They Called It Performance Poem by Pushp Sirohi

They built tall buildings of glass and light,
and called it opportunity.
Gave you a badge, a system login,
and named it identity.

You entered with effort in your hands,
discipline in your breath,
believing work would speak for you—
as they quietly redefined what speaking meant.

They tracked your hours,
measured your speed,
recorded your every move.
But never once did they measure
how much of you you had to remove.

They praised you in meetings,
rewarded you in mails,
wrote "great job" in official tone—
and buried your growth in details.

Recognition came like festival lights,
bright… temporary… planned.
But when it came to real decisions,
your name slipped out of their hand.

They said, "Improve."
You asked, "How? "
They said, "Align."
You asked, "Where? "

They gave you feedback without direction,
a path that led nowhere.

They stretched your time,
delayed your truth,
shifted your ground beneath—
and when you asked for clarity,
they handed you silence as relief.

They moved you across teams like strategy,
resetting your worth each time—
"Too early to judge, " the new one said,
"Too late, " replied the old in line.

They called it process.
They called it fair.
They called it structure and growth.

But behind the language of corporate care,
lived a system that never took oath.

You gave them numbers,
you gave them results,
you gave them more than your role—
and they gave you a document in return,
that tried to measure your soul.

And when you stood,
not broken—but aware,
they said, "There's no escalation here."

Not loudly.
Not harshly.
Just clearly enough
to make your reality disappear.

But listen carefully—

You were never the failure they wrote.
You were the truth they couldn't promote.

Because systems don't break people loudly,
they do it quietly… with design.
And those who still stand after seeing it all—
were never meant to align.

So take back your name from their records,
your worth from their scale,
your voice from their silence,
your story from their tale.

Let them keep their processes,
their structured disguise—
you've seen behind it now.

And once you see a system clearly—
you no longer need its approval
to rise.