Page 25 - That’s Crazy ebook
P. 25

CHAPTER 2




                                  Office Politics









                                        (Giselle)


              T
                   he next position I was hired to fill was as a Project Director with
                   a ten-thousand-dollar increase. My goal, at age 25, was to make
                   thirty thousand dollars by the time I was 30 years old. Taking

              this position gave me my thirty thousand dollars and you could not
              tell  me  anything.  I  just  knew  I  was  rich.  Little  did  I  know,  I  was

              jumping straight into the frying pan. When I was hired, I was the only
              black female Project Director. My immediate supervisor was a white

              female Vice President and the second crazy in my life.

                  The contract I was hired to manage was for a prestigious and

              visible Federal  agency, which included a  lot  of  prima  donnas with

              PhDs.

                  This was the first time, I had felt so alone, and the job was such

              a pressure cooker. I had walked into the middle of having to plan a
              major conference for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with no

              support. The conference was very visible because of the agency and
              700 people were attending 8 concurrent sessions for three days.

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