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.
Undervalued
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 am a Middle Eastern, younger woman and I was working for an internet marketing company that was run by 2 British Men.
After a verbal agreement was made, I brought in an account. Once the account was opened, I was called into a meeting to revisit the initial agreement and against my accord, the conditions of the agreement were reversed.
Every individual has a gift of life no matter what America thinks of you. You are still a human being.
I would have stayed if the company cared more about their employees and their input. The company was bought out by an investment company whose sole interest was to make money.
My last encounter in corporate America-- the one that let me know without question that it was time for me to get out-- was when I was in charge of Quality Assurance (QA) for a software development company and they brought in a new QA Manager who knew nothing about QA.
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.
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 if they had respected that my expertise as a communications professional was fully translatable into working on the oilfield side of the business.
I am a female attorney who worked in the corporate environment amongst mostly men. I finally excused myself from Business/Legal Affairs meetings because the other men would ignore me and literally speak right over me as I was speaking even though I was the representative of the department who had the pertinent information.
