To address the points raised by colleagues, I would like to share a personal work experience as told to me by my friend. She said: “… I was working as part of an IT entity in a major university in the US. At first, I was just happy to be hired as a part-time student worker and having a stable additional income. However, as I worked closely with the supervisors in that department, I felt the favoritism that’s driven by mere personal taste in friendship and not by the quality of one’s quality of work. I noticed for example and after working there for so many years, there’s a certain group of student employees whose pictures would be posted in the supervisory team office. It just so happen that those student workers had newly developing friendship with the supervisors. They were invited to their homes on the weekends for parties. On the other hand, they had their own insider’s running jokes that they brought to work with them. They would also choose restaurants and create work-sponsored events that they were interested in, and having trying going with them twice or thrice, the whole thing was clear, it was one of their going-outs, and people like me who were out of that circle, had almost no business being there. We were just an extra contributor to some of the events that were not sponsored by work. Moreover, it was clear to everyone involved, promotions were based on how much an employee was close with the sup team, on a personal level. Even worse, if you were from the same race as the general manger, it was almost guaranteed that you would be promoted. I stayed there for so long because I desperately needed the money. But when I left, I felt the bad taste in my mouth”.

I still think about my friend’s experience and it makes worry about finding a job. I don’t think I can handle that level of ugly favoritism.