Although the compensation and on-campus perks are amazing, they do not make up for the stress, anxiety and disrespect I endured while working here as a Black woman. Just weeks after I was hired, my bosses and team started criticizing me for not meeting expectations which were never communicated to me, although I was not properly onboarded and was not provided the proper training on team processes or expectations.
I would get reprimanded for little things, like not replying right away to acknowledge that I had received emails, or not telepathically knowing that "get this done whenever you can" actually means "get this done yesterday." Somehow, my peers could get away with spontaneously taking the afternoon off, but when I announced any planned time-off two days in advance, I was told that I was taking "too much time-off."
Slowly, the narrative was changing--I was no longer a competent communications professional, but an "inept, consistently absent" employee, even though I hadn't taken any more time-off than my white peers.
I constantly felt as if I had to prove myself, prove that I belonged. When I was away from my workstation, my team would sometimes bad-mouth me within earshot of other workers. If I had to leave the office a little early, the comments included, "Where is she going this time?" My manager was once overheard saying that I "always have doctor's appointments." I should clarify here that at the time that I was hired for this role, I had well over 15 years of experience and a proven track record of meeting deadlines and delivering excellent work, and was simply trying to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
When I tried reaching out to former managers and mentors for support, I was told that they didn't want to get involved.
Eventually, I quit due to increasing anxiety, stress and burnout. And when I did, several other Black colleagues came out of the woodwork to confide in me how poorly treated they had been for many years. To this day, I have a few friends of color who still work there and who are still experiencing the worst forms of microaggressions and sometimes outright racism.
AstraZeneca is a great place to work--but not for people of color.
