value as an employee.
By late afternoon, Aditi as the only one left sitting outside the conference room. The entire team had come and gone before her. She didn’t know if this was a bad sign, or if she was simply left for last due to her insignificance in the company. She jumped when the door finally opened and Du beckoned her inside.
