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.
Workplace Values
I expected good performance and results to count at my new workplace, especially because we demanded similar principles in the firms we invested in.
While working at my last job, I was constantly having to deal with a boys' club mentality. The fact that the other female team-mate and I were excluded was very apparent when we overheard the rest of the team planning to take another team-member out to lunch for his birthday.
I worked in corporate Human Resources for a mid-sized company. I enjoyed the people I worked with, but didn't agree with a lot of the company's practices.
At my former job, I experienced sexual harassment from a senior employee. I was not the only female in the office to be on the receiving end of inappropriate comments, jokes and touches, but I was the only person to report this to Human Resources.
I was a recent college graduated when I found this part-time job. Because I was only 22, my boss assumed that my parents were still supporting me (they weren't), and declared he only needed to pay me $12/hour with no benefits.
I had a "this is the last straw" moment...While working for a large, nation-wide consulting firm, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 3 liver Cancer.
I enjoyed my time there very much. I made some great friends, made some good money, learned some essential (do's and don'ts) business skills, and have a fantastic organization on my resume.
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.
At one place of employment, 4 of us were hired for a summer internship. Our direct superior started having an affair with one of the interns.
Several months before, at the holiday party, the vice-president got extremely drunk and told a good friend that he was having an affair, and that it wasn't so unusual, because the CEO was having one, too.
