LaDonna Powell My first day in the field was not great. I was put with this guy. He was an older white guy. And he was very nice to me but very mean to the people we were screening going onto the runway, because a lot of the duty-free trucks come through that load the planes with food for first class, and he was saying the nastiest things to them. Ira Glass Quick warning that we've un-beeped the curse words here on the podcast. If you prefer a beeped version of our show, maybe you're listening with kids, it's at our website. LaDonna Powell He was saying all types, like things hurry the f-- hurry the fuck up, move the fuck on, get out of his fucking face. He would try to get free things. 5:0 he would, like, threaten them. Like, oh, I'm not going to let you through if you don't give me free food. And they would give him water and juices and stuff. 5:0 it's like he was extorting them, basically. Yeah. He kept telling me he was a Russian badass. That's what he kept saying. He was like, I'm a Russian badass. And he had- it was like a baseball cap flipped backwards. We're supposed to wear it forward, with the-- and he flipped it backwards, and he opened his shirt, and he was saying, I'm a Russian bad boy. You know I'm a badass, right? And l was like, I have no idea who you are. Today's my first day, I don't know who this guy is. He's freaking me out already. Ira Glass After checking cargo vans and trucks for a while, the guy told LaDonna that he was going to be inside the security booth by himself for a bit. She should stay outside by herself and wait. He played music in the booth and started looking at what LaDonna says was a Playboy magazine. LaDonna had read the employee handbook and knew that both of those things were a violation of company policy. And she had also read a book that her best friend gave her, Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office. And she thought of it now, the way that guy dismissed her, treated her like, you know, a girl. LaDonna Powell Like I'm overly nice and easy to walk over. Like, OK. Ira Glass Ihis.is.why laDonna insisted her students report infractions. They needed documentation. Maybe if these written ts built up, they could build a ladder up high enough to reach the responsible leaders. There were more ts from guards in taoonna's classes, especially in the relresher coursese harassment, racist comments. Keep writing things down, she'd say. Take notes. Call this OSHA number and report a safety violation. A woman came to her and said Kevin had been harassing her. LiDDnlIi waell 53 I said, did you write this down? And she was like, I dun'l know. You know how he is. And I'm like, I understand everything you're saying, but you have.to ght for yourself. I'm going to go ght for you right now. But what I need you to promise me you're going to do is also fight for yourself, because there's a lot of ghti ng I'm doing right now for everybody, and I kind of need you guys to ght back also. She did what I told hertu do. And then that resulted in her being atarget. 57 | dun'l know. It's like, I fell like I told her the right thing, honestly. I felt like I told all of them the right thing because you are supposed to speak up for yourself. why can they just not stop? China Joffe-Wllt Do you still feel, though, that that was the right" the approach that you took to those classes was, l'm going to teach people to be like E unmne Powell Ves. China JDHe-Wllt And this woman is saying to you, I did the thing that you told me to, and it did not end up well for me so far, right? laDnnne Powell Right. China Joffe-Wllt Does that make you doubt your approach? unmne Powell It doesn't make me doubt my approach. It makes me feel like their response is wrong. China JDHe-Wllt There was one thing that did make LaDonna doubt everything. One woman, an enthusi stic, ambitious guard whom LaDon na had trained a few months earlier, came to her and told her she'd been sexually assaulted by another guard" not on the premises and not during work, but by a coworker. La Donna says she listened and told her that it wasn't OK, what had happened to her, and they needed to do something. No, no, no, the woman responded, she just wanted to tell someone. tanonna says she di n't think anything needed to happen. laDDnlIa Powell It's like somebody hasto help her. And I can't hold something like that inside, because then it's going to drive me insane. I just couldn't. There's no way. China JDHe-Wllt LaDon na went to the other supervisors. she says she told them the woman had been raped, and she told them who raped her. She asked the woman's direct supervisor, at the very least, don't put her on duty with him. But taoonna says he didn't listen. And every day after that, taoonna went to work, and so did the woman, right alongside the ma n. laDnnne Powell I don't know what kind of psychological warfare that is. I don't even know how she still does it" currently working and they still put her with him after they found out. I don't know. it makes my skin crawl. China Jnffe-Wllt The woman did not want to be interviewed for the radio. She wanted to handle this her uwn way. LaDunna wanted (u go to upper management, but the woman didn't want to. she wanted to keep her job. She told La Donna she didn't need anything to he done. To LaDonna, that was acceptance. unmne Powell People are not supposed to take from you without your permission. I just wanted her to understand she's worth ghting for. They should make you feel worth ghting for. She juste ugh, she just doesn't see it that way. China Jnffe-Wllt And there was nothing no evidence LaDonna could point to toconvince her othenivise. LaDonna was trying to force a reckoning that would require this woman, and everyone on staff, to see themselves differently, to be.ngilant.at.all. times. But many of them were agging. They were losing their sense of urgency, turning inmrd, away from revolution. LaDon na never turn ed away. Nine months after this, she was pulled into a meeting with HR and the project manager, the big boss at Allied JFK. LIDDnlII Pawell l was like, am I red? | asked three times. Am I red? Tell me what I'm red for. Am I red for talking up? And he's like, oh, I wish you would close your mouth. And I said, what am I red for? And I started reeling off everything. Am I red for talking up? About what, the sexual harassment? About being called a nigger? And I started saying ex- I said, all the stuff that goes on in this place, everybody sleeping with everybody, people don't even do their job. And | just started saying everything to him. I said, so am I fired? No, you're not fired. We'll call you in a few days, and we'll let you know something. chena Infle-W-lt LaDon na says they didn't call. Weeks later, when she logged into momma portal, that's where she saw she had been terminated. taoonna had cycled through so many different strategies at Allied, but she had aoualtynevec thought about a lawsuit until this point. And when she talked to a lawyer, the lawyer said, this would be a stronger case ifyou knew other people had experienced the same thing. I do, taDonna said. I trained them. I trained everybody. I was a supervisar. I saw everything. The lawyer perked up. Well, ifyou can get other people to join you, you'd have a stronger case. \fl:l Chana Mlle-Walt One ofthe things that did not make sense to me was, if there are multiple complaints about oertain employees, and Allied is having to pay out money in settlements over and over, why not just get rid ofthose managers? Setting aside what's fair or what's right, itjust seems like there'd be strong financial reasons to do that. I asked him what he made of the fact that some of the same men were accused again and again. Steve Jones We can't speculate that because someone has an allegation that that means those facts are correct. Again, our positiunr Chana Jam-Walt Of course, but it's repeated. I mean, that's the difference, right? It's not a single allegati are similatto one another against the same people. Steve June! And again, any time an allegation is made, we conduct a thorough investigatione is that allegation true? ls there a portion of it that is true? And what type of behavior was being done or wasn't being done? We haveto get to the facts. Chana Jolie-Walt Allied says that is what they're trying to do now. They told me that since the lawsuit was led, JFK management and supervisors have received training on discrimination and harassment, and HR staff got specialized training on how to respond to such matters. They've launched theirown investigation and an independent investigation into what happened. Those investigations got started seven months agoe which, to be clear, ms four years after LaDonna says she rst complained verbally and led a written complaint against Kevin. Kevin and the four other men named in LaDanna's lawsuit denied all the allegations to us through their lawyers. I got an email response from the lawyer for Kevin McNamara and Chris Timberlake and the head buss at Allied JFK, Martin n. lt's repeated allegations that Feenev. It said, "We're condent that once the facts of the case oome to light, it will be clear that Mr. Feeney, Mr. Timberlake, and Mr. McNamara did nothing wrong. It is unfortunate that these individuals' professional reputations are being tarnished as this case is debated in the court uf public opinion." There is one other investigation to come out of this lawsuit. The Port Authority, which runs New Vork's airports, says it is now reviewing Lauonna's allegations, and others, as well. A statement from the Port Authority says, they'll "take aggressive measures against Allied if they nd those allegations to be true." And then, just recently, I started to hear rumors about some aggressive measures. I started to hear that the entire leadership of Allied JfK was gone. Female Guarli 1 Oh, it's beautiful now. Chana Jolie-Walt This is a guard who works at Allied currently. She didn't want me to use her name. None of these workers did. Female Guard 2 I didn't believe it at first, because I thought maybe it was just a rumor, but then my phone started blowing up, so | MS like, oh, wow. Wow. Male Guard Veah, it's about time. It's like, how can they get away with this, and why isn't someone doing something about it? Chana Mlle-Walt The Allied guards say management did not explain what happened to the supervisors, or even why something was done. But they say they all know why it was done taDonna. Fem e Guard 1 I love It. I thank her for moving all these nasgaod people out, who have so many records on accusing women and doing all that stuff. I thank her. Male Guard And for years, you've heard the people doing stuff. And allotasudden, bingo, nally something was getting taken care of. Yeah. Chana Jolie-Walt A lot of people I spoke with didn't want to share their opinions on the record at all. And then there was this wo man. who said she couldn't talk to me, but then stood next to her coworker yelling while I interviewed him. Male Guard Yeah. They said that women are tired of what's going one Female Guard 3 Yeah, you get tired of it. Male Guard it's true. It's like, you knulllrs Fem a Guard 3 After a while, [I NAUDl BLE]. Male Guard Yeah, enough is enough. And" Female Guard 3 It's always been a big issue. Male Guard Veah. As you said, it's always been a big issue. Femlle Guard 3 Women are speaking out now. Male Guard Yeah. Yeah. Chana Jolie-Walt Allied told me three people were fired. They wouldn't tell me who. As far as I can tell, Kevin McNamara and chris Timberlake were not fired. They, along with most of the leadership from Allied JFK, were reassigned meaning they still work for Allied but not at JFK. | asked Allied cm Steve Jones why many of the supervisors were reassigned. China Jolie-Wilt Right. But are they being moved because they were at fault of some form of harassment or discrimination? Steve lone. No. So, I would saye are some of the allegations found to be true? I would say no. chana lone-Welt So why are people being reassigned? Steve Jones Well, again, we reassign people we reassign people all the time. lanonrre Powell it's just not an answer. Somebody just a it. We hired these guys. They're animals. We fucked up. We must stop. As a company, we frown upon this, and we're making changes. what's so hard to say that? chan- lone-Welt lt occurred to me at some point that We asked LaDonna the same question almost every time We talked with her, did that make you feel powerful? We asked her this about so many different things. Did that make you feel powerful when you made it to supervisor, when you were trarning all those people, when a fancy Manhattan law firm led a lawsuit on your behalf, when the cm of the company ms responding directly to your complaints? No. Laoonna's answer was always no. lt did not make her feel powerful. lt was the same when the leadership of Allied JFK was removed. Lauonna heard that news, especially the part about the men from All d being reassigned, and she was not thinking about her power. She was thinking about theirs. She was imagining Kevin arriving at his new job, putting on his same Allied uniform every day. lanonna Powell That you can continue to walk around, just doing whatever you want to whomever you mm, however, and nobody can touch you, it's almost like you're the boogeyman. You're untouchable. chana lone-Welt what Laoonna could now see was that he was protected, thoroughly, and she was not. She was alone. what laoonna believed from all those selfchelp books is you have the power. here may be barriers, but if you act right, set your mind right, if you're strategic and ingenious, you can thwart their efforts to take your power away. This news made her feel like, not really, because, yeah, everybody has a boss, but it was not just Kevin. It was not just the supervisors. It was also the project manager and the HR manager and the legal department at Allied Universal that paid women and the law that allows them to do that. It was a system designed to withstand her refusal to comply, to absorb her whole onslaught, all her strategic thought, passionately executed, carefully taught. It just ate it up and kept doing its thing. And now that LaDanna has seen all of that, she's not sure how to see herself. Lanonne Powell | juste I keep havingthese moments, like, it still leaves this lasting feeling that I was so vulnerable to these people, and they damaged me. China Jone-WI\" That damage is not visible, extent to her. LaDanna still works at the airport. She works for the government now, for Cuslums and Border Protection. she's making more money, and it's a more prestigious job. tanonna walks Terminal Four, her torso doubled in size by her bulletproof vest, head high, scanning the area like someone who owns the place. A couple months back, she was at work Lanonne Powell And l'm walking. I have a M4 in my hand, my vest, pistol on my side. l'm walking, and l'm doing an escort. lt's, like, five of us, and we're escorting someone. He's a diplomat. China Jone-WI\" She's not allowed to say from where. laDnnnI Powell He gave us a little pin and everything from his oountry. lt's a regular day. And g we're escorting him. And we're walking and everything's ne. And then l see one of the men. China Jolie-Wilt One ofthe men from Allied, a supervisor named Osvaldo Ortiz, the guy LaDonna says let the guard bleed on herself instead ofgi ng her a bathroom break. He was coming into Terminal Fourm get a coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. Lanonne Powell And then ljuste literally, l'm mlking, and l'm line. l'm talking duheduh, we're laughing, very militant, walking. And l'm line. I got my gun. l'm holding it like this. And l turn, and l get a sign of him. And then he sees me. And then l just turned my whole body, shifted to the left, and l ducked down. chana lone-Welt LaDonna ducked as she was telling this to me. This is a man who, atthispoinbintime, has no ofcial power over her. She doesn't work for him. she's not financially dependent on him. unonne Powell Literally, I ame l felt afraid. lt's like, l'm nervous. like, l started sweating and everything. lt's like, why am l scared of this guy? lt doesn't make sense to me. Regardless of me being, oh, badass Customs Agent with a gun, still the sight of him makes me cringe. China Jone-WI And you're esoorting a fancy diplomat. \fWrong. Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office spends a lot oftime on not being easy to walk over, on the need to speak up, on the need to stand up for yourself. LaDonna reads lots of these business books and management and self-help books. She watches talks online-- not for motivation. She is so motivated, in general, one of her friends calls her Olivia Pope-- like, always wanting to fix something. She reads this stuff because the worldview in these books matches the way that LaDonna already sees things. Like, they give her words to describe what she is feeling all the time anyway always try to elevate, always be moving ahead. And this dude, disrespecting his job and her, he was an affront to that entire worldview. So even though it was her very first day out in the eld doing her brand-new job, right then, on the tarmac, she decided she had to confront the problem. LaDonna Powell g I was riding back with him in the car, and I said to him, why do you do things like that at work? And he wasjust like, he hates the job. He was like, he hated that place, and that'sjust what he does. He does whatever he wants to do. And I was like, well, you know, you make it bad for everyone else. lfyou don't want to be here, just don't come. And then he started calling me, like, Sister Souljah, and then he made a joke about it. And that was it. Ira Glass She was not diminished. LaDonna had no respect for a person who did not value this place or this job. And when they got back to the supervisor's office LaDonna did not feel great about this, but she told a supervisor about the Russian badass and his behavior. In other words, she handled it. Spoke her mind to the dude, check. Reported him, check. He did not get to her, check and checkmate. And eventually-- she explained this to our producer, Chana JoffeWalt, who was the one who actuallylalked to her- she explained that the Russian badass, he got fired-- for something totally unrelated, actually. LaDonna Powell He stole water from Port Authority, and they fired him. Chana Jof'fe-Walt What do you mean he stole water? LaDonna Powell The water coolers, how they have he would take them out ofthe storage and put them in the trunk of his car. Chana Joffe-Walt [LAUGHTER] LaDonna Powell And they caught him-- exactly. And they caught him. Chana Joffe-Walt Those jugs that go in a water cooler? LaDonna Powell Yes. They had him on CC camera going to his car with the water, because he's a badass. He probably walked out with it on his head and carried it to the car. Chana Joffe-Walt Sin he got fired for stealing water, not for looking at pornography while he was on the job? LaDonna Powell Right. Yeah. Chana Joffe-Walt Dude likes water. LaDonna Powell Yeah, exactly. Clearly. Ira Glass LaDonna Powell is not a Russian badass. She's a totally different kind of badass. It's like she's a dedicated student of how to be a great employee, the kind of employee who excels and rises in an organization. And now she was entering a company that would be the greatest sort of challenge for an employee like that, a place where people are not playing by the rules. The Russian was just the very rst obstacle she faced. It was about to get way uglier. What you're about to hear is the story of a willful and principled person who sets out to figure out, first, how to rise in this company and, second, how to remake the way the entire place runs, which requires some ingenious strategizing on her part. From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Stay with us. Act One: The Old Guard Ira Glass Act One, The Old Guard. Well, Chana Joffe-Walt has been talking to LaDonna, plus lots of other people at Allied Universal at JFK, for months, and now she's going to take over telling La Donna's story. Just a heads up that there is provocative language and content in here that might not be right for every listener. Here's Chana. Charla JoffeWalt When you board a plane, sit down, and look out the window, you see the guys throwing the bags, and then, beyond that, just concrete expanse. That's where LaDonna worked. That's where the Allied guards are, stationed in booths along the tarmac. The booths are basically checkpoints for everything that goes out there-- food, fuel, water, duty-free purses. The booths are about the size of a U-Haul trailer, metal and steel with big glass windows. At the beginning of each eight-hour shift, LaDonna would go to the Allied locker room, change, and stand in line for roll call outside the supervisor's office. Then the supervisor would tell her which posts she had that day out on the tarmac, and she'd head out there to a booth in the pavement. The guard she was relieving would drive away. Trucks would come by. She would check for bombs, drugs, food packages to see if anything was open. And she would wait-- lots of waiting. Occasionally, a supervisor would come by to check on her. One night, it was an older, gruff supervisor named Kevin McNamara, LaDonna says he came in to her booth-- laDonna Powell And he asked me to open my jacket. And he took his phone out to take a photo of me. And l was like, excuse me. He was like, open yourjacket and turn around. And I was like, I'm not, And he tried to say, oh, I'm just taking a picture of you. The company has a policy where we take a photo of you, And I remember reading it when they gave us a handbook, and I said, no, you're supposed to take a picture of my outside, my outer garment, And he's like, no, you're going to open your coat and turn around. He was so abrupt and aggressive with me just, you're going to do what I say. Like, you're going to turn around, you're going to do what I say, and that's it, And I was like, that has nothing to do with the job, Charla JoffeWalt The job was to guard the post. LaDonna felt like Kevin wanted a show. LaDonna is small, just under 5 feet tall. Her resting position is almost always perfect posture, standing at attention, hands clasped at her belt, elbows out. The booth was a very tight space for two people. LaDonna Powell And I was like, you're going to get the fuck out of my face. Like, I'm not turning around, and I know that's not what you're supposed to be doing, and I'm not supposed to open my clothes for you. And he told me, oh, if I didn't listen, he was going to make it hard. He's like, you always have something to say. You always have something to say. Charla JoffeWalt But then he dropped it. He drove away. LaDonna took note, Success-- she drew a line, and he backed down. JFK airport covers 5,000 acres. There are approximately 300 Allied guards. LaDonna met some of her coworkers in the locker room before and after shifts. That's where she learned that one of the worst posts was called Post Hotel. It got the most traffic. Second worst was Post Pa pa. It was distant and remote, though I don't think that's how it got its name. LaDonna noted that nobody wanted these posts, and she also noticed that she started to E assigned them, shift after shift, laDonna Powell You feel forgotten, in a way, almost, because how do you go to the bathroom? How do you-- mcan't do anything. You're just there. At first, it was like, OK, solitude, you know? But then it's like, all right, are you guys coming to relieve me? Can Igo to the be, can I eat something? Am I going to get to go home? Sometimes, you'll be stuck the re 12 hours. They'll forget to send you a relief. Charla JoffeWalt There are cameras in the booths so supervisors in the main office can check on their guards. Of course, she couldn't see the supervisor's office, but they could see her, Were they watching her? When she did get a response on the radio, the supervisor would say they didn't have anyone available to relieve her. She'd squirm, needing to go to the bathroom. Did they see that? Most nights, Kevin was her tour supervisor. He worked in the supervisor's office with the other supervisor on duty. Sometimes he'd drive around to check on people. She'd wonder, are they're busy? Are they not there? Or maybe- laDonna Powell Are they picking on me? Am I not getting to go to the bathroom because I spoke up? Am I not getting a lunch break, are my hours being cut because I spoke up about what's happening? And I would always have these thoughts, are they doingthis because I keep talking back? Chana JoffeWalt When traffic was low, LaDonna would sometimes take out her reading, and suddenly a voice would come into the booth, put that away. Or when she'd eat, no eating in the booth. g they were there. But then, silence for hours. As families took off in planes above her for Florida and business people came in from Dubai, LaDonna was stuck in a box below, amid 5,000 acres of pavement. In the locker room, another guard told LaDonna, there's a corner ofthe booth where they can't see you. The cameras don't reach there. They can only see your feet. So LaDonna started packing peanut butter and jelly triangles and standing in that corner to eat them. Sometimes that would work. Sometimes she'd hear the supervisor, Kevin's voice suddenly, come forward in front of the camera. LaDonna Powell And I kept trying to understand, what am I doing wrong with my interactions with him? Because someone else tried to tell me, oh, he's nice to this girl. She's Spanish. It's not because you're black. |- Chana JoffeWalt He's a white guy? laDonna Powell He's an olderwhite man, It's something else, And I said, OK, maybe myapproach is wrong with him. Sgl didn't know how to manage him. He was just-- he would have these outbursts. He would always say, oh, he's management, and we're not like him, and he's better than the rest of us because he gets an expense card and he wears the blazer. He can do what he wants, Oh, I've been here for years. It's like, how do you manage that? How do I correct you? Chana JoffeWalt Kevin McNamara did not want to talk to us for this story. LaDon na says it was around this time that she started to repeat phrases to herself from the book Managing Your Manager by W Dufour. It lays out three strategies for handling a bully boss. Number one, don't take it personally. Two, find the humor. And three, most important, limit the pain, target the game. Done correctly, you build skills, you level up, and you move on to a place where you'll get a better boss. View the bully as tempora ry. This is how she would correct Kevin do her job extremely well, get through this part, and be seen by the people above Kevin. She'd repeat to herself, everyone has a boss. And it was that boss-- Kevin's boss-- she was focused on At the worst post, on the worst shift, without breaks, LaDonna targeted the game. It was busy, lots of opportunities for growth. LaDonna Powell I really learned a lot, just working out there. You're outside in the field, so it's very hands-on. You're using a mirror, you're checking under vehicles for bombs, you're checking under vehicles for any anomalies, anything that's not supposed to be there, just making sure when it goes on the runway that it's safe. Si: it felt good, purposeful. Like, OK, I'm actuallydoing something. Chana JoffeWalt This appeared to go unseen by Kevin. Everyone has a boss, she'd tell herself, but she never heard from Kevin's boss. What continued to be noticed was her failure to put her body where the supervisors could see it, She'd hear their voices in the booth, telling her to come forward in front of the ca mera. When she worked hard, nothing. When she needed a bathroom relief after 8 or 10 or sometimes 12 hours, no answer. Sir she'd limit the pain. On her way to work-- LaDonna Powell I would go to the there was a convenience store on Lefferts Boulevard before I got there, and I would go to the convenience store. I would get a juice or ask for a coffee and get an extra cup on the bottom of it, Chana JoffeWalt In the locker room, before her shift, LaDonna would throw in the cup with the rest of her stuff forwhen she had to pee. She'd head to roll call, with Kevin. LaDonna Powell And I would be there. I would have a roll of tissue like, I'd roll it up on my hand in the locker room and an empty cup with me all night. Oh, and that was another thing. He would come and look at your bag, because you have a clear plastic bag. They want to make sure you're not carrying any electronics out there onto the field, or you're not stealing anything. 575 you have a transparent bag. OK, fine, You can see straight through my bag, but then he still would make comments about my pads and my tampon-- oh, why do you need so many pads? It's like, why do you care? It doesn't bother you, and clearly you can see that it's not something I stole from here, so why do you care? Chana JoffeWalt Everyone has a boss, she told herself. laDonna Powell Don't go back at him, Tone it down and say, OK. Just try to focus on me. How can I get past this stage? Chana JoffeWalt LaDonna stuck to her plan, did herjob extremely well, worked hard, And then, just as the book said, she was noticed- not by Kevin or his boss but bya manager at the airport. This man had seen LaDonna working, seen how hard she worked, and he recommended to Allied that they promote LaDonna to supervisor, This recommendation likely carried weight-- the airport is Mclientn and it definitely had.an.eff.e.ct.on LaDonna. She'd never even thought about being a supervi or. That was many levels above what she'd imagined. And then she read Lean In, Lean In is by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. It explains why so few women make it to the top of their professions. Sandberg argues that women and this is the line LaDonna slowed down on women systematically underestimate their abilities, LaDonna had been so focused on her bosses underestimating her abilities, maybe she had underestimated herself. Now she'd been noticed. Someone saw her as supervisor material. She just had to answer one question for herself, the question posed by Sheryl Sandberg, one of the most powerful female executives in the world-- could she picture herself as a boss? LaDonna Powell It was like, do I really want to bejnmhaxgejf other people? And then I have to take a step back and say, do I really want W in charge of me? It's like, I never had that moment until then. These are the guys in charge of me? I'm peeing in a cup outside. These are the people in cha rge of me, in I really had to evaluate what I was doing-- what I was doing mentally to myself. Like, I was literally my biggest enemy. Chana JoffeWalt That voice in the booth, the unseen authority that LaDonna had found so unnerving, suddenly seemed ridiculous. Why is he counting her pads? Why can't she just eat her PB and J? They seemed desperate and threatened. LaDonna Powell I can do the job you're doing. You're not Jesus right now because you're a supervisor. I can read and execute this job just like you, if not better, because all you're doing is acting like Adolf Hitler, an insane person here, and you're treating people like animals. Let's try the other way, Chana JoffeWalt After two years at Allied, LaDonna made it to supervisor, She went from $15 an hour as a guard to $32 an hour, And in June 2014, she entered the supervisor's office. LaDonna Powell I get to walk in, and nowthey're going to see me in my blue shirt because the supervisors weara different blue shirt from the security guards-- and I was like, oh, they're going to piss their pants. They're going to be so pissed off because now I'm equal. We're both in the same field. We're both in the same position. You won't call me a bitch. You won't do that because now, possibly, you might view me as an equal. Chana Joffe-Walt The supervisor's office was about the size of a large bedroom, an open space with three desks, computers, a printer- copier machine, and schedules all over the walls. The re were about 12 other supervisors, different races, mostly men. They worked in shifts of two. LaDonna met her new boss Kevin's boss, the boss of all the supervisors-- a tall black man named Chris Timberlake. And she was given 50-something guards of her own to manage each shift, guards who needed schedules and overtime arrangements and to be counted at the beginning and end of every shift. She managed payroll and drove the premises to check on the guard booths. She went to daily supervisor briefings. Every part felt urgent and exciting, especially the meetings, where they talked strategy, laDonna Powell Sometimes I can't wait for them to finish a sentence. I just jump in. I said, sometimes, I feel like they're thin king slower than me. Chana JoffeWalt \funenna Powell Calling to go to the bathroom and she said to them, I have nry period. You could tell she was already hesitant to say it, because she's saying it on a live stream. Not only can all of us hear ite which is like 57 radios of people now you're making her say that, and the client can also hear her. So that's our 57 radios and eight radios Port Authority in Manhattan and Port Authority in JFK can hear. Embarrassing. she ended up using the bathroom on herself and bleeding on herself that day. Nothing no sorry. They were all laughing about it, thought it was h'il ious. Oh, she going to sit in her piss until she gets off. Like, they had no concern for her. Chana Jolle-Wult The supervisor, Ollie, did not want to talk to us. I did talk to Marshaswgg. she describes this the same way tabonna does. But of course, at the time, Manhaagigwauld n't see what was happening in the su peruisoi's ofce, the things Lanonna was now seeing clearly. LiDDnlII Powell I'm not just paranoid This is in stereo. Because seriously, I really was like, OK, maybe you're just paranoid. And then you get in the office, and ' 5 like, oh, no. They're disgusting. it's just disgusting. Thls is what you're doing at work at work. I think they need a shirt that ve "At Work." Maybe they don't get it. We are at work. Chana Jolle-Wult it's just like a little Tsshirt reminder. llDDnlll Powell Right. Every time they start to do it, they're like, oh, wait, at work. Ves, you're at work. China Jelfe-wut Being at work means something specic to Lanon na, something she assumes is universal but not everyone feels. To her, you're at work. it's almost like saying you're at church. You're supposed to be your best and look out for others. in Lean in, sheryl Sandherg tells a story. when she was pregnante she was working at Google it was the early years of the company. And she was late for a meeting. she had to park way far out. The company ms growing so fast, there was no parking close by. And after running, with a big belly, to get to her meeting, Sandberg marched in to speak with Sergey Erin and Larry Page, the founders of Google. We need pregnancy parking she said. oh, they said. Sure, of course. They just never thought of it before. Sandberg writes, "That is the power of being in the room. The other pregnant women must have suffered in silence. Having one pregnant woman at the top made the difference." That was the power taDonna felt she had, in the room, when Marshasu'kgwalled in. And she used it. LaDonnl Powell And when I said it to them, the first time like, so she's not going to get to go to the bathroom? No, i'm not going to send that relief overthere for her. she'll figure it out. How? There's nowhere for herto go. she's not a" she can't just pull her penis out and pee in the woods. And then he just" he was like, this is what she's calling for? And l'm like, you get a period? And he looks at me. l'm like, you tell me if you get a period, if you know exactlye a woman doesn't want to keep a pad on more thanfourhours. And it'sthat kind ofthing that I just wanted to be in the roomto be ableto saye consider this person, consider them as a person. Chana Jone-wnt consider this persone that is what taDonna's presence ms supposed to do, to induce empathy, the kind of consideration she had wanted from her boss, Kevin, when she ms out in the eld. LaDanna put herself in the supervisor's room with him, made him see here blue shin, just like him. But LaDonna says when she came in as supervisor, Kevin's response was not to consider her. She says his response was, wow, they must have been scraping the bottom ofthe barrel to bring you in. taDonna says Kevin would violate protocol and change the schedule without regard to people's medical needs. LaDonna would correct him. Consider this person. when he told the LaDunna to change the payroll so they wouldn't have to pay one of the guards overtime he was owed, LaDnnna held onto the piece of paper and said, no. LaDonnl Powell And then he took the paper, and he threw it back in my face. And he was like, you're almys talking back. Vuu're always talking back. it was like, I just" I didn't know what to say. And then he was like i'm tired of seeing you niggers' faces, and he mlked out the room. That was just like, wow. so now we know why you feel like I'm the bottom of the barrel and ME and I'm disgusting. .53 thank you for letting me know. I remember being so enraged. I was like, there's got to be a law against this. And I remember there was a book with all the codes and everything from the company. And I went through the book and I found discrimination, I found hostile work you ugh, I'm sorry. China Jelfe-wdt That's OK. LaDonnl Powell And I wrote it up. And I wrote the pages, and I did all this stuff, and I wrote a four" I wrote a complaint. it was, like, four pages long. I turned it in to the woman who was in human resources I gave it to the manei handsdelivered it to them. I can't experience this anymore. Like, i'm tired of working under Kevin. I said, every time i'm by myself with him, he nds a way to tear me down, talk to me disgusting. I'm tired of it. Forever I haveto experience this, just because I stood up for myself? it's just not fair. They gave me the most nonchalant response. 0h, Powell, you're reading too much into it. I told you before, Kevin s just like that. if you can't handle the position in there, let us know. We'll put you back in the eld. Chan: Jeffe-Wllt Everyone has a boss. LaDonna complained about Kevin to their boss, chris Trmberlake, and to his boss, project manager Martin Feeney. Martin Feeney also declined to talk to us. There was a union for guards, but LaDonna wasn't a guard anymore. she was management. According to Allied protocol, every employee complaint triggers an investigation. LaDonna says nobody followed up with her about what happened with Kevin beyond that one conversation with HR and Martin Feeney, which she says ended with Martin reeney telling her, kick him in the balls next time. LaDonna knew this strategy already. she knew it didn't work. when she was 19, working at Applebee's, she says a coworker grabbed her ass and said he liked Jamaican bodies. She turned around and smashed him in the face with a big metal spoon. Didn't help. LaDonna had tried all the things. They weren't working. LaDonna Powell And no matter how far I leaned into my careere I made it" l'm the Iirst female to ever start there as a guard at my age and make it to a supen/isar. I leaned all the way in without letting anyone touch me, with just showing I was capable I could read, I could type, I was able, I understood the job. I made it all the way to supervisor. still, I'm still being harassed. It just didn't work. it worked as fa re OK, now We excelled in my career, but l'm still being harassed. Now what? Now what do we do? Chana Jeffe-Walt LaDonna settled on a new idea for how to x it all at once. She Could see clearly how the male supervisors were treating the guards now that she was on the inside. she could also suddenly see the female guards and how they were responding. she was in the ofce every day with another male supervisor, and the women guards would show up in there. LaDonna Powell They come in, they're bringing him lunch, shirt open, breasts cute oh, hi. so some of them were beneting, using it as a tool to get what they wanted out of it. And watching them with the men supervisors, it was like, why are you doingthat? But they're doing it for a good post, for overtime, for a better break. it's like, don't do that. Just don't do it. if we all would say no, it would make it easier for all of us saying no. But you saying yes makes it harder for me saying no. Let's just say no, because we're at work. Let's say no. Chan: Jeffe-Wllt This was it. When LaDonna heard Allied needed someone to train the new recruits, newlyc volunteered herself. LaDonna Powell Let me be the first face they see. Chen: Jeffe-W-It These people are new. she could teach them. This was her new idea. she would change the entire culture of the place by starting at the beginning when people were hired. She would train them correctly. she could teach the women not to respond to sexual advances. She would teach them to focus on work, security. And all the new hires would take root in this place, ke an invasive sp s. They would change the entire ecology. The supervisors would not respond to LaDonna tellmg them to change, so she'd change the world around them. Ir. Glass d guards, she immediately chana JoffeWalt. Coming up, the reeducation campaign begins. That's in a minute from chicago Public Radio, when our program continues. Act Two: The New Guard Ir. (ills! It's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Today's program, "LaDonna We're telling the story of LaDonna Powell and watching as she brings her enormous sense of mission to the job of securing JFK airport in New Vork, and to making the company that she works for, Allied Universal, a better place to work. We've arrived at Act Two of our program. Act Two, The New Guard. So, as you heard in the rst ha if of the show, LaDonna had tried managing up, to reshape her boss's behaviors. Now she went in the opposite direction. And she created something brand new. she was going to start from the beginning, tramrng the new recruits. Again, here's Chana loffeWalt. chena Jeffe-W-lt LaDonna did not actually have any experience teaching or trarmng anyone. go she did what she does\" she read, collected tips, watched online videos about giving presentations. she bought The Essential HR Handbook and read about onboarding how to set company culture from day one. LaDonna Powell Because it talks about, in HR, knowing your people. so I made sure every time they came into the class I knew who was wearing oh, you had a pink shirt on yesterday. People like to know you know them. chena Jeffe-W-lt First class, LaDonna opened with the piece of education people at Allied seemed to have missed how to act in a workplace. She held up the AlliedEarton employee handbook. She explained, @ has a mult on dollar contract to protect this airport. That is our job. It is what the airport, the client, wa no us to be focused on 100% of the time. LaDonna Falwell The client is paying us for a certain quality ofwork environment. The client is paying us for a certain quality of person working here. For one thing, I would always tell them, this is a sexual harassmentcfree environment. And I would say to them, you want to read this pages I can't remember the page at this moment, but I always said, you want to read this page. you wa nt to know your rights. This is a place where you should be able to come to work, not be touched or solicited for sex. You don't want to let people think it's OK to solicit you for sex. This is a place of security. No matter what's happening here, don't adapt to that. They should know they're allowed to use the bathroom. They should know they can't walk off the post. Things will happen here. And if it happens, you want to take note. That was always one of my ggest things to theme you want to write it down. You have a right. chana Jone-w.\" Vuu were, like, starting a revolution. LaDDnni Powell I was trying. And l'm like, listen, open your mind to what l'm saying to you. And then I would just give them morals my mom dropped in my brain, hoping it would stickto them. chana lone-Walt ljke what? unonne Powell ljke, take your book. She would almys say that, because in West lndia, they say, "take your book," meaning "go to school." she's like, you don't need W you don't need man, you don't need you need your book. I'm ke, OK, this lady. chana lone-Walt tanonna was improvising her own book, her own workplace manifesto. she had gathered hits and pieoes from this book and that one, adding her own experience, her insighcs, wisdom from her mom. And she was trying it out on her rst audience. tor a long time, tanonna had imagined what her book would be if she ever wrote one. She told me she had even thought of a title, [Lo a Little Morer 's something her mom used to say to her. And her trainings did what all those bestselling motivational books do. She sa d, do what l did, it can work for you too. she encouraged them to push themselves, imagine themselves on a grand stage. lanonna Powell Don't be afraid. Be motivated to go forward. you do a little more than the other workers and do your training, you elevate. Vou're worth it. it was like, you're definisely worth.it. China Jone-W.\" People were into it. l talked to guards who went through the laDonna Powell tra g and it ms a thing. it was motivating and clear. LaDonna trained hundreds of people after that-- new recruie, and she started to do refresher trainings for the existing guards. People would leave class saying, we're going to vote Powell for president. You've got my vote, Powell. she taught people from retail jobs and former tary people, men and women. She liked them. The women were focused\" not on sexual favors but on work. There was one in her class who ms super talkative, opinionated. Lanonna Powell And she was like, you know what? l'm going to be a supervisor. And l was like, OK. Do it. lfou can do that. Vou can do whatever you want. Honestly, always in my mind, those guys are gone, and we can just x it better. China Jolle-W-It Oh, you're picturing the future workplace? liDDnlIi Powell Right, up there if they had, like, two more women there, just to speak logic, like, nfrr you know, just someone to say, no, instead of, yeah, dude, that's good, bro, yeah, do thate it might be better. China Jolie-Wilt LaDonna trained 330 people at Alliede 80% of the workplace, between new people and refreshers. 30%. She felt good, like it was going well. And then, one day, LaDonna was teaching a refresher course. she was standing in front ofthe classroom, by the projector, in the middle of class, and a black guard raised his hand. laDnnna Powell He told me the story ofthe supervisor calling him a nigger. And he was like, it's not the lirst time. And this is in front of the class. This is is a class uf roughly, this night, it had to be, like, 11 people in the class. And he's telling the story, and everyone knew. 53 l said to him, who else in here? And they all were just looking at each other. l was like, you guys can tell me. I was like, you know you can trust me. I'll take it to management. And they were like, no one's going to do anything about him. They never do anything about him. China Jolie-Wilt They we're talking about Kevin, which LaDonna had already assumed. Again, we asked Kevin for a response to this. He declined. laDnnna Powell And l ms just tryingto tell them, listen, if you write it down, maybe you know, we can try. Let's just try. China Jolie-Wilt when they said to you, who am I going to complain to, when youe Lanonna Powell l said, to me. China Jolie-Wilt Mmrhm m. Lanonna Powell l said, you've said it to me, l'm not just going to leave it here. it's not OK. it really bothered me so much to even hear. lhaL beiogsa id. And the fact that the people we're managing are mostly Afrioanakmerican, minorities, tatin, that's a problem. You shouldn't be overseeing those people, because you don't value them either. Vou don't value us. 579 l go to management. They look at me, they look at each other, they kind of smirk. They're like, you know how he is. l don't know why you keep taking this so personal. Well, sorry. The black color of my skin would be one reason. And that's not OK. China Jolie-Wilt Allied is an enormous, multibillion dollar company. LaDclnna knew the rules come from the top, and these supervisors at JFK were run the (up. Allied JFK is one of 20,000 Allied locations. Allied provides security (a libraries and museums and malls and baseball stadiums and government buildings. Allied guards are in the waiting rooms of hospitals. They're standing at the gates of universities. They're riding Wat parks. They protect nursing homes and resorts and construction sites. They are in all 50 states. All of that to say, this is a huge company with a chain or command that expands well beyond the airport. Everyone has a boss, and there were many, many bosses at Allied. Good leadership was up there somewhere