Browse Stories
Vote on Desiree Davidson's Story
Were they afraid we were planning a coup d'etat?
I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing. It happened too often to be a coincidence that sometimes we would purposely agree to meet in so-and-so's office to test our theory that we were being monitored. Like clock work, ten minutes after we would get together a partner would stop by.
When I started to play, it made a huge difference
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- African-American
- Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical
- Left & is now a Small Business Entrepreneur
- Engineering
- Fitting In
- Positive Experience
- Socializing
The managers from other departments always played basketball during lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'd be walking around and they'd invite me to play. So when I started to play, it made a huge difference. When we played we talked about all sorts of things, some of them business. We'd be in the shower and they'd ask, "What's going on with this product? What's going on with that?" They were often in meetings that I wasn't in, so I was privy to information that I wouldn't normally have. That helped me a lot and it helped them to see me outside of the department. They got to know me as a person and that helped me. That wouldn't have happened if I didn't play basketball.