Luckily I read up on what it was like in the corporate world before starting my first job, so I knew what was what. What I wish someone had given me before I took my first job was a better job. More money, more freedom, less BS, etc. Or maybe a college environment that wasn't as hellish and miserable as the one I was in. Maybe then I would've had the time and patience to assess the job I was taking instead of getting nervous and taking the first thing that came along.

It's hard to think clearly and make good decisions when your self-esteem, sense of self worth, and belief in yourself is so slowly and thoroughly eroded to nothing. It's like the were doing it on purpose. It's hard to function when others try to destroy you and ruin your life because they are jealous of your accomplishments, disagree with the way you do things, are fully insistent on making you just another cookie-cutter university graduate, and think that because of your ethnicity they shouldn't let up until they've turned you into and exposed you as being the idiot they so strongly want you to be.

"Bow your head and submit."

"You are nothing."

"Do what you are told."

"Show up on time."

"Talk more, especially to people you don't like. You're not supposed to enjoy yourself, you're supposed to suffer."

"You are black, so you're stupid."

"If you go anywhere in life, then it's not because you are talented, it's because we felt sorry for you, and were so kind as to let you."

"The courses are hard, you're not supposed to breeze through them."

"You dress different, you're dumb."

"You dress well, that means you don't know what you are doing."

"You are 'popular,' that means you never actually do anything."

"Don't try anything new, unless we're so kind as to let you."

"Don't do things properly, do them in this mediocre half-assed manner, so we can insult you as being the idiot we so desperately want to say you are."

And it's weird, because as weak as my grades ended up being going into my first job, I still deserved better than that BS.

For some reason, even after all I read, and after all the internships I had, I didn't think I would end up working in a Dilbert cartoon, but then there I was. And when they started following me home, following me around, and sticking their nose into every aspect of my life, I knew I had arrived. And I knew it was really official when no one did anything but celebrate that I was, once again, getting shitted on.

The best advice for those going into the workplace is to do whatever you have to do to ensure that you don't end up in a crappy job. Only certain types of people thrive/survive in those terrible environments, and I think it doesn't take much to realize that there is no low too low for them to stoop to shit on someone's life. And just as part of their day to day job, not because of any specific reason. But it's especially pronounced if they are threatened, or see someone with talent/potential. Also, all it takes is one idiot manager to completely destroy your life, but remember not to submit to them. If they are holding that threat over your head ("I'll destroy you, unless.."), then just realize what you are dealing with and that they are going to do whatever they've threatened to do, no matter what you do.

A world filled with idiots is designed to do nothing but beat the ability and uniqueness out of you, so they can turn their nose up at you and talk down to you, to distract themselves from the shit that they are. I don't say any of this to depress you, even if it ends up having that effect, I say it so that you don't get caught off guard. Yes, this is all they are. Yes, this is all they are going to do. Yes, they have nothing else to look forward to in life except ruining your own. But don't just accept it. Don't let them do it.