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.
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I was a Sr. Leader at my company and I had high hopes of going far. I worked very closely with another Latino straight man during a project.
I was always professional to everyone I worked with. The stress did take its toll, and caused me to leave.
My coworker was terminated.
Stay your course and fight for what is right. Even though there may be people who may want to put you down, walk with your head up.
If only I had listened to my gut instinct. From the cubicle culture to the constant zero-sum gamesmanship, my time spent with this employer was more like an endurance test than a job.
I was given accounts that represented, in my view, an indirect conflict of interest. Basically, this firm, like so many others in its field, was undiscriminating when it came to the clients it would accept.
I would have stayed if I could have been treated as an individual, plain and simple.
Become a robot, deny yourself lunch before 5 or else you'll come off as greedy, answer to all tedious meetings to discuss meetings as if you just won the lottery, treat your boss with the kind of non-questioning reverence you would a sovereign king, never talk back, hide all facets of your personality.
