“Look at You!”: The Most Condescending Compliment in Corporate History
Yesterday, I dared to do something wild: I followed up on a conversation we had last Thursday. I’d spent time digging into the details, running comparisons, cross-referencing ADP numbers, and even making visual guides so it would all make sense. I double-checked community forums, broke down the Maryland outlier, and offered a call to walk through it—because I am, tragically, competent.
Her response?
Look at you working on that! I appreciate it…
Look. At. Me.
Like I just colored inside the lines. Like I’d finally learned to tie my shoes. Like I wasn’t doing the exact job I was hired to do—but somehow going above and beyond by… doing it well.
She followed that up with,
…I will definitely take a look at it and I can add a meeting to the calendar for this week either Thursday or Friday to talk through it.
Which we all know is Mayday-speak for:
“I’m not going to read this right now, but I will schedule a meeting to have you read it out loud to me while I ask questions I could’ve answered myself by reading it.”
And yes, she’ll want to share her screen during the meeting. And yes, it will take twenty minutes to navigate to the folder I already linked.
At least she didn’t ask me to send a follow-up thanking her for planning to look at the follow-up I already sent.