#PrintHERStoryMonth 2025: Meet Michaela VanHeel, Target Printing Services

After requesting a seat at the table of all men in senior leadership to discuss my team’s value add during COVID with my direct leader being a woman, she was told no, I was not allowed to make recommendations. If you hire me to lead a team, and do not let me, then why did you hire me? I asked each male leader that very question one on one over the next days. None had an answer, and I could see they did not like me asking. I persisted with a campaign of why you hired me, saying I am the expert in my area of expertise, if I don’t get to at the very least make recommendations and provide possible solutions. If I am not the expert for my team, then fire me, I kept saying. They finally gave me a seat at the table to present my ideas and make recommendations, and they were all implemented with great praise. I learned that people with titles are just people, and they can be wrong too, no matter what the title is.