Diversity

I am very nervous about starting my new job in 6 weeks. I went to dinner with of the VPs and his wife on Saturday and it was not good. I picked the restaurant and I decided on a 5 star restaurant. I picked the restaurant for two reasons, 1.) This guy probably makes more in a month than I do in entire year and 2.) Utah is his home base and there are not a lot of fine dining restaurants in Utah. Well the restaurant pick was a bad idea. The CEO and his wife had never had a fine dining experience and seemed very uncomfortable. The food and service was fabulous, but I think they were a little overwhelmed. The cheese course was a complete disaster for them, I personally loved it, but I love cheese.

The conversation was radically inappropriate too. The CEO talked about going to nude beaches and what the mile high club is all about. He also informed me the reason there are not females in top positions (I will be the only one) is that they quit to have babies. I was excited about this new position, but now I am worried. The CEO was white, chauvinistic and racist. At one point during the conversation we were taking about the crime rate in DC, and he commented “It is not surprising that the crime rate is so high considering how many minorities are in DC.” I was shocked and did not know how to respond. I had already been a little confrontational with the whole baby comment.

I am used to being the only women in a male dominated field, but I am really getting sick of it. I would like to work in an environment where the demographics of the workplace resemble the demographics of the country. It is a known fact that there is strength in diversity, but when will the professional workplace learn that diversity is better?