Being a Pimp

[greenback44]

I left my old job, but something has been bothering me about it for the last couple of months...

Some of the junior staff gets to rotate across departments "to experience different disciplines and management styles" or some such. It's actually very beneficial to their careers, even though many of them have no clue just how helpful these rotations could be five or ten years down the road. Dumb twentysomethings. Anyway I was the coordinator for the rotations this year (which incidentally is supposed to be beneficial to my career, but that's another story), so I got to play a central role in deciding where people went.

My line of work is dominated by males, and we're not pretty males either. There were two women in the rotation pool this year, and one of them is hot. No, I'm not posting a picture, but adjusting for the ballpark and era, she's 2013 Matt Carpenter, so I'll call her Marp. Marp is nearing the point where she won't be "junior staff" any more, so this rotation could lead to a permanent position in her new department. On the other side, one department is run by a Senior VP whom I will call Theo for these purposes. Theo is smart, he knows how to advocate for his people, and he's probably the only Senior VP who has an opinion on most of the junior staff outside his department. Theo also has developed a reputation for things like, well, if we had five interns for the summer and one of them was female, then somehow the female intern worked for Theo. To make the situation clear, Theo has never said or done anything that would create an HR problem.

You can guess where this is going. In theory Marp had the choice between two departments, Theo's and another department that didn't know jack [expletive] about her. That other department doesn't have a great overall reputation anyway (they've fired a couple of people for odd reasons, for example), and it's possible they wouldn't have accepted Marp. Theo wanted Marp in his department, and actually did a bit of recruiting, including some bad-mouthing of the rival department. This wasn't Kelvin Sampson and his 100 cell phone calls a day, but it was out of the ordinary for an SVP. It was noticeable enough that another VP remarked to me that Theo sure was enamored with Marp.

Analyzing this coldly, ignoring the fact that my skin crawled every time I was in a meeting with Theo, it was pretty clear that Marp would have much greater opportunity in Theo's department than she would in the other department. She would be buried in the other department, but working for Theo could lead to a really nice position in a few years. So I went and talked with Marp (gee, that was unpleasant), and suggested she work out an informal arrangement with one of Theo's henchmen, which she did. She was enthusiastic about the work she would do for Theo, and actually was more concerned about getting forced into a trade to a third department, our equivalent to the Marlins. So I went to all the SVP's and said, among other things, Marp should go work for Theo, which they accepted.

It's a done deal now, and I don't think this could have played out any other way for Marp. If I had to guess -- and Lord knows that I'm not asking her about it, even after I've quit -- Marp has some inkling of Theo's motivations, and she may even enjoy the fact that she has some power over an SVP. That doesn't make me feel less dirty. Actually it makes me feel dirtier, since I'd be feeding some neuroses of hers. The moral ambiguities at work probably aren't worth the thousand words I've written here, but I felt like I was aiding a subtle monster that slowly, but surely, devours people's souls. And the fact that the monster is so subtle is what makes it so effective.

[docellis]

This has nothing to do with why you quit, does it?

[Freed Roger]

it's hard to picture a hot and assumedly intelligent female as Marp. But I'm sure she's been around sharks like Theo before. Sounds like she is a grown woman, willing participant. Not much more you could do.

[obucard]

Obligatory:

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[TheoSqua]

Hey just because the only intern I've ever hired was a fairly attractive female in a field dominated with overweight males does not make me a creepy skin crawling perv. I do not appreciate what is being implied in this thread.

[jim]

I enjoyed that. Sounds like she had a clear option for the better job, and you helped her get it. She is a big girl, she can take care of herself hopefully.

[TimeForGuinness]

we all pimps and hoes...just depends on the day...don't lose sleep over it.