A Trip to Haterville

I was having drinks with a friend the other evening and we got to talking about work. I told her that I like my job, don’t love it but it is much better than my last job which I hated with a passion. It wasn’t the job so much, just a couple of people and the bulls*it I had to put up with from them.  She told me why she no longer worked for the organization that I worked for. We both began there almost a year ago in different departments. Within several months due to turnover, she was promoted to a better position, more pay and more responsibility. She went from being at the beck and call of doctors and nurses to more or less calling shots.  That caused tension from some of the nurses and it began a big game of he said, she said. Unfortunately in the process of trying to vindicate herself, she broke a company rule and her boss had to let her go.

I do not believe that anyone’s job is better than anyone else’s. However, I don’t understand how a person with a college degree, professional licensing and the ability to control life or death through their actions can HATE on someone who is trying to better themselves and just happen to be in the right place at the right time and inherits a promotion.

Her situation sounded like what I went through before I went back to school. I was hired at a “prominent” HBCU as a researcher in 2003. I had expressed an interest in teaching and within my first few months, an opportunity presented itself. I received the endorsement of my boss to teach and do lab work and things went along fine. At the beginning of our work relationship, things were cordial and fine. I shared work that I had done with my students and I felt like I had a good repoire with them.  As I think back over the things the then chair of our department said to me, it appears that my boss and her co-investigator who are both PhD educated somehow felt threatened by a man with a Master’s degree who had goals of being professionally educated as well. 

By year 2, they isolated me and made me look like I was the dead weight in the lab. Instead of talking to me about what they perceived to be a problem, they just decided to can me at my next evaluation. Now dont get me wrong, I admit I was not a perfect employee, but some of the accusations were downright outrageous. I had the backing of the Chair and the Dean although they were poweless to do anything about the situation. Out of all of this, it hurt that my own people did this to me. We are hateful and hurtful to each other as African-Americans at all levels of society; academia is much, much worse. It makes NO sense that someone at the top of the ladder should feel like that guy climbing the ladder, who took advantage of a great opportunity is a threat to their standing. How does that work?

It has taken me some time to get over that situation and for my friend I am sure that some aspects of her experience will take some time to get past. I have always believed that Karma is a b*tch, what you reap is what you sow.  I believe that we both gave our best on our jobs only to get railroaded by hateful people. If you treat others with respect, that will go so much further in the long run. All I know is that somewhere down the line, karma is ready to jump up and beat down some punk ass haters. As the beat down commences, you will hear Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” in the background. We are still here and despite the circumstances of the past, we are here standing stronger and smarter than ever.

Class Dismissed…