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.
Information Technology/Internet
This is my story of how I was excluded in a position that I truly deserved at my previous employer. I am a hard-working Hispanic and try to gain everyone's respect.
I gained the respect of all my co-workers and helped them with a lot of computer related problems.
I would have stayed if they offered me a permanent position or even if I could have continued to work in the IT department.
Don't trust anyone at your current job. You may not know that they may be stabbing you in the back. Always work hard enough so top supervisors can see that you have a lot of dedication to the company.
Salvador Rodriguez
When I was hired as a full-time employee at Kaiser Permanente, I found my new manager hated the manager I had worked for previously as a contractor, and she constantly tried to use me against her and trying to get me to speak "dirt" about her (using leading questions and even very subtle threats, like putting off my training schedule as long as I wasn't cooperating).
At Kaiser, I continued to devote myself to making the lives of my colleagues better. I took the initiative to help people out when I saw the opportunity and let them know when I saw problems that should be brought to their attention.
I would have stayed at my previous job at Bank of America...if I thought I was helping people in my job, not contributing to suffering, being compensated fairly for my labor, and being allowed to get a proper night's sleep.
For Bank of America, I would make inquiries and even visited different departments. When I was there, BofA was a loose bundle of many kingdoms: if you start off in a low value, cost-center department, the pay will be almost as bad as MacDonalds, and the managers will be extremely patronizing because a large part of the staff in those areas will barely have a high school education.
