‘It’s not that Ellie’s awful,’ Claire tells me, stirring her coffee thoughtfully. ‘She can be really lovely and was so welcoming when I joined the company. But she never seems to do any work. The other day, I was swamped: deadlines were piling up and I was tearing my hair out. Ellie put an ‘urgent’ meeting in my diary, so I dashed along the corridor, only to find she just wanted to chat. I said I was really busy and needed to get on, but she was really off with me, saying that she liked to make time for her friends but I obviously didn’t. I ended up sitting there listening to her moan about people at work for 45 minutes. My manager walked past the
