About ten years ago, this website called glassdoor.com got started where employees, past and present, could post reviews about companies where they worked. It started out as an employer rating site and gradually kept expanding. Now, you can even post and apply for jobs on it and learn about things you previously wouldn’t get to know about a company until you started interviewing for them, things like benefit types, paid time off packages, compensation amounts, etc.

One of my very jaded colleagues insisted to me when I first started here almost a year ago that our company was not without drama. It’s no walk in the park here. Well, what company is? “If you don’t believe me, just go to GlassDoor and read the reviews. You’ll see it all there, publicly written in black and white.”

I took a cursory view of our company’s page on GlassDoor shortly before I started. For the most part, nothing really surprised me, and most of the negativity was around the San Francisco office, which is our headquarters. That wasn’t surprising. Most of the reviews in the New York office were quite positive. And then there were the glaring, repeating themes of the reviews: lack of diversity, lack of true meritocracy, lack of transparency in spite of company values that explicitly say “transparency” is a value. “If you are a white male named John, then you will do well here.”

Compared to other companies I’ve been at, I think we’re actually more diverse than most. I also think that for the most part, my colleagues are all extremely dedicated and good at their jobs, and everyone is clearly trying. And I’m certainly not in the honeymoon phase of being an employee here, either. It is more of a reality check that we all have areas where we can grow. This is still the best place I’ve ever worked at, but it is not without frustration and politics. But the question is… how much more of the politics game can I really deal with? I’m just shy of my ten year full-time working anniversary and so sick of dealing with office politics. And yes, I realize I sound like a spoiled, whining brat. My mom dealt with far worse and more demeaning politics in her over 26-year-long career, and unlike me, she had no role to get promoted to, no role to grow into… no real growth opportunities period due to her lack of education.There is more to life than working an office job. But what is it, then?

Doing an exemplary job and getting along with colleagues is never going to be enough.