“Team spirit.”
That's the phrase I heard right before every “no.” No raise this year — team spirit. No, you can't move up — team spirit. It got said with a smile, like it was supposed to make the math make sense.
Here's the math that never made sense: I was the one training every new hire on my team. Walking them through the systems, covering their mistakes, answering the questions nobody else had patience for. And most of them started at a higher salary than mine. When I asked why, I got the same line every time — “you're just doing your job.” As if training the person who'd eventually earn more than me was also just part of the job.
I didn't say what I actually wanted to say in those meetings. You don't, not when rent is due and the job market is rough and walking out isn't really an option. You nod. You go back to your desk. You keep training the next person who'll get paid more than you for doing less than you.
So I put it on a shirt instead.
VEZKA started as the sentence I never got to say out loud in that office. It became a way to say the things a lot of us carry around all day and never voice — not because we're not brave enough, but because sometimes sarcasm is the only language left when you still need the paycheck.
Every design starts the same way: something someone actually said, or wanted to say, at work. No corporate mission statement, no “team spirit” pretending to be a substitute for a raise. Just honest, slightly petty, deeply relatable truth — printed on soft cotton, made to order, one shirt at a time.
If you've ever trained your own replacement's replacement and gotten a “thank you for your dedication” instead of a raise, you already know exactly who this is for.
— VEZKA