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.
Benefits
The last straw was when my company took away from long services employees.
When I was previously married to a male to female transsexual and therefore, we appeared to be a same-sex couple, HR deleted my spouse's health benefits from our system with no notification to us.
We found out that our company offered pet health insurance, including unusual pets like pigs, rats and snakes but they didn't offer same sex domestic partner benefits.
I got to work in lots of different departments at the bank. I got to incorporate domestic partner benefits. I helped start a lesbian work group and was co-chair of that for a number of years. I ended
My last straw came when they took this guy who was sort of my counterpart who was pretty incompetent and they made him my boss. So that, in combination with the fact that I could get a severance package, was convincing.
All this was going on while my mother's health was in decline. I was also mentally preparing for surgery. Then there was a snafu with the insurance and they declined my surgery. It turned out there was some paperwork that wasn't submitted.
A year before the company offered domestic partner benefits, they announced other enhancements to the benefits package. One of these enhancements they were offering was insurance for pets. You could get a list with all the animals that were covered: cats, dogs, rats, snakes, and pot-bellied pigs.
I worked five years to get domestic partner benefits. Finally, a newspaper article appeared in our local paper highlighting that a handful of companies offered pet benefits, but not domestic partner benefits.
In 2001, there was a shareholder resolution requesting that sexual orientation be added to the non-discrimination policy. The board recommended voting 'no'. That lit my fire. That's when I got in touch with the VP of Community Relations.
After I left, the HR person sent me an email about mentoring. This was the cycle. They don't offer me much, but when I say I am leaving or complain they tell me there was a mentoring program. I asked for an ergonomic evaluation and they say they filed the request.
