Corporate Leavers - The Cost of Employee Turnover Due to Unfairness
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.
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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.
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The experience drove home the reality that regardless of how committed one is to the job or company in Corporate America, there are no safeguards or assurances that the company will be committed to the individual.
I would have stayed in the entire event did not occur. I ended up staying on for as long as I could because the market was tight at that time and the money I was making was great.
The only real way to protect one's job when working for an employer is to own part of the company. Even then there is no real assurance you will not be manipulated (by the board or your investors) but you would at least have a better chance at staying than the average employee.
When the new Vice President of Diversity was brought on I was hopeful that she would be supportive of the LGBT community.
We found out that our company offered pet health insurance, including unusual pets like pigs, rats and snakes but they didn't offer same sex domestic partner benefits.
I remember a woman coming up to me and touching my hair. She said, "Oh, it's soft." I was like, what did you expect? Brillo?"
When I first started working in financial services, they started by putting me in sales to see if I could handle it. The person who hired me said they had hired two women before me. He asked me, "I just want to know how you handle it when you get your period." I was so surprised.
Because I became a top producer and I was rapidly promoted, soon my previous boss and I became peers. He was a regional sales director; I was a regional sales director. I could tell that he assigned my ability to do well to my looks.
When I left the second financial services firm, I had a doubled-edged situation. My numbers were so high that they couldn't deny that. I wrote a report and my boss said to me, "You wrote this?" She was surprised that I could do it.