I Raised My Brother From Childhood, but He Looked Down on Me for Being a Janitor Until the Truth Came Out

A Life of Service and Sacrifice

My name is Michelle, a 39-year-old janitor. I’ve been working for a housekeeping company that serves corporate offices since I was 20.

I’m a single woman in her late 30s about to hit 20 years of service. The reason I chose this job was to care for my mother who fell ill.

We were a family of three: just my mother, brother, and me in a single-parent household. When my mother fell seriously ill, I had to drop out of vocational school and arranged time to accompany her to medical appointments and assist her.

I chose this job only because it allowed me to secure time to care for my mother, but now I’m truly glad I landed here. My boss and colleagues are understanding of my situation and always interact with me warmly, calling me, “Michelle, sweetie.”

I do have some staff that work under me and they are also adorable. I thought there was no better workplace than this.

My mother passed away when I was 25 and my brother was 19. It was around the time when fall ended and winter began.

Shocked by the loss of my mother, I started to take more time off work. The company was about to enter their busiest season with our year-end deep cleaning.

Despite the timing, my colleagues at the company reassured me, saying it’s okay, we’ll wait for you to feel better. I appreciated their concern, but I just wanted to shut myself away.

I wanted to go after my mother, but I had a younger brother I had to take care of. Out of pity for him, who lost his mother before adulthood, I pulled myself together and managed to keep working.

At the time, my brother was still in college. I looked out for him, paid for his school textbooks as he moved grades, and drove him back home on the days he got out of class late.

When he got a job, I gave him a suit as a celebration gift. I had a meager income, but I worked hard thinking of myself as a substitute for our mother.

The Cost of Success

After my mother passed away, my brother started saying things like why don’t you quit being a janitor and why don’t you get a better job. I think he was upset with my low income and our poor social standing.

At the time, I wasn’t in the best mental state to be able to change jobs, so it was very hard to hear those words. My co-workers at my job were the ones who kindly supported me throughout this.

Later, my brother worked hard to find a job and secured a position at a large corporation. It was a well-known company whose name you frequently see and hear in TV commercials and online ads.

My brother’s initial salary was nearly twice my wage. His joy at that time was like a little boy who had received lots of New Year’s money gifts.

“Look at this, sis. I’ve surpassed you in just one month. Incredible. Check out this payslip. It’s amazing, right?”

My brother was truly overjoyed and couldn’t help but brag to others.

“Sis, quit your janitor job and get a good one like me.”

“Hey, watch how you talk. I love my current job.”

“Quit making excuses. Our salaries are no match.”

Well, I wish he could be more careful with his words. I was relieved that my brother’s efforts had paid off.

Sitting in front of my mother’s portrait, I reported, my brother, your son is all grown up now.

But my boastful younger brother, who was so proud of his place and his own company, was heading down a dark path. He was skilled at his work and always bragged about the praise he received from his boss.

Even though he had just started working for the company, I heard he was picked to participate in a big project. As his sister, I was proud of him, but I noticed my brother making condescending remarks about his colleagues and it only worsened as days passed.

“I’m doing well and getting recognition, but my peers, they’re just slow to pick things up. If their incompetence drags my reputation down as well, it’d be unbearable,”

He would say such things without hesitation. It seemed more like he was looking down on the real world as a whole rather than just his workplace.

If this continued, I knew it was going to hurt him big time. I took it upon myself to warn him about his attitude.

“I think all the new hires are about the same level, you know. You’re all just starting out,”

I said.

To which my brother replied:

“Wow, sis, you’re pretty talkative for a janitor with a low-level education.”

And he sneered. Frustrated, I replied:

“Well, I’ve been in the workplace longer than you, so I know there isn’t that much difference in people’s abilities.”

“Really? Do you have any college graduates at your cleaning company? Before you lecture me, why don’t you tell them they’ve wasted their lives?”

And with that, my brother belittled me and went out for drinks.

That kid, the workplace is probably going to hit him with reality soon. Despite my concerns, my brother’s arrogance only worsened.

It started with him feeling superior to me because his salary was higher than mine. This morphed into an incorrect self-perception of himself.

He now believed that he was gifted, and it tweaked his personality. He became vocal and didn’t hold back his criticism towards me.

At first, I thought he was just excited about his new job, so I let it slide. However, gentle verbal warnings went over his head, so I scolded him in a serious tone.

The Breaking Point

Unfortunately, there was no change in his behavior. I began to lose confidence in myself as a sister, wondering if I’d failed to get involved with him in the right manner.

Before I knew it, a few years had passed. I continued to work as a janitor.

My brother seemed to be doing well and climbing the corporate ladder, but his contemptuous attitude towards others had significantly worsened. And then he moved in with his girlfriend and they got married.

His wife also had an inflated sense of arrogance, which caused me to stress. His wife was considerably younger than him, so to me, it felt like she was from a completely different generation.