I left my job working for you at a company in the music industry because it became too difficult to be myself, too difficult to be working class, and too difficult to be gay in your toxic work culture.
The role itself was great. I absolutely loved my job and working with creatives but the management style was unworkable which, alongside a clear pay-gap and a workforce that was the opposite of diverse, became a real problem.
As the only openly queer person in the office, I was outraged when you brought up gay bar as a “theme” for our office party. There was no one to back me up: people like me don’t work in music. Looking around, I could see that less than 2% of the workforce was Bame, less than 1% was LGBTQ or from a working-class background, and no one was disabled.
The irony was that your creative company was an advocate of diversity. But you had no idea how to be inclusive. Everything was about the look – as long as your social media accounts looked inclusive and liberal, it was all OK.
“I’m a feminist,” you would say almost daily. But I’ve never seen a feminist talk over and ignore so many women. You recently brought together two women with opposing views and publicly pitted them against each other in the office until they both cried. In the years I worked for you, I don’t think you ever let a woman finish a sentence before telling her why she was wrong. You prided yourself on the fact you employed “plenty of women”, but the culture of an office comes from the behaviours of those at the top.
With no written contract my post was moved around without my say and my job title changed numerous times. Earning £12,000 a year in London is almost impossible to live on, so I got into debt when I worked for you. I told you this, and asked for a pay rise – but you consistently paid me below the London Living Wage.
The white, middle-class, male members of management were earning six-figure salaries but you didn’t fork out much more than minimum wage for anyone else. When you asked me to switch departments and take on extra responsibility, I asked for a raise again. You refused and said: “If you don’t like it, you can leave”.
So I did.
When I finally handed my notice in I received no response from you. You didn’t sign my leaving card or come for a drink on my last day.
When I left I told you I’d learnt a lot, which I did. I said I was grateful, which I was, but there is still so much I didn’t say.
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