In my field, I often ‘ghost write’ extensive legal arguments for Supreme Court litigation, on behalf of Senior Counsel (we call the practice ‘devilling’). I do weeks of research, strategy, writing, rewriting, and the senior will submit and argue my papers as their own.

Most of the time, I don’t even get to know. I’m not officially on record. And when I do a great job, judges might praise the senior for ‘their’ excellent work, and I’ll hear about that second-hand. It can be hard to stomach because everyone likes affirmation and appreciation for their labour, but I’ve grown to get all my satisfaction from the work alone, and doing an excellent job.

At least in my case, I know this is how it goes so it’s never a surprise. But it’s lonely behind the scenes in a thankless role. I empathise with the uncredited, but at the end of the day the reward is in the quality of your output.