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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.
And then when they merged us
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- Caucasian
- Lesbian
- Health Care
- Left & is now Self-Employed
- Personal Care & Service
- Acquisitions
- Coworker
- Cultural Shift
- Disillusionment
The last few years at the company, I didn't want to go any further up, I didn't want my boss' job and I didn't want my boss' boss' job. It just wasn't interesting to me. And then when they merged us, it was a bloodbath. It was horrible - people were running for cover. They took the money and hunkered down in their offices and looked for other jobs; this horrified me. All of these people who I worked with and adored were suddenly acting very self-protective and didn't care about anybody else around them. It was horrible.