Breeze perspectives: Low on the totem pole
Knowing when to bite your lip in the real world may sometimes be for the best
Posted on August 27, 2007
This summer, I joined the staff of “Good Morning America” at ABC News in Washington D.C. as an unpaid intern. Scratch that — my internship actually cost $3,000 in rent, $1,000 for school credit, and a handful of miscellaneous expenses from metro fares to parking tickets.
I reported for the ABC Web site, produced live shots and researched breaking stories. However, my direct supervisor was an unpleasant, territorial, 23 year-old desk assistant we’ll call “Ruth” (short for ruthless).
On a couple of occasions Ruth had intentionally tried to undermine my work and relationships with the producers.
My parents, one a public relations consultant and the other a human relations consultant, assured me that the end would justify the means — I would get a strong reference, leading to good job and eventually landing a high-paying network career if I didn’t confront her. I told them they were old and that I hated Machiavellian gamesmanship.
Over the summer I heard from friends who had similar problems with their co-workers. They, too, chose to remain silent, shying away from confrontation.
JMU senior Julia Sheffield was an intern in Las Vegas with MGM Grand. She came back disheartened. “People I worked with often told me how much I would hate my job in five years,” said Sheffield.
Her dream is to work in the restaurant and hospitality industry. So when the people she thought would inspire her, diminished her aspirations, she felt cheated.
Everyone over 30 thinks I’m lucky to have worked for ABC, but friends who don’t recognize me in a suit, ask if it was worth it — and it was, but not the way I had envisioned.
I will leave college with ideas of how to change the world, but after this summer, I recognize the conflict between staying true to your moral compass and being business savvy.
Which wrongs should we accept for the sake of a reference, a raise, a promotion or simply, office tranquility? When you are low on the totem pole, does getting stepped on help get you to the next step?
I received a mediocre evaluation from Ruth. I was angry but not surprised. In the end, I said nothing to Ruth, but spoke with the internship coordinator regarding my evaluation. She assured me that I had many positive references from other producers and would receive her endorsement as well. I suppose the short-term ass kissing for long-term gain had prevailed, but it was no more pleasant than a one-night stand that gives you herpes.
I questioned whether my silence was the right choice of inaction. Who would see the evaluation Ruth gave me? Would it keep me from a job at ABC after graduation? I wanted to raise hell, but that wasn’t the smart move.
My silence contradicted slogans that echoed throughout my childhood and heard reiterated in graduation speeches: Fight the good fight. In school we are taught to stand up for ourselves.
But though there are playground bullies who graduate to the work place, there’s a new set of rules to the game of glad-handing and getting ahead.
School strengthens our understanding of right and wrong. The workplace tests those lessons. The “right” doesn’t seem smart, and the “wrong” pays the bills. Was this how it started for Enron?
In John Grisham’s novel “The Rainmaker,” the idealistic young lawyer Rudy Baylor said, “Every lawyer, at least once in every case, feels himself crossing a line that he doesn’t really mean to cross...it just happens...and if you cross it enough times, it disappears forever.”
I am too young to lose idealism, yet too broke to burn bridges. So I will navigate the workforce with a compass that registers right, wrong, smart, and the rent. Hopefully, the only line that disappears is the one you may be waiting in while reading this.
On my way out of the office on the last day, Ruth cocked a half-smile my way. I thought to myself, “you don’t pay me enough to kiss your ass, but I had anyway.” Damn the (wo)man.
Kate Griendling is a senior communications major.