Member-only story
Code of the Corporate Jungle
What No One Tells You
“My manager sent me an email with a list of things I need to improve on in the next 45 days! Can you believe her?” Her Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra bracelet, matching necklace, and designer shoes said, “I’m somebody, dammit!”
I’d joined a circle of guests at a wedding reception while waiting for the newlyweds arrival.
The woman speaking looked to be in her twenties. In the few minutes we stood there, I’d gleaned she was a lawyer who’d graduated from a good law school a few years before. The email she was now ranting about was from her boss at a large Washington, D.C., law firm — her first job out of law school.
Listening to her rant about how foolish her firm was, I thought, “How could she not know what this email means? How can she not see what’s happening here?”
She casually mentioned her office mentor wasn’t returning her calls. Strike two.
This young lawyer was smart yet she didn’t get it. In my twenties, I wouldn’t have seen the writing on the wall either.
It starts in school
School is the template for life. Work hard, and you’ll get an “A.” At work, the “A” is a raise and a promotion. So the logic is if you work hard, you’ll get raises and promotions. It’s rarely the reality.
