When your colleagues don’t respect your role at work, it can be one of the things that could drive you out, and Rafiya had her fair share of that experience.
For the first three months at Soso’s Engineering Limited, everything felt seamless. Rafiya, the social media manager, didn’t even have to send formal emails to coordinate video content for the company’s channels. She could wander over to the team, share a quick idea, and instantly get people on board for a clip or trend.
Her desk neighbour, Nelson, was always amazed. After their shoots, he’d turn to her and say, “I’m honestly shocked at how you get everyone to join in. Before you got here, nobody would touch the camera.”
Rafiya would brush off his praise with a smile. To her, it was simple: build warm relationships, keep things light, and make participation effortless. She felt completely in sync with the company, proud of how she was bringing human warmth to a traditionally rigid engineering firm.
Then came month four.
Almost overnight, the atmosphere flipped. When Rafiya walked over to the sales desk and called out, “Hey Joy, busy?”, Joy stared at her screen in dead silence for a full minute before snapping back, “Every day content. We have actual targets to hit, Rafiya. Ask someone else. We’re busy, and you people are busy doing nothing.”
Rafiya froze. Before she could even explain what the shoot was for, Joy had already turned her back. Trying to shake off the sting, Rafiya approached Seraiah nearby. Before she could finish her sentence, Seraiah held up a hand. “Madam, please. We are busy. Send an email or go to another office.” He stood up and walked away.
As the weeks wore on, the casual dismissiveness spread like wildfire. Passing comments echoed down the hallways: “Must be nice to play on your phone all day,” or “Don’t you have actual work to do?” Even when Rafiya sent detailed briefs weeks in advance, her requests were ignored or met with curt, dismissive replies, treating digital marketing as a childish distraction rather than a key driver of company growth. This went on until she was two years old in the company.
The quiet disrespect reached its boiling point during the quarterly strategy meeting.
Rafiya stood at the head of the boardroom table, presenting a detailed lead-generation campaign designed to convert audience engagement into direct engineering contracts. Midway through her breakdown, a senior project manager cut in with a condescending laugh.
“Look, Rafiya, it’s great that you make fun little videos,” he said, waving a hand dismissively. “But we’re a serious engineering firm. We build real infrastructure. We don’t need social media games.”
A heavy silence fell over the room. Nelson offered a sympathetic, uncomfortable glance, but no one else spoke up. Rafiya’s fingers simply rested on the key, trembling slightly. The silence in the boardroom pressed against her chest like an iron weight.
Rafiya looked around the table at the faces that had dismissed her efforts, treated her skills as trivial, and demeaned her profession. The initial wave of hurt vanished, replaced by a sharp, icy clarity. She closed her laptop lid with a slow, deliberate click.
When she spoke, her voice wasn’t raised in anger. It was quiet, ragged, and heavy with the sheer weight of feeling utterly unseen.
“You really think I just play on my phone, don’t you?”
The room shifted uncomfortably. The manager’s smirk faltered slightly at the raw, vulnerable tone in her voice.
“I come in here every week,” Rafiya continued, her breath catching as she fought to keep her voice steady. “I build strategy from nothing. I translate complex engineering into something the world actually cares about, so that when you sit across from prospective clients, they already know who we are. I sit at my desk late at night analyzing data, refining messaging, trying to give this firm a voice… and to all of you, I’m just a nuisance making ‘fun little videos.'”
She swallowed hard, pressing her hand flat against the table to stop the slight tremour in her wrist.
“The thirty percent increase in client inquiries last quarter didn’t happen by accident. The two major infrastructure leads sitting on your desk right now, the ones paying for our salaries, came directly through the channels I manage. I have poured everything I have into making this company visible, while every single one of you treats my work like an embarrassing joke.”
A hot, painful tear threatened to spill, but she blinked it back, locking eyes with the manager.
“I didn’t earn my place at this company to be humiliated for doing my job. It hurts… it genuinely hurts to give so much to a team that looks at your entire life’s work as nothing more than a childish game.”
She slowly picked up her laptop, her chest rising and falling with heavy, quiet breaths. Nobody spoke. Nobody looked up. The entire boardroom remained frozen under the crushing weight of her words.
For the first time since she had walked through the doors two years ago, they weren’t looking at the “social media girl”; they were looking at a core strategist who knew her exact value.
Lesson
Social media managers are a strategic part of the overall growth of every business once you hire them. It is important that team members understand that no role is bigger than another. We are all a hand and a leg, a part of an organization that makes it drive. Also, when you feel disrespected in your role, gently state what you bring to the table.
