Incompetent management, racism and complicity run rampant - Senior Designer Condé Nast Employee Review

Everything you've been reading lately about the overt racism, discrimination and complicity at Condé Nast is entirely true - at a staggeringly larger scale than the press has even reported. Here is a brief recap of my experience as one of only a few POCs in my department: As so many have recounted, the discrimination and pay disparities and bullying were unavoidable. I was constantly reminded how expendable I was and once told I "should be honored to work here." Although I regularly experienced uncomfortable situations, I knew I could never speak out or report them because nothing would improve and doing so would only further isolate me. It became even more apparent that the discrimination was inhibiting my career advancement when a colleague senior to me left and I was required to assume her role. Being compensated for the extra work should’ve been a given, but when I asked I was met with stern pushback and intimidation for 6 months until my manager ultimately claimed I had an “attitude problem” and that I did not deserve a raise because of it. This was both shocking and problematic in many ways, not only because it was untrue (every performance review I’d received up until that point had been superb), but because I am a woman of color and she used the racist trope solely to gaslight and dismiss me. Meanwhile I had to keep my head down, internalize it, and continue to do the job of two people, as they never hired an additional team member to pick up the slack. In the end, I learned I was making far less (over 25% in some cases) than my white counterparts were. Beyond this, sexism and harassment were also a huge issue. A VP level exec in my department joked about how the harassment training learnings didn't apply to him. He'd make inappropriate comments about lower-level female employees during company outings and once made an interviewee so uncomfortable that she went to HR and filed a formal complaint. Not surprisingly, nothing was done to check his behavior. Unacceptable.