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.
Socializing
Having been raised in a small blue collar town, I was the first in my family to hold a professional corporate position.
I am often questioned, some times ridiculed for not drinking alcohol at social events after work. Co-workers also often look down on fasting.
When I was moved to HR I found that all the people in HR were a clique. They were all white, went to lunch together and they all lived in the same area.
My advice to other employees is to do really good work, to develop visibility in the company so people see your work, to build a strong network of allies, to get as much experience as possible and to build operating experience.
I quickly learned that competence or capability will not get you hired or promoted but political suaveness will. Being a good engineer I thought would get you promoted but actually people who were going out to the pub after work and had similar cultural backgrounds as the management were the ones getting promoted. Most of the time, I was the only black guy on the team and I didn't drink or smoke.
During an overnight a team building retreat we had to share rooms and I found out that one of the white girls went behind the scenes and changed her room assignment so she wouldn't have to share with me.
As the Director of a community health clinic part of my job was to change the clinic culture and bring it in line with corporate culture. The community was supposedly a progressive, liberal inclusive community. The corporation located in a different city, was a conservative, white woman dominated reproductive health care company.
I would attend company dinners at executives' homes. People would bring their wives and husbands, but I could never bring my partner. People always thought I was single and couldn't find a date, so th
The managers from other departments always played basketball during lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'd be walking around and they'd invite me to play. So when I started to play, it made a huge difference.
My co-workers ask me about movies or things on TV that I haven't seen. I have been here 13 years, but I don't have time to see all the movies or watch TV. I feel like I will never catch up. There is too much information.
