Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay

4.2. Personal Costs: Beyond the Office

Diminished health and battered self-esteem are merely by-products of bias in the workplace. Long before Miguel, Kristen, and Eric moved on, they began paying the literal price of their workplace experiences. Because they felt obligated to put in "face time"—to be seen at the office at all hours, whether or not their work required it—they began paying for housekeeping and laundry services to compensate for lack of personal time to spend on these tasks. Miguel took a class to learn golf, in hopes of being included when his managers hit the links. Kristen hired someone to teach her poker to help her fit in with her card-playing colleagues. And Eric, after spending $269 on hypertension medications, hired a ...