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.
Meritocracy
I expected good performance and results to count at my new workplace, especially because we demanded similar principles in the firms we invested in.
It made me realize that all the "diversity" messaging that I had been giving to the media and analysts was a bunch of lies.
I know the primary reason I left corporate America was because I wanted to have my own company, but thinking back I remember when I was so astonished by the behavior of some of the people in Corporate America.
I made a tough choice not to work in a large corporate environment and to work in start-ups, because start-ups don't have a lot of management layers. Everybody is necessary to make the company successful.
I had a great relationship with my boss. He came to me and said, "You've done a lot of great things here. You have worked on a lot of major transactions. I'm not having any problem at all with your performance, but I'm getting some feedback from my boss that you need to better manage your perceptions." I asked, "What do you mean by better manage perceptions?" He had a hard time explaining what that meant, but I guess it meant that I was suppose to kiss up more and do a little more brown-nosing.
The point was, there was one set of rules for one group and another set of rules for another and it was by gender. Men got enormous raises. And there were several men hired who I knew didn't have the qualifications and there were women who were over-qualified who couldn't even get an interview.
