18 ms·

I remember a new girl freshly out of college, got an award for something, she was among some people who filed patents, developed new technologies, worked insane

I remember a new girl freshly out of college, got an award for something, she was among some people who filed patents, developed new technologies, worked insane hours for free, etc... When she got called to the stage, she was embarrassed. Our group had people working 10 hour days to fix some stuff, yet this person who had been at the company for 6 months and barely finished training, was recognized as award worthy. Whoever made that decision didn't realize that she shined a spotlight on how dumb it all was. I'm not sure if the 1000 people in the room realized how merit-less it was, but our group of ~30 people all knew. I'm sure the girl went on to do great things, she was bright, friendly, and a hard worker. It made me realize that merit is not what the company was necessarily looking for.

ofcourseyoudo 3y ago
>I'm sure the girl went on to do great things, she was bright, friendly, and a hard worker. You made your own counter-point here. Many entrenched systems would never have given her a chance to begin with. Maybe she got some advantages early on here career, we can take the tally of them if you're willing to quantify all of the explicit and implicit advantages that her straight white male counterparts got along the way as well (including not having coworkers project "embarrassment" onto them when they receive an accolade). Sounds like the system elevated a bright young talent, recognized her, and by your assumption, she went on to be well-deserving of the opportunity.