Member-only story
Sister Leader
Being a Black Female in Management
Managing others is a daunting task. And for some reason, money, I decided to assume a management position at my last job in Seattle. The position came about when I was working at a homeless shelter and they needed someone to manage the front office. The regional director approached one of my colleagues, who was at the time my acting manager, to persuade me to apply for the position. I originally applied for a lead front desk position. I had been a lead front desk agent at the hotel I worked at before, so I thought this is perfect. But they didn’t want me to be the lead, they wanted me to be the supervisor. This was my moment, I thought. I’d be able to put that I had a professional job and when it was time, I’d put it on my resume and it would catapult me into the job of my dreams. And then I woke up.
Being a supervisor meant, I’d have to frequently sit at the front desk in addition to creating my staff’s schedule doing payroll, conflict resolutions, hiring, I.T. support, supporting the needs of the clients to the best of my ability, and whatever tasks I was asked to help with. Not only that if something went wrong, everyone came asking me questions. As if I knew the answers. And then there were the microaggressions.
Being black in any professional organization is stressful. You’re ultimately the representative…
