Breaking up with the ACLU
Holy shit. I just quit my job at ACLU of Northern CA — after nearly 20 years with the company. Get your resumes ready if you’ve been eyeing my spot.
Fact: I’d actually been wanting to leave my job for years, I just never made the time to look for a better opportunity.
I announced my departure in small font in the middle of an Instagram story during the Cat Power show I attended last night at Fox Theater.
And the messages came flooding in: Mostly congratulations, and where are you headed next? How’d you hear about the job? When’s your last day? A lot of confusion like, why would you announce this on Instagram? and, aren’t you an ACLU lifer?!
Fiction: She’s a company man.
Side note — Does anybody want the Twitter handle @ACLUlady? I have been quietly squatting it forever ever and I guess I’m not going to need it anymore. Rachel B. — do you want it back? LOL
There are so many stories here. But know that my decision to leave the ACLU wasn’t personal — I’d reached a ceiling, professionally, and it was time for me to level up.
My new job’s in Berkeley at a private consulting firm that values equity and inclusion and is led by a Black woman who has been with the company for longer than I have been with the ACLU. I will start as their most senior web developer, with plenty of room to grow into a leadership role. I’ll be working with lots of new clients whose missions are mostly social justice cause-related (but also: outer space!) And I feel super lucky — for real, for real.
Even though this all happened so quickly, I managed to negotiate a little break for myself: Absolutely NO WORK from Dec. 5–11, 2018. Plus another week-long vacation in January or February 2019.
Update: I’m going to Australia.
Anyways, I am off to go be with family in Vallejo for the next few days, so I’ll just end here for now and leave you with this photo, which is actually great advice. [Image description: White woman holding up a sign that says, “Stop telling people of color their experience is an illusion.”]
My intention is to share more of my journey on my blog — follow along?
