Cockroached

It’s truly wild how the moment you start calling things out—like poor leadership, shady job postings, or that one recruiter who ghosted you harder than your high school prom date—people start scattering faster than roaches when the lights come on.

Suddenly it’s “Let’s not make this personal,” or “We don’t like negativity on this platform,” or my personal favorite: “Can we take this offline?”

Sure, Karen. Let’s take it offline—like my last 17 applications that went straight into the corporate Bermuda Triangle.

But here’s the thing: saying the quiet part out loud shouldn’t be revolutionary. If someone is openly advocating for fair pay, clear communication, or not requiring three rounds of interviews for a role that pays in “experience and exposure”… that’s not negativity. That’s called standards.

We’re not being dramatic. We’re being direct.

And directness makes people uncomfortable—especially the ones who benefit from your silence.

Suddenly they go full magician: disappearing from comment sections, removing their likes, vanishing into HR’s emergency protocol called “Let’s Wait for This to Blow Over.”

It’s amazing. You speak up, and half the room turns into Houdini.

“Where did everyone go?”

“Oh, they were never really here. They just wanted to network with you when it was convenient and quiet.”

But start talking about ghosting?

About toxic job descriptions?

About how the “culture” everyone brags about on LinkedIn mysteriously disappears once you sign the paperwork?

Whew. Cue the collective panic.

The lights came on. And the roaches ran.

To be clear—I’m not here to roast for sport. I’m here because some of us are tired of whispering in rooms where we should be shouting. Tired of writing safe little posts that make us look “employable” while silently enduring systems that are broken, biased, and baffling.

Some of us were raised by people who taught us not to complain—and now we’re unlearning that every day. Because calling something out isn’t being negative. It’s being honest. It’s being aware. It’s being someone who still cares enough to want things to get better.

So if you’re out here trying to hold things accountable and you’re noticing some people disappear?

Let them.

You weren’t speaking up to entertain roaches anyway.

You were flipping the lights on so other people—people like you—could find their way through the dark without stepping on a landmine labeled “That’s just how it is.”

We’re not going back to whispering.

We’re not tiptoeing around dysfunction to keep others comfortable.

And we’re not dimming the lights just so the roaches feel safe.

So go ahead.

Call it out.

Say the thing.

And if people scatter?

Well… maybe they were never supposed to be in the room with you to begin with.