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.
Think positive
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- Arab/Arab-American
- Accounting/Auditing
- Considering Leaving
- Advice to Peer
- Tip
If I were giving advice to anyone else in this situation, I would say to see things from her point of view, and to think positive in that those candidates were probably not as productive as they could have been somewhere else. But seeing first-hand that she drives our most profit earning employee's to competitors causes me to want to re-think my priorities. If this type of environment is being created now, I can't imagine the type of environment it would be in a larger field.