TL;DR:
This is a raw one.
I'm talking about performative empathy in corporate culture, the mental and emotional toll of being a contractor in white-dominant spaces, and how AI is not the enemy—extractive systems are.
Where do I even start?
Every time I step into this contract role, it feels like I'm starting over. Again. And again.
Today, I led the Internal Communications huddle, a meeting of mostly the same people from Monday's call, plus a few higher-ups.
My role? To host, guide, and pass the mic.
Their role? Perform empathy.
When the VP talked about an upcoming team lunch—one of those performative "team-building" events—I asked the obvious but unspoken question:
*As a contractor, do I get to participate? Do I pay? Do you pay?*
Her answer?
No. I wouldn't be paid for my time. I'd fund it myself.
She followed it with a back-patting comment about how glad she was that I "felt safe enough to ask."
As if my question was a gift to her ego. As if my vulnerability was proof of her leadership.
Let me be clear: I didn’t ask because I felt safe. I asked because I *am* unsafe—and I know what happens when we keep quiet.
I asked because silence is complicity, and I refuse to co-sign a system that extracts and excludes while branding itself as inclusive.
This is the toxicity of performative corporate empathy. It's not always overt.
It's a smirk disguised as support. It’s diversity statements with no substance. It’s systems that applaud bravery but penalize boldness.
And what burns deeper?
The knowledge that if I had been silent, they would have gone on believing they were doing great. They would have added another point to their DEI bingo card.
This isn’t new.
I’ve been the only. The first. The different. In rooms of white faces. In teams where the color of my badge said more about my value than my work ever could. Where the work I do is essential—often *the* most visible—but I am invisible.
What does it mean to survive these spaces?
What does it mean to show up fully when the structures do not support you?
It means I speak. I name. I reclaim. It means I remember that these systems—whether they wear suits or mission statements—were never built for me.
But I’m building something for *us.*
And here's where I want to talk about AI. Because too many people are blaming AI for job losses, for creative theft, for the end of humanity.
But AI isn’t the villain. *Extraction is.*
If we lived in a society that truly centered people—not productivity—we’d use AI as a tool to lighten our load, not replace our soul. The fear isn’t really about the machines. It’s about the mirror. The mirror that shows us just how far we’ve strayed from being human.
We fear AI because we’ve made work our worth.
Because we’ve confused tools with truth. Because we’ve allowed systems to shape us into outputs instead of whole people.
But the tool isn’t the enemy. The enemy is the culture that treats people like things and things like people.
It’s the culture that creates contractors to avoid responsibility, that creates platforms but not policies, that praises resilience while withholding resources.
So what do we do?
We reclaim. We rebuild. We **create career clarity** not as a luxury—but as a birthright.
We stop waiting for systems to value us and start designing lives that do.
Whether you're in a job you hate, building a business, or somewhere in between—you deserve clarity. You deserve sovereignty. You deserve to be seen.
⏳ Don’t wait for the system to change. Change your story. Maybe you’re waiting for the right time. The truth?
There may never be one.
What there is—right now—is an opportunity. To stop circling the same questions. To start answering them with action.
To choose calm over chaos. Consciousness over confusion. Continuity over collapse.
So let this be your invitation.
If you've been quietly unraveling, let's put the pieces back together—not in the image of capitalism, but in the image of your own becoming.
Your story doesn’t end here.
Let’s write the next chapter together.
Thanks for reading The Broken Ladder! This post is public so feel free to share it.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit raquelsands.substack.com/subscribe
